Tell me I didn’t read it right. A recent story in the
New York Timesrevealed the dearth of suspects or information in the shocking murder of
Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman
Bryan Pata
. The 22-year-old senior was shot in the back of the head outside his apartment almost two weeks ago, allegedly after a dispute with a still-unknown assassin.
The Silence of the ‘Hood is not what stunned me. Or more correctly, it’s not what saddened me. Or angered me.
I almost fell off my elliptical exercise machine when I read that the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in connection with the shooting was a paltry $1,000. That’s the minimum amount offered for all homicides.
The minimum.
Rewards are not set by the police but by
Crime Stoppers, a private agency that works with the department and the news media to spread the word about the need for information and accept donations to boost the reward. Last Monday a spokesman for the
Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers said the organization had received several calls from people looking to donate “$10 or $15.”
As of then, the group had not heard from the university, or any of its big-wallet alums or boosters. The Times singled out one particular alum, former Miami and Dallas Cowboy wideout and ESPN mouth
Michael Irvin, as a ‘Canes supporter whom, the reporter surmised, had not yet offered a contribution to the reward. That’s typical. Call out the former jock. What about the thousands of other well-heeled fat-cat ‘Canes boosters, the ones who fill the Orange Bowl on home Saturdays?
The ones who’ll fund just-fired head coach
Larry Coker's $3 million buyout?
The ones who’ll feed the Miami Football Machine’s multi-million budget and undoubtedly pony-up to fill a Brink‘s truck so Miami prez
Donna Shalala
can lure some sucker into taking what just may now be the worst job in college football?
The minimum.
Tell me I didn’t read it right.
The pittance of a reward prompted only one single, vulgar thought: Is that all a dead nigger’s worth?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. I didn’t think “dead N-word,” or any such nonsense. And I wasn’t channeling Michael Richards. I simply reacted like a black man who felt yet another brother -- as so many have been for generations -- being devalued when he could no longer handle his load. He was no longer of any use to the machine he helped build, so Pata was not worth more a dime to the university he toiled for or the throngs that cheered him.
I had read it right, and I was incensed.
I reacted to the shocking contrast between the amount of the reward and Pata’s status as a leader and a valued (or so I thought) member of one of the most visible college sports programs in the nation.
Is that all he’s worth?
Those of us who were not from North Miami, did not follow the ‘Canes, nor never met the young man who called himself the “King of Miami,” had never heard of Bryan Pata before the news of his death dominated the sports headlines on the morning after. He was just another cog in the machine: The College Football Machine.
Bryan Pata was like all but a few Smiths, Quinns and Bootys. He was an anonymous Saturday warrior, one among thousands of young men who don the colors of Good Old U in exchange for an education (or so the deal goes), or for some the shot at an NFL paycheck.
Reports say Pata was on that track. Articles have portrayed him as a likeable young man who liked to pimp old rides and collect guns. His girlfriend, Jada Brody, was quoted in that same Times article as saying Pata sent her a text message on the day of his death saying he was going to marry her “in a few years, so you’d better be ready when I ask you.”
The machine grinds on. In Miami the machine’s gears are grinding. Coker won a national title during his six-season tenure. He nearly won two. But he was fired before the end of perhaps the most embarrassing season in recent ‘Canes memory. The six losses were one thing. But then there was the brawl against cross-town rival that was the unquestioned low point of an otherwise stellar college football season.
Congrats, Miami, at least in that category, you’re No. 1.
University spokesman
Mark Pray (a good guy I’ve known for years) offered the Times this mea culpa for the university’s having not contributed to the reward: “We are working with the police department. If or when they were to ask us, we will work with them to facilitate an additional reward.”
With all due respect, If or when they were to ask us…?
Just about the time Coker was being handed his $3 million pink slip, Shalala announced that Miami was embarking on a “six-month fund-raising sprint” to raise cash for coaches’ salaries and to upgrade the school’s throwback sports facilities. “Even Central Arkansas has an indoor practice facility,” one alum told a reporter.
It would be nice – and right – if at least a few of those early dollars were siphoned towards the search for Pata’s killer. He’s worth that. At minimum.
