Columnist Dean Juipe: Gratitude? Forget it in sports

Dean Juipe

Friday, Nov. 30, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

There are times when gratitude is in short supply in sports.

As good of an example as it gets was following last year's Super Bowl, when the champion Baltimore Ravens told quarterback Trent Dilfer they wouldn't be re-signing him in spite of the fact he had led the team to sport's ultimate prize. Dilfer, who replaced Tony Banks after the Ravens had gone five games without a touchdown, righted the team, completed 59 percent of his passes and then was cut loose at a time when he could have expected a substantial raise.

While his achievements were spectacular, the Ravens thought they could do better than Dilfer and went after Elvis Grbac instead. Today the Ravens are 7-4 and Grbac hasn't had near the impact of his predecessor, who has since found a job backing up Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle.

Dilfer couldn't even capitalize on being at a peak in the "What have you done for us lately?" sweepstakes that tend to dictate contracts and the like.

Yet whatever solace he deserves can be redirected toward Notre Dame football coach Bob Davie, if you ask me.

Davie takes his team into a Saturday game against Purdue with the Sword of Damocles figuratively swaying above his head. The Irish, playing their usual brutish schedule, are 4-6 and it's iffy that Davie will be back next season.

This, less than a year after Notre Dame bestowed upon Davie a lucrative five-year contract extension following a 2000 season in which the Irish went 9-3. In essence, Notre Dame A.D. Kevin White thought keeping Davie was a high priority last year, but now he says the coach's immediate fate will be determined during "an end of the year evaluation."

Notre Dame has barrels of money and can afford to do what it pleases with Davie, yet it has taken a very inconsistent view of the man. One year it thinks he's the greatest and by the next it's ready to be rid of him.

Perhaps the Irish should have done better this season, but their opponents are a collective 61-44 -- 61-35 if you exclude traditional patsy Navy -- and they beat a Southern California team that will be playing in the Las Vegas Bowl.

But it's a cutthroat business and apparently Davie, who is 34-25 overall in five seasons at South Bend, hasn't done enough lately to ensure that he'll be invited back. Jon Gruden, who coaches the NFL's Oakland Raiders, has already been targeted as his replacement.

Which brings us, however roundabout the journey, to boxer Oscar De La Hoya.

Outraged when his promoter, Bob Arum, allegedly grossed $12 million while he pocketed $21 million from a 1999 fight with Felix Trinidad in Las Vegas, De La Hoya sued and extricated himself from a promotional contract. He then cast his lot with Jerry Perenchio, a television executive with no real experience at boxing's highest level.

Now De La Hoya has found fault with Perenchio and is contemplating a return to Arum, even though the fighter once called the promoter "despicable" and the promoter has demeaned the fighter as "an empty vessel."

That they would even consider doing business together again is laden with irony, given that neither has treated the other graciously.

But hey, it's sports and the rules of etiquette simply don't apply.