SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Curious to see in person how the most visible leader at Notre Dame defended the most famous college football program in America from charges of hypocrisy — and worse — I came Friday to hear coach Brian Kelly.
And was astonished by what I heard.
I shouldn't have been.
Kelly used the word "integrity" four times in 30 seconds while answering a question about support for a player accused of sexually attacking a St. Mary's College student who killed herself 10 days later.
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"If you don't have integrity, what else do you have?" Kelly began. "I've got a family to raise. I've got kids. I have a football family here. If there's no integrity in what you do … I'd have been in a different business a long time ago.
"Integrity is probably, for me, the only thing that keeps me going in this business. Sometimes misinformation and not having the right facts drives you crazy. So you have to have something that you hang your hat on. It's always, for me, been doing the right thing. And integrity."
As the Notre Dame coach invoked all that was wholesome and good about the guys in gold helmets, the cyber hunt to identify the player and poke into his past continued. The Tribune is not naming the player because he was not charged with a crime.
For Kelly, a critical phase of the sad Elizabeth "Lizzy" Seeberg case ended when St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak announced Thursday he won't pursue criminal charges. Kelly can focus on recruiting blue-chip players and playing Miami on Dec. 31 in the Sun Bowl.
Kelly believes Dvorak's decision provided "clarity." It's the prevailing thought among certain Domers who always will believe this saga was nothing more than a witch hunt.
Clarity?
In an interview with the Tribune, Tom and Mary Seeberg revealed that 15 days passed between the time their daughter reported the allegation to Notre Dame Police and when police interviewed the player on Sept. 15. In the interim, the Seebergs' 19-year-old daughter took her own life while the accused player faced Purdue and Michigan.
Where is the clarity in that gap of time?
This search for answers never has been about whether a prosecutor files charges. This search has been about a university and its athletic department living up to the lofty standards it professes. This search is about doing the right thing.
The Seebergs are a family steeped in Notre Dame lineage. Buck Shaw, Lizzy's father's great-uncle, played football at Notre Dame with George Gipp. He was a finalist for the head coaching job in 1941 when Frank Leahy took it.
Officials treated them like they were nosy interlopers.
The school has made clear that the university's president, the Rev. John Jenkins, is not available to meet with the Seebergs. After the family's attorney sent multiple letters to Notre Dame, the Rev. Thomas Doyle, vice president for student affairs, responded that he was refusing to read the letter or forward it on to Jenkins.
The president's inner circle put up a bureaucratic wall, one Kelly contributed to in his first year on campus, brick by brick, "process" by "process." The Seebergs have been kept at arm's length for months by a place they had embraced for generations.
Two days after the alleged Aug. 31 attack, Lizzy forwarded a text message from the phone of the player's friend. "Don't do anything you would regret," the text said. "Messing with notre dame football is a bad idea." On Sept. 9, a Notre Dame Police detective first attempted to talk to the player. Unsuccessful, police waited another four days to try again. Finally, on Sept. 15 — five days after Lizzy took her life — police reached a player practicing and attending class on their campus.
Fifteen days to find the most popular kind of student at Notre Dame: a football player.
Kelly repeated himself Friday. He is proud of the university process, even while he looks silly defending it.
The sad part is the inaction of the university made a punk's text prescient.
It's sadder still that two women who have messed with Notre Dame football in the past weren't surprised by these latest reports. Not at all.
Each has accused Notre Dame football players of sexual assault — one in 1994, the other in 2002. They reached out after reading about Seeberg's story.
"It took me back," said Jennifer Porter-Tinsley, who in 1994 accused two players of assault. "I could relate to the helplessness Lizzy felt. I was asked if I really thought anybody would side with me because of the popularity and power of the football program."
Both of these women are now attorneys. Both said they were driven by their disenchantment with a university process they still believe empowers football players to mistreat women.
Is that the process Brian Kelly is talking about?
If I were one of the 49 members of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees, the school's processes — from the cold secrecy of the Seeberg case to the calculated approach in the aftermath of the tragedy involving student videographer Declan Sullivan — must be examined, and not just because of the specter of the U.S. Department of Education's preliminary inquiries into the school.
This can't be what Notre Dame strives to be.
Integrity is the word stuck in Kelly's mind. Indignity is what comes to mine
