Considering Eastern Michigan won a total of zero games last year, you’d think head coach Ron English would be open-minded when it came to recruiting players.
But apparently the man has some recruiting guidelines, which include the player having been raised by a father.
From the ESPN.com:
Here is what English said July 31 when asked about his incoming recruiting class: “You know what the real focus was? We wanted to recruit football players that love football. I felt like we had a lot of guys who really didn’t love football. They maybe were playing football so that they could go to school or whatever, but not for the love of playing football.
“So when we went out, we wanted to do two things. We wanted players who love football, who have the physical ability to play football and then the other thing we wanted was guys that could be coached. We wanted guys that had a father in their background because if you don’t, the hard part is, some guy like me coming in and corrects you. So you’re working — that’s a whole another dynamic. A guy that’s raised by his mom — and please don’t take me wrong — but the reality is, you have to teach that guy how to be taught by a man. That’s part of it.”
English has since apologized for the comments, which he should have. To think that a single mother can’t teach a boy to be a man is absolutely ludicrous, especially considering that some fathers can’t even teach their boys to be a men. His comments were incredibly shortsighted and sexist as well. LeBron James was raised by a single mother and I think he turned out fine.
How a coach could purposely stay away from a talented player because he wasn’t raised by a father is asinine. It looks like the football program at Eastern Michigan is in good hands with English.
