Dribbling away our tax dollars

Rutgers men's basketball coach Gary Waters, under pressure to leave for having too many "L's" and not enough "Ws," has agreed to resign - for a buyout of almost $800,000. Only two years ago, Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy extended Waters' contract and gave him a raise.

As a matter of fact, since Mulcahy took over in 1998, he's extended three coaches' contracts, then fired them. Waters' predecessor, Kevin Bannon, had a contract that was extended through the end of this current season just before being fired in 2001, with a settlement of $1.1 million. The school also agreed to pay the final year's salary for a football coach fired in 2000, a year before his contract ended.

That's not private money. It comes from taxpayers. And I'm not happy to be one of those contributing nearly $2 million to shell out to two disappointing basketball coaches in five years. Wasn't there some type of performance requirement in the contract?

Instead of just firing them, why not demote them until their contract expires. Make them clean the locker rooms, fill the water bottles, do the laundry, carry the towels or whatever. Just don't hand them our money for nothing.