Someone robbed the Colorado locker room at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Colorado coach Deion Sanders wants the NCAA to make it right.
Via Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com, Deion called on the sport’s governing body to reimburse the players who lost cash, jewelry, and other items in the robbery.
“Our kids got robbed during the game last week,” Sanders said at a press conference on Tuesday. “I think that’s a travesty. I would expect the NCAA to do something about that. . . . This is the Rose Bowl. They said the granddaddy of ‘em all, right? I’m sure granddaddy had some money. Grandpa should have some money to give these kids.”
But the Rose Bowl and the NCAA are two different entities. The persons primarily responsible for the theft are those who committed it. It’s possible that the Rose Bowl has civil liability if it engaged in negligence regarding reasonable security measures.
The NCAA, frankly, would have no responsibility at all.
A separate problem comes from proving the losses by the players. How can anyone prove exactly what was stolen?
“I’m going to have a list made out from these young men, and I know they’re going to be truthful about what they lost, so we can try and get it back for them,” Sanders said. “They may not be able to get the items back, but they should be able to reimburse them. That was unbelievable.”
It’s possible Deion is doing a little deflecting here. Maybe he’s blaming the NCAA and the Rose Bowl for the theft because Colorado committed negligence in its failure to secure its own locker room. Maybe, in the end, it’s not the NCAA or the Rose Bowl or anyone else who should be paying the kids for whatever they lost.
Maybe Colorado should be reimbursing the Colorado players.