Nero, Warren G. Harding, Kenneth Lay, Matt Millen, King Richard III.
These are some of the worst, most inept leaders in history. Soon NCAA President Mark Emmert's name will be added to the list.
While at the Final Four, Emmert met with a bloodthirsty, ravenous media already calling for his head on a silver platter during a contentious press conference. Emmert's answers with regards to the downward spiral of the NCAA and its mounting problems before the presser have produced skepticism and criticism. His answers during the question and answer session only served to transition the skepticism to astonishment and the criticism to outrage.
Emmert's complete and total failure as the headless chicken leading the sham of big time college athletics makes professional commissioners look like venerated elder statesmen in comparison. Heck, it makes FIFA look as well put together as Apple.
After a defiant, arrogant, out-of-touch display where he did his best to dodge the media's arrows, Emmert's detractors became even more vocal as they took to websites and Twitter. Here's a brief collection of the media's thoughts on NCAA President Mark Emmert…
"In the end, the only thing missing from Mark Emmert's Final Four meeting with the media was Jay Bilas firing a tranquilizer dart into the NCAA president's neck, felling him on the spot, then posing for pictures over the carcass.
Otherwise, just about every element of a big game hunt was in place here Thursday in the Georgia World Congress Center."
– Pat Forde, Yahoo Sports
The more Mark Emmert speaks to the media, the more convinced I am the NCAA needs to make a change at the top. #tonedeaf
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) April 4, 2013
Can't say Mark Emmert said a whole lot at that press conference. He did talk a lot, though.
— Pete Thamel(@SIPeteThamel) April 4, 2013
Can't help but wonder how many more of these state of address newsers Mark Emmert will do in his tenure.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanCBS) April 4, 2013
In response to Selena Roberts' Auburn story, Emmert says, "What there is a newspaper story. That’s it."
— Rachel George (@RachelAGeorge) April 4, 2013
"It was clear from the outset that the jacket-less Emmert had a plan for the presser, and that he clearly reads the critiques of his performance, not only as NCAA president but also in his prior stops at universities. It was feisty, but in an oddly defensive way that didn’t make him come off as very much of a leader."
– Andy Glockner, Sports Illustrated
"Here's the question that wasn't asked during 40 minutes of press conference hell for Mark Emmert at the Final Four:
Isn't it strange how the rich and powerful, from Exxon to Fannie Mae to the NCAA, can be so walled off from the everyday when it comes to accountability?
Coaching careers have been altered, even ruined — often rightly so — because the answers, "I don't know" or "I wasn't supposed to know," weren't good enough in the NCAA enforcement process. Lack of knowledge about something you lack knowledge about has never been a solid excuse in the NCAA's infractions sauna.
Except that's exactly the conclusion reached in February in an external review regarding Emmert, the NCAA president, and his No. 2 — chief operating officer Jim Isch — in the Miami case. Emmert says he didn't know about the use of outside attorney Maria Perez until the deed was done. Isch, the man who approved a $20,000 expenditure for Perez' use, was not responsible for "vetting its appropriateness."
What?"
– Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports
"Emmert had an agenda. He had a hit-list. It’s clear that he reads the criticism of the job that he has done and of his organization, and that it’s become to bother him. He was fed up with it, and he wasn’t going to let something as simple as national television coverage and a room full of his harshest critics and the most powerful voices in college sports media stop him.
The push for NCAA reform has never been stronger, both in the way that rules are enforced and what those rules actually are. The NCAA looks really bad in the wake of investigations of Cam Newton, Shabazz Muhammad, Miami and Penn State. Emmert needed to make a strong statement on Thursday. He needed to inspire confidence that change is coming.
Instead, he gave every media member their easiest column of the year."
– Rob Dauster, NBC Sports
Mark Emmert was just a double-fisted-bird farewell away from a Marshall Henderson performance today.
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) April 4, 2013
Listening to Mark Emmert do this dance. Honest question: Is this really the best the NCAA can do in terms of leadership?
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) April 4, 2013
And then there's Jay Bilas and his one man crusade against the NCAA and Emmert.
Just read UM's Motion to Dismiss. Emmert was "walled off" from UM investigation, knew nothing? Yet, he can make specific public statements?
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 2, 2013
Hey, Rutgers President: Take a page from the NCAA's playbook. "I'm not accountable for the shop floor." Thank you, Mark Emmert!
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
Hey, Rutgers Prez: Use NCAA's excuse, "I approved decision, but not responsible for vetting its appropriateness." Buck stops…over there!
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
Hey, Rutgers Prez: Use Mark Emmert's defense, "I'm not responsible for my AD, just like Emmert's not responsible for his COO." Job saved!
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
NCAA President says NCAA governance is "more complicated than Congress." And, just as feckless and ineffective, yet not as popular.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
NCAA Prez Emmert: NCAA's letter to judge in support of a convicted Ponzi schemer, convicted con man was "a minor error in judgment." Wow.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
Mark Emmert to @dennisdoddcbs: "I know you're disappointed, but I'm still here." fxn.ws/10Chhwl Disappointing and petty response.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2013
On the bright side for Mark Emmert… no, wait, there is no bright side.
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