Jeff Meyer in consideration for Liberty U HC opening
Per various outlets, Michigan basketball assistant Jeff Meyer is in the mix for the Liberty University head coach position. He was the head man at LU for 16 years before being fired in 1997. It's probably worth noting that LU is a private Christian school and would probably be looking for an experienced coach who is also an Evangelical Christian (which Meyer is).
This would be a huge loss for Michigan. Aside from his coaching prowess, Meyer is the probably the best recruiter on Beilein's staff. He was the lead man on many of UM's highly rated recruits, including top 5 player Mitch McGary.
As a preemptive reminder - there is a no politics/religion rule.
Maybe Liberty is the only one offering Meyer. Maybe he is too old to get a head coach position elsewhere. I suspect he would fit in the culture of Liberty. I know a little bit about him (know some people at the church he attends in AA.) However, that's not really relevant, other than the fact that I know he is a person of faith, and there probably are some faith guidelines necessary for a coach at Liberty. If you read the article I linked to elsewhere in this thread, it seems Meyer had success at Liberty, and it went to their president's head. My guess is there is a new administration, and they'd love to have Meyer back.
Regarding your other comments, I agree. Whether or not someone is trustworthy has limited connection to their religious beliefs. And the nature of someone's religious beliefs has limited connection to what kind of coach they would be.
I personally like the idea of coaches who are ethical and take the high road. But this doesn't mean that they need to be a Christian. Nothing infuriates me more than a coach who is public about spiritual things and then acts unethically. Exhibit A for me: Jim Tressel. I'd much rather have a quiet, ethical coach (Beilein?) rather than someone who wears their faith on their sleeve and is a total cheat and hypocrite.
Its not a statute. It doesn't have to be written down [emphasis mine] in the FAQ. It is the practice around here. Go ahead and talk about religion, but don't be surprised when your comments get yanked or your account gets nuked.So supplement your reading of the FAQ with a healthy dose of lurking if you want to be safe. Lots touchiness lately.
I think you're right about it being an informal convention. There are certainly very strong feelings about it. There is no point to an OT post on religion per se. Even an OT post about religion and U of M is probably not wise.
Where it gets a little tricky is with threads like this. By the very nature of Liberty University (Jerry Falwell, creationism, etc.) it almost invites comments. Because of the intersection with Jeff Meyers, it is kind of a grey area.
Harbaugh actually has made some comments about religion that have been quoted. Occasionally athletes do the same thing. Most of the time, the faith life of coaches and players stays private, as I think it should in our culture, at a public university.
To the best of my knowledge, we haven't had anyone like Tebow, who almost invites commentary. (and much of it negative.) However, when players choose to address religion or faith publicly, and are covered in the media doing so, it almost becomes "on topic." If the players choose to answer religious questions publicly (or the coaches,) that is their perogative. I'm not a reporter, so I don't really know the ethics of how they choose to address spiritual things that are brought up by players.
I'm not going to bother finding links, but you can find articles on Beilein, on Meyers, on Hatch, on Morgan, on Burke, on Harbaugh, among others. I think they don't hide their faith, but they don't highlight it either. Faith issues are important to me personally, but this is a sports blog, and I'm fine with that. As I said above, faith life isn't directly relevant to coaching or playing.
I will be inconsistent and provide one link: Here is an article about Jim Harbaugh and his Catholic Church service trips to Peru:
LINK: Harbaugh Mission Trips to Peru.
To me, this is awesome. But it really doesn't matter in terms of his coaching of Michigan.
EDIT: If someone is interested in this kind of topic, Google is your friend. Typing in a coach's or players name and "faith" will often bring up articles.
March 21st, 2015 at 10:38 PM ^
I agree with everything you say, but I want to bring a bit of perspective to the concept of what is and isn't an actual rule for the site.
The FAQ is a great place to start, but it's a total of 455 words and was written six years ago. I'm not saying those aren't the best guidelines, but the stuff that Seth has said along with BiSB, PGB, Zone Left, LSA and myself is going to be more specific, flexible and up to date for day-to-day life on MGo. That's not saying everyone needs to be taking notes or anything, but like you say, "no religion" has been in place for quite a while whether it's mentioned in the FAQ or not.
I think the rest of the mods would agree with saying the line gets crossed when you're calling someone names, trying to preach your brand of religion or posting religious based judgments on someone (Tebow is dumb because he's Christian, Toussaint is going to hell for having a child out of wedlock, ect).
Overall I'd agree with saying don't be a shithead in general. I think there's a good reason a golden rule concept existed pretty much worldwide and predating a lot of intercommunication.