http://blogs.cjonline.com/index.php?entry=2703You probably already know this parable, but boy, does it ever need retelling today.
A hiker along a country road sees a barely moving snake that had been hit by a car while trying to get across the highway.
“Help, please,’’ the snake begs.
“You’re a snake,’’ the hiker replies. “If I help you, you’ll bite me and I’ll die.’’
“Trust me,’’ the snake implores, whereupon the man takes pity and nurses the snake back to health.
When ready to return to nature, the hiker releases the snake, which then immediately turns on its savior and inflicts a fatal bite.
“How could you do this when I saved your life?’’ the man asks with his last dying breath.
“Hey, you knew I was a snake,’’ the reptile says as he slithers off.
You know where this story is going, don’t you?
Kansas State knew it was handling a snake when it offered to nurse Bob Huggins back to professional health in the friendly climate of Manhattan. But like the coach who thinks he can turn a bad actor into a team player, K-State took a chance.
The fatal bite came Thursday as Huggins slithered out of town after a year of reputation restoration.
His departure after a year of building up hopes was a shock only to those who thought the snake had shed his old skin. Some usually non-gullible people, such as Dr. Jon Wefald and athletic director Tim Weiser, truly believed that.
“He was much different than he was portrayed as being,’’ Weiser insisted. “I think he’s a good person who made a bad decision.’’
OK, maybe Huggins never did deserve the outlaw image he had in Cincinnati. Maybe he was a changed person after losing that job. Maybe he’s not Jesse James. Maybe he’s Hamlet struggling with his own personal indecision about whether to return home after only a year of his commitment to the school that threw him a lifeline.
Some small part of us wants to be understanding, wants to believe that a tormented Huggins really was the reformed good guy Weiser saw. We hope he might still try to do the right thing for the school that nursed him. Try, say, to persuade Bill Walker and Michael Beasley and his other recruits to give K-State a try even without the man who recruited them.
Yeah, that’ll happen. Beasley has as much chance of becoming a Wildcat as a venomous snake has of becoming a house pet.
K-State elected to dance with the devil when it hired Huggins. Turns out it didn’t even get one dance. Or, more specifically, a trip to The Big Dance.
But then, it’s really hard to dance with a snake.
