A funny thing happened on the way to the Bryan Center.
I was crossing the Chapel quad like I have a thousand times before. Out of habit, I reached for my cell to see if anyone had hit me up during my "Living the Middle Ages" lecture.
One missed call. Unfamiliar number. Probably a delivery guy for the new apartment or something. Whatever. I decide to check the message anyway. You never know.
"Uh, Meredith, Coach Spurrier down at South Carolina calling you at about 1:35."
He had me at "Uh."
Steve Spurrier, the closest thing Duke has had to football royalty in what feels like the last century, found time in his busy schedule to phone a lowly Chronicle columnist. His voice is distinctively Southern, the perfect mix of nonchalance, colloquialism and levity you would expect, except that at times, he speaks with the speed of a blitzing linebacker.
I stopped dead in my tracks to listen to what the voice had to say. As someone who has worked in college journalism for three years now, I was shocked that Spurrier returned my call. The Big Whigs of Sport are usually too important to be bothered by people like me. But apparently, not Spurrier.
Late last week, I had sent an e-mail to a public relations person at South Carolina because I wanted to personally ask the Ol' Ball coach why, for the first time in five years, Duke didn't receive its one top-25 vote in the preseason USA Today Coaches' poll. Since 2004, Spurrier had been slating Duke at No. 25 on his ballot in deference to the institution that gave him his first head coaching job. As the years passed, however, the vote became more and more controversial-Duke isn't a top-25 team!-and people all over college football were clamoring for this utter chaos to be stopped.
"The reason I didn't put Duke down there at No. 25 is because the President of the American Football Coaches Association, Grant Teaff, asked me not to do that. He said for the validity and integrity of the poll, I shouldn't do that. And, uh, so I said, 'OK, I won't do it this year.'"
On its face, I understand where the AFCA is coming from. There is an infinitesimally small chance that in the convoluted matrix that is the BCS system, one vote could make a difference somewhere, somehow in the final standings. And, I mean, this is about "integrity" right?
Sure. But with all due respect to the great football powers that be, I think there is something much more important than the integrity of a meaningless preseason poll: the integrity of the game and, for that matter, of sport.
Here is a guy who made it big, created a football dynasty at Florida, coached in the pros and is turning South Carolina around. Here is a guy who has millions of dollars in the bank and an immense amount of national respect.
And here is a guy who, along the way, hasn't forgotten where he came from and the opportunities given to him before he became one of the most prominent figures in the game.
So if a renowned coach wants to do something, however small, for the program that gave him his start, then people should lighten up and get over it.
In the end, though-and perhaps in a move indicative of the current sports atmosphere in this country-the integrity of a poll beat out the integrity of a man. Spurrier didn't cast his vote for Duke this year. And it seemed by the tone of his voice blasting through my cell phone earpiece that he was truly sorry.
"Grant Teaff is a man I admire and respect-good guy-and he asked me not to do it.
So the Dukies didn't get a vote this year, but I'll be pullin' for the Dukies. Put that in the paper. I'm pullin' for 'em every game. See ya. Bye."
There you go, Coach. I got it in the paper for you. And also the fact that you care enough about this place to talk to a student reporter to get the message out there-even if you couldn't do it this year with your vote.
I hope you get to cast a preseason top-25 vote for Duke sometime real soon. I hear Coach Cutcliffe is the best thing to happen to Duke Football since... well, you.
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