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In February 2011, Grambling re-hired Williams as its head football coach. Best known as the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, Williams had succeeded the legendary Eddie Robinson in 1998, stepping down after the 2003 season. He returned after agreeing to a contract that included a guaranteed salary and performance bonuses, which he negotiated directly with Pogue. But the governing board from the University of Louisiana system never approved the deal, as the law requires, and it didn’t intend to under the agreed-upon terms. Pogue asked Williams to renegotiate. Williams, who had already sold his home and moved back to the area, balked.
In 2011, Grambling won the SWAC title for the sixth time in 12 seasons. But promised performance bonuses were never paid to Williams and his staff. Williams sued. In June 2012, the matter was resolved, and the board approved a new deal for Williams, three years at a reported $250,000 per year. Then the Tigers slipped to 1-10 last year and went winless in the SWAC for the first time in school history. Over the summer, the university slashed two assistant coaching positions from Williams’s staff and cut 6.3 scholarships, only to reconsider because the season was close at hand. Last month, Grambling fired Williams and chose to eat the remainder of his contract, which would have expired after the 2014 season.
The financial difficulties don’t end there. Percy Caldwell, Grambling’s athletic director, resigned in early July after just 14 months on the job, saying “it had gotten to the point where you couldn’t fight certain realities.” In an interview last February, Caldwell had given a grim assessment of the school’s financial constraints:
The reason most of our teams are struggling has less to do with the coaching staffs and more to do with the lack of investments in the program. The athletics program has lost over 2 million dollars in state support in the last three years. There is no student athlete fee like other institutions. Alumni giving is very low. The results are less recruiting dollars, poor facilities to attract quality recruits and fewer scholarships to provide to recruits when we find good players. All of these issues can be solved if more commitments are made to invest in the programs. We can’t expect the coaches to be successful until the institution provides successful support.
That interview was given just as the Tigers’ men’s basketball team was wrapping up a winless season that might have been the worst in Division I history.
Article Appeared @http://deadspin.com/whats-behind-the-grambling-football-teams-protest-1447273282