Aww, Dad! Coach Ferentz Suspends his Son

Iowa reported yesterday that freshman offensive lineman James Ferentz has been suspended for underage drinking. Normally, no one would care because A) He’s a freshman and B) It’s Iowa. However, the real story here is that it is his dad who suspended him.

No, this isn’t some case of an over-involved parent. Ferentz’s dad is actually Iowa’s head coach, Kirk Ferentz. When junior was cited by city police for underage drinking during Thirsty Thursday (ah, I miss college), Coach Kirk suspended his son indefinitely. He’ll also be required to attend counseling and do community service, and I’m sure he got a nice *little* fine from the police.

Two issues here.

Number one, I don’t like the fact that he’s playing for his dad. Sure, it has been done before, but I feel like that complicates things and compromises the integrity of the team. As a parent, you want your son to play, so you’re tempting to give him more playing time than his talent and skills deserve. That’s not fair. At the same time, because you want to seem fair, a parent coach will often be harder on his child than on the rest of the team. That’s also not fair. Either way, it is a lose-lose situation.

Issue number two I have is that it was his dad that took care of the discipline. Coaches make judgement calls all the time on players who are caught drinking. Some get away with a warning if they’re of legal age and it wasn’t the night for a game. Underage drinking always (that I know of) leads to a suspension, but his dad is going to decide for how long and the terms of him returning to the team. That’s not fair either.

My point is that someone else should have taken care of the team situation – the athletic director, for instance. And hey, maybe that was the case, though the report made it sound like the coach made the call.

Leave a comment below – how do you feel about guys playing for their fathers? Was this situation handled fairly?

Picture via Newscom.