Time to turn down the heat on Edsalls and political football

Hey, I got an idea. Let’s tie Corey Edsall to a giant billboard at the intersection of I-91/I-84 in Hartford and his dad Randy at I-91/I-95 in New Haven next to big block UConn national flag blue letters. “N-E-P-O-T-I-S-M!” After the grandstanding by the Office of State Ethics’ Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board, you would have thought this was the first time a college football coach ever had a family member on his staff or legislators slipped an amendment into an unrelated bill.

In the closing hours of the regular session in May, the state Legislature also did things like approve $400,000 for the Connecticut Open Tennis Tournament to pay off aU.S. Tennis Association loan and OK a firehouse in Sen. Heather Somers’ 18th District (where I live). They call these additions “rats” and there are plenty of them each year. Not a particularly good thing. Not an uncommon thing.

Yet judging by what you read and heard in hyperbolic segments of the media, you probably think Democratic Speaker of the House

Joe Aresimowicz had conspired with Republican leaders Leonard Fasano and Themis Klarides to hire the Russian mob to fill Randy’s staff by slipping in a one-paragraph amendment to a bill on data retention that, in practice, allows Corey Edsall to remain as UConn tight ends coach.

Abuse of power! Taxpayers will bear the cost of this erosion of accountability!

With all the real corruption in this world and problems the state has, let’s turn the heat down on this political football. Fellow citizens, this is not the end of American democracy.

I get it. When major UConn athletic figures are involved, it’s an irresistible magnet for the sanctimonious. Been there myself. But so much has been made of this story first reported by The Hartford Courant, right down to Edsall discussing the issue with Aresimowicz, Berlin high football coach, at an allstate football banquet in January. Where did you think they might bump into each other? Kendrick Lamar’s concert at Xfinity Theatre?

Look, I’m all for bringing the athletic family hiring issue to state lawmakers in a transparent way instead of resorting to “rats” OR allowing an overreaching and maybe even vindictive ethics board making the ruling it did.

This matter never should have gotten as far as the courts, where it will continue to be battled in the coming weeks. Since the ethics board made its semi aboutface last year and made it clear that “separation” between Randy and Corey was the only possible remedy, it was clear that only a law could determine exactly how it could — or could not — work within an athletic program. I argued this point last year. A football staff is much different than the psychology department.

Nobody’s publicly for nepotism. That’s low-hanging fruit. Appearance is everything. There is a great challenge in public debate. If someone tries to discuss nuance, all anybody has do is shout “Nepotism!” Game’s over.

Some are against coaches hiring family members. End of story. Yet that’s not the state ethics code. It says no employee can be the direct supervisor of a relative or affect their financial interest.

On Dec. 23, 2016, UConn sought a non-binding opinion from the ethics board. It was presented as a hypothetical, a coy move by UConn, but not a unique practice and Bob Diaco hadn’t been fired yet. UConn got the tentative go-ahead. When the ethics board realized it was about Edsall, the angry brakes hit. Big name. Big morality.

Corey would receive no raises or bonuses, only raises mandated by the union. Corey would be directly supervised by offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who himself had a fixed three-year deal. Beth Goetz, athletic department COO, would be Corey’s overall supervisor and responsible for all financial decisions. Athletic director David Benedict would oversee it.

None of UConn’s plan, no safeguard was good enough. The board dismissed it as “a sham.” Hiring Coach Big’s son Bubba, from over at the Piggly Wiggly, to a $500,000 job as the offensive coordinator at State U? That’s a sham.

Corey was a backup quarterback at Syracuse, Big East All-Academic team, student assistant for his father at Maryland, interned at NFL training camps. He worked two years at Colorado, the second as a graduate assistant. He was qualified for the UConn job. In a year, he has made an impact in recruiting. The ethics board should have him diagram plays and duplicate his recruiting pitch. Maybe it would learn something.

Good people in lowerpaying jobs may look with a jaundiced eye, but in major college football, you know what they call Corey Edsall’s annual salary fixed at $95,000? A bargain. He’s the lowest-paid coach in the AAC.

According to the latest USA Today survey, UConn is No. 1 among public universities with $42.2 million in student fees, institutional

support and state money allocated to balance its athletic budget. At a time of financial peril, Randy Edsall’s $1 million a year is also a bargain.

Edsall made it clear leading up to his hiring he wanted Corey. Randy accepted the job Dec. 28, 2016, but his first day on the job was Jan. 3, 2017. Within those six days, he was asked in an email by Goetz to project Corey’s position and salary. That’s important because UConn and the ethics board locked in a battle over what officially constituted his starting date. As an existing state employee, he couldn’t influence Corey’s hiring. Yes, this democracy threatening issue is partly about six days, three over a holiday weekend. When you see how the ethics board argued that even going from tight end to another position is unacceptable because it would improve Corey’s possibilities of getting a job elsewhere, you begin to understand how petty and maybe vindictive some of this is.

A quarter of NFL head coaches have sons on their staffs. A USA Today survey in 2009 found that 10.8 percent of FBS football head coaches have a relative on staff. This is not a new phenomenon and includes some of the most famous coaches in history. There are different rules everywhere. Consider a neighboring state. Similar values. An FBS football program at its state university. UMass’ quarterbacks coach? Spencer Whipple, son of head coach Mark.

Aresimowicz, who initiated the legislation, Fasano and Klarides are not off base in arguing they righted a wrong. It just shouldn’t have been slipped into another bill. The amendment, already signed into law, reads a member of the immediate family may be employed in the same department at a constituent unit of the state system of higher education provided any decisions impacting financial interest is made by a non-family member.

Asignificant portion of oversight over the education system was gutted for the benefit of the Edsalls, the ethics board said, creating a double standard promoting nepotism among state universities while prohibiting it for the rest of state government. This is why people don’t trust state government! Restore ethical oversight!

If the ethics board stops trying to maneuver its agenda with athletic programs and allows the state Legislature to take a measured look, some strong safeguard laws could be implemented.

But given all the outrage, I’m guessing tying poor Corey Edsall to a billboard might be more popular.

Randy Edsall