Dee is upset about scandal
By Michelle Kaufman
[email protected]
Former University of Miami athletic director Paul Dee said Friday he is “absolutely sickened’’ by the allegations facing the Hurricanes, urged everyone involved to tell the truth, and conceded that Nevin Shapiro, the incarcerated booster at the center of the scandal, “should have been on our radar.’’
The only issue they had with Shapiro, Dee said, is that “he kept promising gifts he didn’t deliver.’’ Also, he rubbed football coach Randy Shannon the wrong way, to the point that Shannon warned his players about Shapiro. Dee admits that should have been a red flag.
“At that point, if our coach is uncomfortable with someone, he should tell the compliance officer, ‘There’s something about that guy I don’t like,’ and then we can check him out, keep an eye on him, and maybe ward him off if we need to. Maybe even hire a private investigator. The key to preventing all this is leadership and compliance. But you always question how much is too much enforcement.’’
Dee said Shapiro never asked for anything extraordinary, and was treated like all the other boosters who made substantial donations. He was given sideline passes for a few football games a year, but that is a common courtesy.
“It is not an unusual request for a trustee or booster to ask for a field pass,’’ said Dee, who served as chairman of the NCAA Infractions Committee. “I’ve had trustees take their kids down there to get photos before a game, boosters down there for pre-game warm-ups, those are little favors we did for the people who supported our program and it has never burned us before. Nevin was friends with Shaquille O’Neal, and we were told by people who knew him that he was a good guy with his own business. We had no idea he was dirty and running a Ponzi scheme. His own friends didn’t know. Some guys smell fishy, and pique your interest. He wasn’t one of those guys.’’
Dee, who was AD until 2008, said whenever he got “word from the street’’ that Hurricane players were hanging out in the wrong places, he tried to put a stop to it. When he heard football players were visiting Club Rolexx, a North Miami strip club, he sent someone to check and the Canes were prohibited from going back.
“We tried to be careful, and we did a pretty good job, but we should have done more,’’ he said. “All we can do now is wait for the truth to come out, take our medicine if it comes, and learn from it. But it pains me tremendously to see such sensational stories and headlines. UM is getting creamed again, and everyone around the country loves it. We will survive, though. We will survive.’’
Last edited Today 12:25 AM by mschaff