Ex-coach speaks to unhealthy culture
Players indirectly accuse CSU alum of having “ax to grind”
CSU Rams football players are sticking by their coach. Anthoney Hill says he’s sticking by his story.
“People can try to pretend like they’re OK with what’s going on over there, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Hill, the ex-rams quarterback, assistant coach and staffer, told The Post on Saturday. “People on the inside know. And I get it. I understand the players’ position on this because they want to play.”
Hill was responding to a CSU players’ statement released Saturday that indirectly accused him of “having an ax to grind” after correspondence between himself and athletic director Joe Parker was revealed in an ESPN report Friday.
Saturday’s he-said/theysaid exchange was the latest salvo in what’s turned into one of the most tumultuous weeks in recent CSU athletics history.
Since last Tuesday, firstyear football coach Steve Addazio and Parker have been under suspicion of fostering an environment rampant in verbal abuse and of violating COVID-19 protocols, due to complaints made by players and others inside the program, anonymously, to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. The end result is CSU’S football program has been paused pending an independent investigation. It’s also cast a critical eye on Parker, Addazio and university president Joyce Mcconnell while dividing a fan base that was already struggling to unite under its new football coach.
“I’m not the only guy that had something to say,” said Hill, who was let go as CSU’S director of player development and community/alumni relations in January. “And, most importantly, I’m not lying.”
Concerns over the culture and of Parker’s handling of department personalities, most notably former CSU men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy, were also raised by Rams’ mental health counselor Jimmy Stewart in a story published Saturday by the
Coloradoan.
While that report’s accusations of racist comments by former CSU football coach Mike Bobo were refuted by at least one former Rams football player, that player also said of Stewart, “Jimmy’s the real deal. Jimmy sees it all.”
Hill, CSU’S starting quarterback from 1992-94, said Saturday that Parker has turned a blind eye to student-athlete concerns, including reports of racially insensitive comments by Bobo and his assistants, most of whom are no longer with the department. Hill said his concerns are shared by current CSU staffers and former players, especially those of African American descent. And he said Parker is the root of those cultural faults.
“It’s all cultural,” Hill said. “And if the culture is not in a good place, then your results are going be spotty, in my opinion.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to be heard. I’m not doing anything that I didn’t tell Joe Parker I was going to do. And most importantly, he did all this. He set it all in motion.”
Hill said he’s been taken aback by a number of Parker’s decisions, including the fact that he’d been notified of his termination by CSU’S athletic director initially rather than by Addazio, who was hired to replace Bobo last December.
“That’s weird. That doesn’t happen,” Hill recalled. “(Parker) said, ‘(You’re) not a fit at CSU,’ which floored me. Because if I’m not a fit at CSU, I don’t know who is.”
Hill said he was offered an athletic department academic advisor position by Parker for less money than he had been making. A correspondence provided to The Post by CSU athletics confirms an offer on Jan. 17 with an initial salary of $48,000 that was increased to $53,300, his former salary.
Hill said he found the position and the salary insulting, and preferred an on-field role, a reaction that is reflected in correspondences from Parker to Hill earlier this year.
In a March 2 letter from Parker to Hill, the athletic director wrote that his “intention was to make sure you were retained in a position at CSU. The suggestion that I was trying to ‘sabotage’ you (is) simply not true.”
Hill said Parker was attempting to cast him as overly emotional in response to the new role, “trying to make it feel like I was out of control, or basically that he didn’t know what I would do, so he went that route. He knew what it was. And so here we are.”
Adding to the confusion and frustration for Rams faithful in recent days is the fact that some — but not all — CSU football players vehemently deny the accusations that have brought unwanted national media attention to the program.
The current Rams released a
former director of player development for the CSU football team.
collective statement on Saturday morning denouncing recent allegations levied against Addazio and the football staff, describing charges of racism and verbal abuse as “patently untrue.”
“To the contrary,” it continued, “our experience since Coach Addazio’s first day has been positive, welcoming and focused on our development as student-athletes. To be absolutely clear, we have not experienced any racially insensitive comments to our teammates from the athletic department or coaching staff.”
The statement was released in the wake of two independent investigations launched regarding the Rams football program by the university. The first, announced late Tuesday by Mcconnell, was in response to charges by anonymous student-athletes and athletic staffers that Addazio and his assistants were not following COVID-19 protocols. The allegations were levied by unnamed sources in a story published Tuesday by the Coloradoan.
The spotlight on the program intensified Friday, when Parker announced that he was pausing all football activities immediately in response to allegations of “racism and verbal abuse from CSU’S athletic administration generally and in the football program specifically.”
Seniors on the CSU football program refuted those claims during a meeting late Friday, and again during a team-wide meeting Saturday morning. Players were provided copies of a prepared statement of support for the coaching staff and encouraged to share it via social media channels with the hashtag “#Csuunited.”
Saturday’s statement describes a spate of allegations against Addazio and the program as “unfounded” from “individuals who are not associated with our current football team … the unfounded allegations from a disgruntled former coach and/or unnamed source is unfair, unjust and creates the exact demeaning and painful wounds that can be caused by racism.”
Mcconnell announced via an email to student-athletes and department staffers that the investigations would be led by Husch Blackwell, a Kansas City-based legal firm. Husch Blackwell was hired earlier this summer by the University of Iowa to lead an independent investigation into allegations of racial insensitivity and abuse by football coach Kirk Ferentz and his staff.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know who people are,” Hill said. “They show you who they are. And Coach Addazio did immediately. And that’s not something I wanted to be around, if it’s going to be that way. I just don’t think there’s very good leadership over at my alma mater right now. And it kills me.”