FLYING DUTCHMEN YOUR SHIP WAS SUNK BY NAPOLEAN…I MEAN Stuart Rabinowitz

In early December, President Stuart Rabinowitz of Hofstra University announced that they would be dropping their I AA football team. Not man enough to inform the team and coaching staff himself, Rabinowitz allowed his athletic director Jack Hayes to drop the bombshell to the team just hours before the news was made public. Stuart cited the excessive cost of $4.3 million to field the team as the reason for its demise. That number is damn misleading as tuition, room and board at Hofstra is $46,348 (according to their website) at 63 football scholarships equals $2,919,924.  The football program doesn’t actually pay Hofstra that money because it would be the equivalent of you paying your parents for allowing you to live in their house when you were a child. That $4.3 million is now $1,380,076 and suddenly the football program isn’t so abhorrently expensive.  Need more money Stuart? Then perhaps we can knock $364,366 from your $864,366 salary and put it in line with President Obama’s at $500,000 a year. (I figure if he can lead a country on that salary then you can lead a fiefdom for the same salary minus Airforce One and the White House). Just like that we have the football team’s deficit down to $1,015,710 and if we drop the Music, Dance and Drama program and allocate that money to football we will be knocking off another $300,000. Does that suggestion sound preposterous and shocking to you?  Anymore so then taking the football money and distributing it to “new and enhanced academic initiatives and increasing funds for need-based scholarships.”

 Any fan of Hofstra is certainly acquainted with all of the names who have gone onto play or coach in the NFL; Raheem Morris, Adams, Chrebet, Shulters, Colston, Ellis, Newton, Harris, Fiore, Graham, Colon, Arrington, Bowen and Carmazzi.  The NCAA has a great commercial that says, “There are over 400,000 NCAA student-athletes, and almost all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.” This is where Rabinowitz fails to understand the true importance of athletics and the impact Hofstra football has on the Long Island community.  During the press conference Stuart stated that “The cost of the football program, now and in the future, far exceeds the return possible.  There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”.  Can returns only be valued in dollars and cents? 

 Jimmy Jones rushed for over 2,000 yards as a Hofstra football player and has repaid the value of his scholarship to the Freeport community a hundred times over.  Jimmy’s family funding his college education was not an option (does that fall under a need based scholarship Stu?) and coming out of Freeport High School he made the decision to attend Hofstra (turning down out of state offers) and play in front of the community that supported him during his high school years.  Today Jimmy Jones is a Phys Ed teacher and the Football Varsity Assistant Coach at Freeport High School and is a daily walking example to his students, his players and his community of what hard work, dedication, sacrifice and dreams can allow you to achieve.  Everyday Jimmy is making a difference in the lives of children and isn’t that what higher education is supposed to embody.  Thanks to President Rabinowitz there will never be another Jimmy Jones who remains home to play football at Hofstra, returns to his community and succeeds in every sense of the word.  The next Jimmy Jones will leave Long Island to play 1AA football, not return to his community but remain in the area of his University as so many Hofstra football players have done in the past and instead make an impact on that community.  Jimmy Jones, Toby Elmore, Rocky Butler all active in the Long Island community are the true return of the value of a Hofstra football program. 

 Rabinowitz says a two year study was conducted on sports spending at the University and that cutting football was the only cost effective option.  Where was the transparency during this study?  How many former Hofstra football players, coaches or athletic directors were invited to participate in this study?  The free advertising Hofstra receives when ESPN airs a special on Colston, or when Raheem Morris coaches a game in Tampa Bay was that broken down into dollars and cents? Did anybody suggest moving football game times to Friday or Saturday night start times so they didn’t conflict with the hundreds of high school games that are occurring at the same time on Long Island?  Hofstra athletic events have never been supported by the students, the fans have always been from the Long Island community so why not provide them with the opportunity to actually attend games.  Long Island has long suffered from an identity crisis due to the hundreds of towns that are all locally governed.  Rabinowitz could have utilized Hofstra Football as a unifying point for Long Islanders but missed the boat completely.  If Rabinowitz truly wanted to save football why not hire an outside marketing firm to promote and fill the football stadium since Hofstra is located in the largest media outlet in the world. I am full of ideas and suggestions, I can only imagine what others could have contributed if given the opportunity to participate. Perhaps this was all simply a self fulfilling prophecy for Rabinowitz.

 As a former student athlete and coach at Hofstra University I am truly saddened by the termination of the football program because it is a direct representation of Rabinowitz’s view on athletics. If you have met Rabinowitz you know immediately he is not a fan of athletics and wants Hofstra to be known in the upper echelons of higher education for which I can’t fault him. I can condemn him though for not having the guts to embrace former President Shuart’s legacy of athletics, while building his own vision for Hofstra University. 

For now I have joined Help Keep Hofstra Football on Facebook, but am realistic enough to know that the only way Hofstra football will return is when the regime I mean Rabinowitz retires.