Miami Herald reviews The U
Friday, December 11, 2009 at 3:35PM Glenn Garvin's review reads like the UM administration's worst nightmare:
Does the University of Miami offer a degree in cluelessness? Because most of the former players interviewed in ESPN's documentary The U seem to have majored in it. For two solid hours they brag about their arrogance, their dirty play and even their outright criminality, smiling proudly during every moment.
Former quarterback Steve Walsh seems amused as he recounts bumping into ``some pretty prominent players'' wearing stocking caps, on their way for a night's work of burglarizing autos. His teammate Brett Perriman recalls some Hurricane players dealing drugs, then adds unapologetically: ``We got to eat. If that means we have to do something illegal, so be it.''
Those kind of disclosures seem almost benign when former center Don Bailey Jr. explains the football skills that made his team so great. ``They were nasty,'' he recollects jovially. ``They'd spit. They'd fight. They'd bite. They'd kick.''
The U is a brilliant and horrifying history of the good-old-bad-old-days of the 1980s and early 1990s when UM -- so the joke of the day went -- topped all three football polls: AP, UPI and FBI. Filmmakers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman, a pair of UM graduates who specialize in documenting the hellacious dysfunction of their hometown (they also made Cocaine Cowboys, a spellbinding 2006 film on South Florida narcotrafficking in the '80s) offer up a grimly fascinating portrait of a program reeling out of control:
Drug abuse (one assistant coach was arrested for possession of steroids). Embezzlement (nearly a quarter of a million dollars looted from government scholarship funds). Vicious brawls before, during and after games (one at Notre Dame had to be broken up by cops). Cheap shots on the field so pervasive that it was hard to believe the players weren't coached to deliver them (10 personal fouls and unsporstmanlike-conduct penalties in the 1991 Cotton Bowl alone).
At least as appalling as the team's literally outlaw behavior was the spineless refusal of UM administrators to do anything about it. As The U recounts, after a national uproar over the team's behavior at the 1987 Fiesta Bowl -- among other things, the players stormed out of a steak fry with Penn State while noisily comparing themselves to the Japanese on the eve of Pearl Harbor) -- coach Jimmy Johnson threatened to quit when UM President Tad Foote ordered him to apologize. Foote meekly offered Johnson a new contract. After the infamous 1991 Cotton Bowl game, athletic director Sam Jankovich warned new coach Dennis Erickson that ``If you don't solve this problem, someone is going to solve it for you.'' But no one did, until the NCAA slapped UM with massive sanctions in 1994.
Those sanctions didn't even include one of the worst accusations against the UM football team -- that players collected cash bonuses for interceptions, tackles and hard hits, with much of the money being supplied by Miami rapper Luther Campbell, a Hurricane booster who roamed the sidelines on game day with a pass supplied by the coaching staff.
Campbell all but admits to paying players -- ``Never heard of anything like that,'' Campbell gasps in mock surprise, widening his eyes -- and even suggests that if he hadn't, the players would have gone on a crime spree against their fellow students. ``Give a kid a hundred bucks to buy some sneakers so he won't go jumping some other kid's dorm room stealing his stereo, nahhh, I wouldn't give a kid any money,'' says the smirking Campbell.
It's recently been reported that current Hurricane coach Randy Shannon, who played for the team during the '87 championship season, has welcomed Campbell back into the football family at Miami, allowing him to give talks to the players. So it sounds as if The U, like every good horror movie, will have a sequel.
The U
Reader Comments (5)
Billy Corben is the man! I saw him yesterday on South Florida Morning Show. He's always doing these interesting documentaries on Miami. I can't wait to see what other Miami history he will educate us on. When we published our Cocaine Cowboys feature on the site our viewers went nuts. Then I'm not sure if it was Billy or Al but one of them blessed us with an interview on our "It'z All Gravy" radio show with DJ Drastic X. Billy shows Miami lots of love and I for one appreciate it so he's got my support on anything related to our city.
Keep up the good work.
Glen Garvin's reasoning is flawed. The business of college football is embarassing. Student athletes whose talents and hard work translate into millions of dollars for their schools are prohibited from taking part in the fruits of their labor. While the NCAA's treatment of its most valuable assets has improved marginally since the era portrayed in The U, Garvin ignores the reality that the players who took the field through the Eighties could not afford to eat using the money provided to them under the NCAA rules. The NCAA as an institution has a virtual stranglehold on the rules as the only viable gateway to The League for underprivileged youths. From a market perspective, it is unconscionable to compensate a worker below the value of their work product, particularly when the compensation is below a reasonable level of subsistence. Such a system invites abuse of the rules because the rules are abusive. I certainly do not condone stealing, but I cannot ask another man to starve himself before resorting to such behavior. Apparently Garvin can.
With regard to the University administration's reaction to the documentary, who cares? They had an opportunity to be involved, add value to the piece, and potentially steer it in an advantageous direction, however they chose not to take it. Quite frankly, the current administration had little or nothing to do with the subject matter addressed by The U. It is factual history and not a reflection on the institution as it currently exists. While UM may attempt to spin the media coverage of the airing from a defensive standpoint, it would be unnecessary.
As a former student and current season ticket holder, I want to thank Billy Corben and Rakontur for having the passion, dedication and willingness to execute their vision and tell a story that needed to be told. There is no doubt that they set the bar high for themselves, and they met that challenge. It was apparent a lot of research and hard work went into the film, and I cannot wait to buy the DVD.
I'm not from Miami and I'm not a fan of The U, but I watched the documentary last night and I was very impressed. It was entertaining and educational. It is very clear to me that the University of Miami would not be the premier school it is today if it wasn't for the eighties Canes. Clueless? Glenn Garvin is clueless. These guys were pioneers! I loved the compassion. They went out and competed to the fullest, and had fun doing it. I now have a different view of THE U and wish more teams competed the way they did. Thank you Billy Corben..
I thought the documentary sat. night was excellant! I was a pre-teen in the 80's and didn't know or really understand the behind the schene stuff( born in 80). However, this shed a great deal of light onto the subject. I wouldn't say they were perfect BUT haters I even know who watched and said MOST of the on field stuff was more show boating and........dancing, having fun! Currently, this is a political correct planet we live on now, God forbid, today u would be all over every news show/ station for a lack of sportsmanship ; back then was a different time their was only SI and ESPN was starting to come into their own. THE only reason they had so much attention was because they were winning. Don't kid yourself, their is corruption in everything in life, it just depends who where why and when it affects and in what spotlight their in. Even today, if this happened at D-1 school, u wouldn't hear about if the team is 0-12. Unless ur the gaytors, they pay a high profile lawyer to sweep it under the rug for their twenty-something arrests (lost count). Finally, as a university, a team , a student, and a fan we can revel, envy the past and we can learn from it, but to act like it never happened is wrong. You will never appreciate the present or the future if you don't know where u started! God bless, Cane4life!
I'm a little late to this but I wasn't able to sit down and watch the full thing until last night (newborn at home :D ). Glen Garvin gives the typical old man response to this documentary. In watching the documentary, I couldn't help but think how benign a LOT of what was going on actually was. By today's standards, the dancing, celebrating, etc. was pretty standard. The 200+ yards in penalties in the bowl game, they were out of control, but Garvin makes it seem like the University was proud of that, they weren't. They were upset at it, and then Miami went back to business and won more football games. All in all, the story was told perfectly, it was a factual recounting of events that allowed the amazing personalities to shine through as they recounted stories. Love them or hate them, they changed the game, thanks for telling the story!!