The more we read about the mess at Miami, the worse it sounds.
The allegations that Haith assistant Jake Morton returned the $10,000 which Nevin Shapiro paid to the family of DeQuan Jones after stealing it from his investors is almost comical and would be if the allegation wasn't so pitiful. There's not much in this story that tops the idea of Morton meeting the imprisoned man's body guard and taking the $10,000 dollars he stole back to the thief's mother (we couldn't help but wonder what she did with it).
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| This photo, and supporting evidence, could end Donna Shalala's career at Miami. |
But the most stunning part of this story is the image of the 5-5 Shapiro trying to attack (publicly)Â Miami compliance official David Reed at halftime of the 2007 game with Virginia, when the 'Hoos led 31-0: the guy was out of control enough to attack the compliance officer for making life too tough for Miami football.
If there's anything which sums this whole business up, that's it. But it gets even worse:
Reed understandably investigated Shapiro and got the general idea of what was going on. Miami though did nothing. In fact, Shapiro had a grand time the following year at a bowling alley with Haith and Miami President President Donna Shalala, who was photographed accepting a $50,000 check (again, this was stolen money) from a now-convicted felon at a bowling alley. The fact that Reed by then likely had some idea of what was going on (at the very least, Miami knew he Shapiro had attempted to attack Reed during the Virginia game) and Shalala still was willing to get her picture taken with Shapiro is just devastating.
Shapiro is a despicable figure in almost every way imaginable, but he thinks he has done enough damage to get Miami the death penalty. He appears to have figured that if he's going down, and the folks at Miami were going to ignore their benefactor once he got into trouble, that he might as well let them swirl down the drain with him.
Whatever happens to them, they deserve it. If there were a way to expel them from the ACC, it wouldn't bother us in the slightest.