HornedFrog Purple
08-13-2004, 07:25 AM
Jackie Sherrill now has a tie for the crown. :rolleyes:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=1856549
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
A year ago, Dave Bliss lied.
Now the former men's basketball coach at Baylor, he lied about committing NCAA violations that ultimately led to the university penalizing itself with a postseason ban, to the departure of its top three players, to the likelihood of a long probationary period, and to the forced resignation of the school's athletic director.
Bliss tried to get three players and an assistant coach to lie to cover up the violations under his watch.
He lied to his family, to the school, and to the media.
He said he was sorry and admitted his actions were wrong, but only after he resigned and his plot was uncovered.
One year has passed since Bliss' resignation and the publication of secret audiotape transcripts made by a Baylor assistant coach. And questions remain:
Was he truly sorry about what happened?
Why did he do it?
Why should anyone believe him today?
What has he done to make amends?
Bliss, 60, spoke to ESPN.com in a series of recent interviews by cell phone from New Mexico and Colorado. He answered some but not all of the ongoing questions for fear of future lawsuits.
"When it was immediately revealed, your reaction is to the fact you were caught," Bliss said. "But as time goes on, my humiliation and my remorse are because I can see the true depth and breadth of what I did in relation to what I really tried to stand for over 30 years in coaching."
Death, Lies And Audiotapes
Last summer the Baylor men's basketball program went through one of the most tragic scandals in the history of college sports.
Baylor forward Patrick Dennehy was reported missing June 19. His badly decomposed body was found outside of Waco, Texas, on July 25. His death was ruled a homicide; an autopsy showed he suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. A teammate, Carlton Dotson, was charged with his murder, and after being extradited from his home state of Maryland, he awaits an October trial in Waco.
Bliss resigned on Aug. 8, 2003, after he admitted to NCAA violations of making illicit tuition payments and paying living expenses for two players, including Dennehy, during the 2002-03 season. Baylor AD Tom Stanton resigned the same day, even though he was not named in any of the violations.
A week later, on Aug. 15, Bliss was heard on tape trying to cover up the violations. He suggested to at least one player that the player should "create a perception" that Dennehy may have been a drug dealer and that's how he paid for his tuition. The tapes were recorded by assistant Abar Rouse on July 30, July 31 and Aug. 1 -- the first of the tapes recorded the same day Dennehy's death was ruled a homicide.
"I'm asking everybody that I've hurt through this whole process to forgive me," Bliss said.
"People who know me will believe it. For people who don't know me, it's a jump ball. Some will believe it and some won't. My greatest remorse is to my family and to Baylor and to the people who have trusted me. Those are the ones I really care about knowing it.
"This is my first opportunity after all the legal battles and other things to convey it. I'm not going to change people's minds. I want people to know I'm genuinely sorry for what I did."
'A Tremendously Bad Decision'
But the inconsistencies in the stories are still outstanding.
Bliss stood before the media last summer before he resigned and said he never broke an NCAA rule.
"I panicked," Bliss said. "I was hoping that I would be able to avoid the situation."
Potential violations at SMU in the late 1980s were uncovered after Bliss resigned from Baylor. At the time the NCAA cited neither Bliss nor the basketball program, and Bliss said he still to this day didn't have knowledge at the time of any violations with the Mustangs.
"What I did [at Baylor] was reprehensible, and I'm ashamed and humiliated," Bliss said of the violations and subsequent cover-up.
In July 2003, he was still recruiting in Texas and Nevada. His family was with him, watching his son, Jeffrey, play AAU basketball in Las Vegas.
Bliss didn't tell them the truth, either.
"When I panicked, I was hoping to escape the scrutiny, and therefore I was hoping that I wouldn't have to tell [my family] the truth," Bliss said. "That put me in a position where when the truth came out, there was tremendous disappointment, and that's justifiable. They [Bliss' wife, two sons and daughter] know it was a tremendously bad decision."
The Cover-up
Bliss said he was unaware that Rouse was taping him. From the middle of June, when Dennehy went missing, to his resignation in August, Bliss said, "I have no recollection other than trying to save me and Baylor."
Did he believe he could get away with the cover-up?
"You don't know at the time," Bliss said. "My cheating was to pay for Dennehy and [Corey] Herring for one year [2002-03]. I felt badly because I knew I was doing wrong. I had bad feelings the whole year.
"What I went through was a period where all I'm trying to do is find an explanation that will save me and Baylor."
Bliss added, "Imagine being taped in your worst moment. That's what I went through."
Bliss wouldn't answer why he used the drug-dealing story to cover his violations. Nor would he explain why on the tapes he told the players to say they saw Dennehy with a tray of rolled $100 bills, either.
Bill Underwood, the Baylor law professor who ran the school's investigation, told ESPN.com, "I can't say either why he did that."
Dotson's estranged wife, Melissa Kethley, told the Dallas Morning News last summer that players faked drug tests. She told the News that Dotson and Dennehy were two of three players she drove to a Waco clinic after a urine test, ordered by the staff, came back positive for illicit drug use. But there were no reports of Dennehy dealing drugs.
Bliss said the Baylor players had already spoken to the police and Baylor investigators before the tapes were recorded. "The only thing I was trying to get them to do was talk to the Baylor investigators again," Bliss said. "By the time they would have talked to them again, I had already resigned."
Before the tapes were brought to the investigators' attention, Underwood said Bliss admitted on the day he resigned making the tuition payments.
"On Aug. 8, he told us what he had done," Underwood said. "He didn't tell us about the coverup, but he told us about the payments. He didn't and we didn't know about the tapes that day."
"I knew it was going to come out," Bliss said of his reasons for resigning. "There was no booster involvement and no preconceived plan of cheating. There was no seven-year plan. It was one person paying for scholarships."
Bliss said, "A young man lost his life. As a coach, that was an absolute tragedy. It really rocked me to the point where I wasn't thinking clearly. I just panicked. Because of the obvious sorrow of the situation, and knowing my complicity with trying to help him [Dennehy], I wasn't thinking clearly. I have affected way too many people and far too many situations and I feel dreadful about that."
'A Cowardly Reaction'
But why did he feel the need to cheat?
What caused him to be, in his words, ambitious and filled with greed?
Bliss said he arrived at Baylor from New Mexico in the spring of 1999 with visions of being competitive in the Big 12. The Bears were making progress with a potential Big 12 player of the year in Lawrence Roberts on the roster and a rising star in point guard John Lucas III. But in the spring of 2002, Bliss took the first step in what would lead to his resignation.
Bliss had eight returning players for the 2002-03 season. He signed five newcomers, the maximum under the former five-and-eight scholarship rule, which limited a school to five newcomers in a given class, no more than eight in two consecutive classes.
Bliss said he planned on giving a scholarship to Dennehy when he left New Mexico. He admitted paying for Dennehy's plane tickets to get to Waco, another major violation according to Underwood.
One of the returnees transferred, which meant Bliss needed a post player who could be eligible instead of one who was redshirting like Dennehy. Bliss signed Dotson, a JC transfer, to fill the void. Bliss took on some high-risk academic newcomers and it appeared that three of the five could be academic casualties. One of the three didn't get eligible until after the fall semester began. Earlier in the summer, one of the returnees, Wendell Greenleaf, was dismissed from the team.
Bliss needed another guard who could be eligible right away, so he signed Herring. The intention was for Herring to get a scholarship from one of the expected academic casualties. That was also the plan for Dennehy. But all five newcomers got eligible and since it was the two returnees who left school, the rule prevented Bliss from putting the newcomers on scholarship. So he paid for Dennehy and Herring throughout the 2002-03 season.
"I was scrambling because I didn't have enough players," Bliss said. "I should have had faith in the system instead of trying to take matters into my own hands.
"My reaction to thinking we wouldn't have a competitive team was a weak one," Bliss said. "When you do something of this [cheating] nature, it's a cowardly reaction. I did things I never believed I would do. There was blind ambition."
'A Watershed Event'
Bliss began his apologies last August with Baylor.
"He apologized to the members of the committee," said Underwood. "He has cooperated in every respect with us since last fall. There has been more than one occasion where I needed more information.
"There were one or two things that we missed that he brought to our attention. There were a few things that we didn't think happened, but he said, 'you're wrong, I did that.' That's pretty credible. There is sincere and deep remorse there."
Underwood said he couldn't speak for the committee but "for me (the apology) did have meaning. It especially had meaning because I thought it was genuine."
Stanton, who said he hasn't talked to the media since resigning, told ESPN.com that Bliss was under pressure to win. He said he asked Bliss, whom Stanton said he still considers a good friend despite their not talking since January, to come to Baylor after Bliss wanted to coach at the school that shared his faith.
Stanton said his resignation wasn't only because of Bliss' actions but also due to a power structure within the university. Stanton, who still lives in Waco, remains behind Bliss.
"He came over to my house the night he resigned and apologized," said Stanton, who is an investor at Networth Valuations Consulting, a Texas-based LLP.
"He asked for the opportunity to go talk to President (Robert) Sloan earlier that day," Stanton said. "He also apologized to my family. That's the Dave Bliss I know. The thing I wish Dave would have done for Dave is that when he recognized that he was wrong, then he should have owned up day one. If he had done that, he could have been back in coaching. He made errors in judgment that were unfortunate. I consider Dave Bliss a friend and I wish him and his family nothing but the best."
When Bliss was asked if he had apologized lately to Dennehy's family (his mother, Valorie Brabazon; stepfather Brian Brabazon; or his biological father, Patrick Dennehy Sr.), he referred to a legal settlement.
"I apologized to the family about their son dying under my watch, and I'm sincere about that because of what occurred," Bliss said. Bliss spoke with the family when he attended Dennehy's memorial service Aug. 7, 2003, in San Jose, Calif., the day before he resigned.
"When we settled out of court [with the Brabazon family], there was an apology that adjoined the settlement," he said of a written apology from him to Dennehy's family.
Jim Skinner, the attorney for Valorie Brabazon, told ESPN.com that his client declined to comment on Bliss' apology. A suit brought by Dennehy Sr. against the school and Bliss reached a summary judgment, according to Baylor's legal counsel.
What about Rouse?
"I never once hated Abar Rouse for [taping the conversations]," Bliss said. "I let him down."
But Bliss hasn't spoken to Rouse, who is now working at Midwestern State University, a Division II school in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Rouse said, through his attorney, Michael Pegues, "The desire to win and be the best can take some unfortunate turns. I respect Mr. Bliss' desire to win. At the end of the day, however, coaches must remember that our young men and women come first. When we do that, we all win."
Bliss apologized to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg and to Jim Haney, the National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director, for his role in causing the NABC to call a mandatory head coaches summit last October.
"I let coaching down," Bliss said. "I dishonored the profession."
Haney said Bliss expressed sorrow for his actions and how they reflected poorly on coaches. "But one person isn't responsible for upholding the whole profession," Haney said. "It was a watershed event that brought so much attention to the profession, but it can't be one person's burden."
"We all make mistakes and you'd like to think people will be willing to forgive," Haney said. "He apologized to all coaches so it will vary from individual to individual. But the apology will have meaning to coaches because it shows that he is repentant about how (his transgressions) impacted the profession."
Faith, Family And Future
And what about Bliss' faith?
"I'm a Baptist, and I feel as though I've had a tremendous violation of my faith with what happened at Baylor," said Bliss, who also called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to apologize.
In the past year, Bliss said he has sought Christian counseling. He said he doesn't know if he needs more, but he expects counseling to be an ongoing process. He said he has had contact with coaching friends and those whom he didn't know offering him advice and help.
Financially, Bliss said he doesn't need to work.
"My energy is still good," Bliss said. "I don't want to retire. My family is the most important concern. I don't know, though, what the next stage will be."
Although he has worked a few odd jobs, including helping a friend at a sporting goods store, Bliss frist tried to volunteer as a coach at a local prison in Texas, but was turned down. When his family moved to Colorado to be near his wife Claudia's parents, he volunteered with his son's high school basketball team in suburban Denver. But Bliss ended it abruptly after his presence brought too much media attention.
"I always got along well with writers and the media because I told the truth, but in this instance I didn't, so their reaction to me is understandable since I betrayed the relationship," Bliss said of being exposed the two times he volunteered.
Since then, he has stayed close to home, being with his wife, watching his son Jeff in high school, helping his son Robert move into a new apartment in Albuquerque after graduating from Baylor Law School, and attending his daughter Berkeley's graduation at Texas A&M.
"During the past year I've tried to look after my family as best I could," Bliss said. "I haven't done anything coaching-wise. I dishonored the profession I care a great deal about.
"Saying I'm sorry is an important step. Not being able to convey my remorse has kept me from thinking about doing something else. While there will never be closure on what I did, I care a great deal about still trying to do the things God created me to do. From situations like this, you can get bitter or better. I haven't been bitter because I'm the one who is responsible."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
I am a pretty tolerant person, but Dave Bliss just plain out disgusts me.
By the way Dave, the ones you should apologize to most to are Dennehy's family for trying to tarnish the kid's death. Not Baylor or your family.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=1856549
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
A year ago, Dave Bliss lied.
Now the former men's basketball coach at Baylor, he lied about committing NCAA violations that ultimately led to the university penalizing itself with a postseason ban, to the departure of its top three players, to the likelihood of a long probationary period, and to the forced resignation of the school's athletic director.
Bliss tried to get three players and an assistant coach to lie to cover up the violations under his watch.
He lied to his family, to the school, and to the media.
He said he was sorry and admitted his actions were wrong, but only after he resigned and his plot was uncovered.
One year has passed since Bliss' resignation and the publication of secret audiotape transcripts made by a Baylor assistant coach. And questions remain:
Was he truly sorry about what happened?
Why did he do it?
Why should anyone believe him today?
What has he done to make amends?
Bliss, 60, spoke to ESPN.com in a series of recent interviews by cell phone from New Mexico and Colorado. He answered some but not all of the ongoing questions for fear of future lawsuits.
"When it was immediately revealed, your reaction is to the fact you were caught," Bliss said. "But as time goes on, my humiliation and my remorse are because I can see the true depth and breadth of what I did in relation to what I really tried to stand for over 30 years in coaching."
Death, Lies And Audiotapes
Last summer the Baylor men's basketball program went through one of the most tragic scandals in the history of college sports.
Baylor forward Patrick Dennehy was reported missing June 19. His badly decomposed body was found outside of Waco, Texas, on July 25. His death was ruled a homicide; an autopsy showed he suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. A teammate, Carlton Dotson, was charged with his murder, and after being extradited from his home state of Maryland, he awaits an October trial in Waco.
Bliss resigned on Aug. 8, 2003, after he admitted to NCAA violations of making illicit tuition payments and paying living expenses for two players, including Dennehy, during the 2002-03 season. Baylor AD Tom Stanton resigned the same day, even though he was not named in any of the violations.
A week later, on Aug. 15, Bliss was heard on tape trying to cover up the violations. He suggested to at least one player that the player should "create a perception" that Dennehy may have been a drug dealer and that's how he paid for his tuition. The tapes were recorded by assistant Abar Rouse on July 30, July 31 and Aug. 1 -- the first of the tapes recorded the same day Dennehy's death was ruled a homicide.
"I'm asking everybody that I've hurt through this whole process to forgive me," Bliss said.
"People who know me will believe it. For people who don't know me, it's a jump ball. Some will believe it and some won't. My greatest remorse is to my family and to Baylor and to the people who have trusted me. Those are the ones I really care about knowing it.
"This is my first opportunity after all the legal battles and other things to convey it. I'm not going to change people's minds. I want people to know I'm genuinely sorry for what I did."
'A Tremendously Bad Decision'
But the inconsistencies in the stories are still outstanding.
Bliss stood before the media last summer before he resigned and said he never broke an NCAA rule.
"I panicked," Bliss said. "I was hoping that I would be able to avoid the situation."
Potential violations at SMU in the late 1980s were uncovered after Bliss resigned from Baylor. At the time the NCAA cited neither Bliss nor the basketball program, and Bliss said he still to this day didn't have knowledge at the time of any violations with the Mustangs.
"What I did [at Baylor] was reprehensible, and I'm ashamed and humiliated," Bliss said of the violations and subsequent cover-up.
In July 2003, he was still recruiting in Texas and Nevada. His family was with him, watching his son, Jeffrey, play AAU basketball in Las Vegas.
Bliss didn't tell them the truth, either.
"When I panicked, I was hoping to escape the scrutiny, and therefore I was hoping that I wouldn't have to tell [my family] the truth," Bliss said. "That put me in a position where when the truth came out, there was tremendous disappointment, and that's justifiable. They [Bliss' wife, two sons and daughter] know it was a tremendously bad decision."
The Cover-up
Bliss said he was unaware that Rouse was taping him. From the middle of June, when Dennehy went missing, to his resignation in August, Bliss said, "I have no recollection other than trying to save me and Baylor."
Did he believe he could get away with the cover-up?
"You don't know at the time," Bliss said. "My cheating was to pay for Dennehy and [Corey] Herring for one year [2002-03]. I felt badly because I knew I was doing wrong. I had bad feelings the whole year.
"What I went through was a period where all I'm trying to do is find an explanation that will save me and Baylor."
Bliss added, "Imagine being taped in your worst moment. That's what I went through."
Bliss wouldn't answer why he used the drug-dealing story to cover his violations. Nor would he explain why on the tapes he told the players to say they saw Dennehy with a tray of rolled $100 bills, either.
Bill Underwood, the Baylor law professor who ran the school's investigation, told ESPN.com, "I can't say either why he did that."
Dotson's estranged wife, Melissa Kethley, told the Dallas Morning News last summer that players faked drug tests. She told the News that Dotson and Dennehy were two of three players she drove to a Waco clinic after a urine test, ordered by the staff, came back positive for illicit drug use. But there were no reports of Dennehy dealing drugs.
Bliss said the Baylor players had already spoken to the police and Baylor investigators before the tapes were recorded. "The only thing I was trying to get them to do was talk to the Baylor investigators again," Bliss said. "By the time they would have talked to them again, I had already resigned."
Before the tapes were brought to the investigators' attention, Underwood said Bliss admitted on the day he resigned making the tuition payments.
"On Aug. 8, he told us what he had done," Underwood said. "He didn't tell us about the coverup, but he told us about the payments. He didn't and we didn't know about the tapes that day."
"I knew it was going to come out," Bliss said of his reasons for resigning. "There was no booster involvement and no preconceived plan of cheating. There was no seven-year plan. It was one person paying for scholarships."
Bliss said, "A young man lost his life. As a coach, that was an absolute tragedy. It really rocked me to the point where I wasn't thinking clearly. I just panicked. Because of the obvious sorrow of the situation, and knowing my complicity with trying to help him [Dennehy], I wasn't thinking clearly. I have affected way too many people and far too many situations and I feel dreadful about that."
'A Cowardly Reaction'
But why did he feel the need to cheat?
What caused him to be, in his words, ambitious and filled with greed?
Bliss said he arrived at Baylor from New Mexico in the spring of 1999 with visions of being competitive in the Big 12. The Bears were making progress with a potential Big 12 player of the year in Lawrence Roberts on the roster and a rising star in point guard John Lucas III. But in the spring of 2002, Bliss took the first step in what would lead to his resignation.
Bliss had eight returning players for the 2002-03 season. He signed five newcomers, the maximum under the former five-and-eight scholarship rule, which limited a school to five newcomers in a given class, no more than eight in two consecutive classes.
Bliss said he planned on giving a scholarship to Dennehy when he left New Mexico. He admitted paying for Dennehy's plane tickets to get to Waco, another major violation according to Underwood.
One of the returnees transferred, which meant Bliss needed a post player who could be eligible instead of one who was redshirting like Dennehy. Bliss signed Dotson, a JC transfer, to fill the void. Bliss took on some high-risk academic newcomers and it appeared that three of the five could be academic casualties. One of the three didn't get eligible until after the fall semester began. Earlier in the summer, one of the returnees, Wendell Greenleaf, was dismissed from the team.
Bliss needed another guard who could be eligible right away, so he signed Herring. The intention was for Herring to get a scholarship from one of the expected academic casualties. That was also the plan for Dennehy. But all five newcomers got eligible and since it was the two returnees who left school, the rule prevented Bliss from putting the newcomers on scholarship. So he paid for Dennehy and Herring throughout the 2002-03 season.
"I was scrambling because I didn't have enough players," Bliss said. "I should have had faith in the system instead of trying to take matters into my own hands.
"My reaction to thinking we wouldn't have a competitive team was a weak one," Bliss said. "When you do something of this [cheating] nature, it's a cowardly reaction. I did things I never believed I would do. There was blind ambition."
'A Watershed Event'
Bliss began his apologies last August with Baylor.
"He apologized to the members of the committee," said Underwood. "He has cooperated in every respect with us since last fall. There has been more than one occasion where I needed more information.
"There were one or two things that we missed that he brought to our attention. There were a few things that we didn't think happened, but he said, 'you're wrong, I did that.' That's pretty credible. There is sincere and deep remorse there."
Underwood said he couldn't speak for the committee but "for me (the apology) did have meaning. It especially had meaning because I thought it was genuine."
Stanton, who said he hasn't talked to the media since resigning, told ESPN.com that Bliss was under pressure to win. He said he asked Bliss, whom Stanton said he still considers a good friend despite their not talking since January, to come to Baylor after Bliss wanted to coach at the school that shared his faith.
Stanton said his resignation wasn't only because of Bliss' actions but also due to a power structure within the university. Stanton, who still lives in Waco, remains behind Bliss.
"He came over to my house the night he resigned and apologized," said Stanton, who is an investor at Networth Valuations Consulting, a Texas-based LLP.
"He asked for the opportunity to go talk to President (Robert) Sloan earlier that day," Stanton said. "He also apologized to my family. That's the Dave Bliss I know. The thing I wish Dave would have done for Dave is that when he recognized that he was wrong, then he should have owned up day one. If he had done that, he could have been back in coaching. He made errors in judgment that were unfortunate. I consider Dave Bliss a friend and I wish him and his family nothing but the best."
When Bliss was asked if he had apologized lately to Dennehy's family (his mother, Valorie Brabazon; stepfather Brian Brabazon; or his biological father, Patrick Dennehy Sr.), he referred to a legal settlement.
"I apologized to the family about their son dying under my watch, and I'm sincere about that because of what occurred," Bliss said. Bliss spoke with the family when he attended Dennehy's memorial service Aug. 7, 2003, in San Jose, Calif., the day before he resigned.
"When we settled out of court [with the Brabazon family], there was an apology that adjoined the settlement," he said of a written apology from him to Dennehy's family.
Jim Skinner, the attorney for Valorie Brabazon, told ESPN.com that his client declined to comment on Bliss' apology. A suit brought by Dennehy Sr. against the school and Bliss reached a summary judgment, according to Baylor's legal counsel.
What about Rouse?
"I never once hated Abar Rouse for [taping the conversations]," Bliss said. "I let him down."
But Bliss hasn't spoken to Rouse, who is now working at Midwestern State University, a Division II school in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Rouse said, through his attorney, Michael Pegues, "The desire to win and be the best can take some unfortunate turns. I respect Mr. Bliss' desire to win. At the end of the day, however, coaches must remember that our young men and women come first. When we do that, we all win."
Bliss apologized to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg and to Jim Haney, the National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director, for his role in causing the NABC to call a mandatory head coaches summit last October.
"I let coaching down," Bliss said. "I dishonored the profession."
Haney said Bliss expressed sorrow for his actions and how they reflected poorly on coaches. "But one person isn't responsible for upholding the whole profession," Haney said. "It was a watershed event that brought so much attention to the profession, but it can't be one person's burden."
"We all make mistakes and you'd like to think people will be willing to forgive," Haney said. "He apologized to all coaches so it will vary from individual to individual. But the apology will have meaning to coaches because it shows that he is repentant about how (his transgressions) impacted the profession."
Faith, Family And Future
And what about Bliss' faith?
"I'm a Baptist, and I feel as though I've had a tremendous violation of my faith with what happened at Baylor," said Bliss, who also called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to apologize.
In the past year, Bliss said he has sought Christian counseling. He said he doesn't know if he needs more, but he expects counseling to be an ongoing process. He said he has had contact with coaching friends and those whom he didn't know offering him advice and help.
Financially, Bliss said he doesn't need to work.
"My energy is still good," Bliss said. "I don't want to retire. My family is the most important concern. I don't know, though, what the next stage will be."
Although he has worked a few odd jobs, including helping a friend at a sporting goods store, Bliss frist tried to volunteer as a coach at a local prison in Texas, but was turned down. When his family moved to Colorado to be near his wife Claudia's parents, he volunteered with his son's high school basketball team in suburban Denver. But Bliss ended it abruptly after his presence brought too much media attention.
"I always got along well with writers and the media because I told the truth, but in this instance I didn't, so their reaction to me is understandable since I betrayed the relationship," Bliss said of being exposed the two times he volunteered.
Since then, he has stayed close to home, being with his wife, watching his son Jeff in high school, helping his son Robert move into a new apartment in Albuquerque after graduating from Baylor Law School, and attending his daughter Berkeley's graduation at Texas A&M.
"During the past year I've tried to look after my family as best I could," Bliss said. "I haven't done anything coaching-wise. I dishonored the profession I care a great deal about.
"Saying I'm sorry is an important step. Not being able to convey my remorse has kept me from thinking about doing something else. While there will never be closure on what I did, I care a great deal about still trying to do the things God created me to do. From situations like this, you can get bitter or better. I haven't been bitter because I'm the one who is responsible."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
I am a pretty tolerant person, but Dave Bliss just plain out disgusts me.
By the way Dave, the ones you should apologize to most to are Dennehy's family for trying to tarnish the kid's death. Not Baylor or your family.