Ed Reed will not be Bethune-Cookman’s head coach after the school chose not to ratify his contract this past weekend, a decision ultimately made by the university’s interim president, Lawrence Drake. Why the school moved on and what happened in the aftermath intertwines two main issues: HBCUs hiring celebrity football coaches (specifically this one) in the wake of Deion Sanders’s successful run at Jackson State, and how people talk about HBCUs.
A request by Sports Illustrated for interviews with multiple Bethune-Cookman administrators was denied by a school spokesperson, who pointed to a statement on the school’s website that explained, in part, “As we continued to observe him, we felt that his behavior was not aligned with the traditions of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and the university.” It reads as if Reed was operating as Bethune-Cookman’s coach on a probationary basis without clarity around when he was officially hired after an agreement in principle was announced Dec. 27.
And Reed certainly was doing the job.
