I only have one question. Did Rich Rodriguez ever go to Sunday School? Rich played for WVU when I went to school there. I don't personally know the man, but most of us from that generation went to Sunday School when we were kids. In my case it was CCD, Catholic Sunday school. And, unfortunately for me, it was held on Saturday mornings; so much for Saturday morning cartoons. While many of my friends were watching Scooby Doo, I was learning moral lessons. And one of the easiest ones was this: You reap what you so. I guess Rich skipped Sunday school that day. Perhaps if he didn't , he would not have treated his alma mater the way he did. And he would not be in the embarrassing situation he is in now.
You reap what you so. Mountaineer fans favorite saying right now. They are posting it all over the social media. It's actually an old concept. It's in several spots in the Bible: St. Paul states in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived. For God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap". The concept is also stated in Job 4:8, "As I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble reap the same". Trust me, a priest can go on for hours with this stuff. Buddhists have a similar concept known as Karma. A simple definition is that it is a process of cause and effect. If you do A, B will happen. If you accumulate Bad Karma, bad things will happen. You will reincarnate in a less desirable state. I wonder if there is a less desirable state than being Rich Rodriguez right now? Maybe he'll come back as a slug, but that might even be a step up.
Elbert Hubbard once said, "Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." Every religion seems to have some form of "You reap what you so". So how did Rich Rod miss this lesson? The fact is he didn't. This man was so caught up in himself he probably forgot many of the lessons we are supposed to adhere to every day. He was blinded by pride and greed. Hopefully he is relearning it now. Every Mountaineer fan is happy that he failed, including me, but that actually makes us just as bad as him.
Maybe we can all learn a lesson from Coach Rodriguez and come away better people. Maybe we can all not be so hard on Coach Stewart in his final season. We all know it's going to be a difficult situation for him. Maybe we can not be so consumed in our lust for a national championship that we curse him. Maybe we can send him off in style and be thankful for the the winning seasons he gave us. The man isn't a loser, even though I am guilty of calling him one. He just didn't get the program to the level we wanted. Let's all hope that Rich Rodriguez learned something. And let's hope that by watching him, we all learned something too.
Or we can all end up like this guy:
