University of Illinois Fires Coach Tim Beckman

Roughly a week before the Illinois Fighting Illini football season began they've decided to fire head coach Tim Beckman. While, at the surface, this seems like a weird thing to do, considering the closeness of the season, take a look at what a report about the program said. The Thomas mentioned refers to Mike Thomas, the athletic director.

During a preliminary briefing from the external reviewers, Thomas said he learned of efforts to deter injury reporting and influence medical decisions that pressured players to avoid or postpone medical treatment and continue playing despite injuries. He also said in some instances student-athletes were treated inappropriately with respect to whether they could remain on scholarship during the spring semester of their senior year if they weren't on the team.

"Both of those findings are unsettling violations of University policy and practice and do not reflect the culture that we wish to create in athletic programs for our young people," Thomas said. "I expect my coaches to protect players and foster their success on and off the field."

OK, so there's a lot to chew on with this so let's go point by point.

First, it says that he (Beckman) deterred injury reporting and influence medical decisions that pressured players to avoid or postpone treatment. So, basically, Beckman didn't care that a player had a bad knee or a worn down shoulder. Get out there and play. Rub some dirt on it and what not.

OK, maybe you can get past that. After all, football is a violent sport and people play with injuries all the time. Google Toradol and NFL and you'll see what I mean. Then again, that's the NFL where you're handsomely compensated for the fact that you may not be able to spell your name at 50. The NCAA doesn't even come close to that for their athletes.

Second, it says that some of the players were treated inappropriately with respect to remaining on scholarship during their senior year if they weren't on the team.

So now you're telling me that, if you didn't comply with the first part (playing injured) then you may or may not be kept on scholarship during your senior year. Which means the player's playing career is over because the coach says so. Which means he has to figure out how to stay at the school or drop out with potentially only a year left.
This report doesn't come out of nowhere. In May former offensive lineman Simon Cvijanovic voiced his own concerns on Twitter.

Teammate @KennyKnight was attacked by @coachbeckman in the fall of 2013 at practice and his interview w about it @TaylorRooks was covered

— Simon Cvijanović (@IlliniSi) May 10, 2015

I'm not the only horror story of abuse and misuse of power by @coachbeckman

— Simon Cvijanović (@IlliniSi) May 10, 2015

There are literally dozens and dozens of posts explaining his time there in greater detail. Clearly this had been going on for a while and a player finally got fed up and reported it, leading to the investigation that has now led to the Beckman firing.

One thing that you should probably know also is that while Beckman was at Illinois he stunk. In Beckman's three season at Illinois the team was 12-25 and never won more than six games in a season. This report may not have gotten out if it was Urban Meyer or Les Miles.

Some people don't like social media but, assuming these accusations are true, this is why things like TMZ and twitter and Deadspin are good things. Coaches should have consequences and not be able to do whatever they want, especially when it comes to abuse of the powerless athletes. Hopefully more light will be shed on things like this in the future.