Rick Pitino should resign.
Even with Pitino’s admission that he had an adulterous one-night stand in 2003 in a Louisville restaurant and subsequently paid $3,000 to the woman involved after she told him she wanted to get an abortion, it now seems likely that the U of L basketball coach can “tough” this out and keep his job. Pitino has an unqualified public endorsement from the Louisville athletics director. He has a more restrained statement of support from the university president. In an election where only two votes matter, Pitino has them. During a Wednesday exercise in public damage control, an ashen Pitino apologized to his family and others for his “indiscretion” but vowed to coach at Louisville “as long as they will have me.” That is a vow he should abandon. Pitino should resign. The reason is not because Pitino’s actions with Karen Sypher (née Cunagin) six years ago were shockingly reckless for a public figure of long standing, though they were.
Nor is it because the payment of $3,000 to Sypher that is linked to an abortion will be especially vexing for a Roman Catholic coach working in a heavily Catholic city, though it could be.