'Tampering' Charges Dropped; McCullers Found Out

ESPN reports that the Crew have secured an undisclosed amount from Seattle for Mark McCullers’ trumped up “tampering” charges. Sigi Schmid is now released from all obligations to the Crew. The MLS found no evidence that there was ever any violation by Sigi or the Sounders. (The complete official statement is available at the Dispatch).

How does it feel Mark McCullers? You did it. You shook down the Sounders for a few measly pence, disrespected the most successful coach in Crew history who just won you your first MLS Cup, and showed your true colors. In just a few short weeks you took the glory that we all witnessed in Los Angeles and reduced it down to a petty, materialistic fight over the fine print in a legal contract. What are you going to do now, go to Disney World?

Did it really have to happen this way? Of course not.

If McCullers had integrity, he simply would have let Sigi go without generating this unseemly controversy.

What is integrity? In Dustin Hoffman’s classic Little Big Man, Old Lodge Skins said: “There is an endless supply of white men. There has always been a limited number of human beings.”

By “white men,” of course, Old Lodge Skins was not referring to race. He was referring to those who lack integrity, those who fail to see that there is more to this world than the purely material. In the movie, the “human beings” are those who value the collective good over selfishness. Human beings are those who are reflective, thoughtful and forward looking. Human beings respect the interconnectedness of all living things.

The “white man” in Little Big Man’s definition, is not race based. The movie portrays the U.S. campaign against the Indians and the slaughter at Little Big Horn. The “white man” is the unthinking materialist, the fundamentally corrupted misanthrope who lacks integrity.

In short, a human being at the helm of a soccer club that finally won its first championship after 13 hard years of struggle would find it unthinkable to reduce this down to a vulgar fight over “tampering” charges and a few dollars.

I know, I know, “It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.”

Old Lodge Skins: “Human beings, my son, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them ... That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe EVERYTHING is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people! Even their own people! If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out. That is the difference.”

Yes, that is the difference. Sleep well Mark McCullers. You earned it.