Tim Benz: Robert Morris leaders would be wise to avoid legal brawl with hockey players' new lawyers

After communicating with 15-20 different Robert Morris hockey players, coaches and alumni in the month since the men’s and women’s programs were cut on May 26, I think one player summed up the tone of the administration best.

“It’s like they just think we are more trouble than we are worth,” said Michaela Boyle of the women’s team.

That does appear to be the attitude of RMU brass toward its displaced hockey teams: “So what if they win a lot? Colonial hockey is money out with little money coming in. Just let ‘em go.”

For a month, university president Dr. Christopher Howard and the RMU board of trustees seemed quite comfortable in that posture. Barely engaging in even the most preliminary of talks with rink magnate Murry Gunty. Not even acknowledging the Penguins’ partnership ideas to keep the teams afloat.

After what happened Monday, though, maybe Howard and the board should look at Boyle’s question from the other end of the lens.

“Is cutting these teams more trouble than it’s worth?”

Let me save RMU administrators the bother of thoughtful self-reflection. It’s not their strong suit.

The answer is yes. Yes, it is.

Swallow a heaping tablespoon of pride. Work toward reinstating the programs, and maybe nurture them toward success, rather than letting them dry up on a vine.

Because Howard and company don’t want any part of the battle they’ve created for themselves. They are bringing a handful of sand to their own rock fight.

Imagine being Howard Monday morning. You get to your office after a nice weekend. Open your email and … ding!

To: Dr. Christopher Howard

Fr: Jeffery Kessler

Re: Those pesky hockey players

“Kessler. Kessler? Wait. That Jeffery Kessler?! The Deflategate guy?! How’d they get him?!”

On Monday, it was revealed that a coalition of the now homeless hockey players have managed to retain Kessler to represent them as a legal conduit toward perhaps getting their teams back on the ice.

In the sports litigation world, Jeffery Kessler is basically Jacob deGrom with an extra day of rest and a fistful of Spider Tack.

Not only did he manage to drag the NFL through 15 bloody rounds in Tom Brady’s Deflategate saga, but he just dusted the NCAA in a 9-0 Supreme Court decision. And he won a stare down with Stanford University, getting that institution to reinstate 11 programs it originally tried to cut in a similarly shady manner that RMU did with its hockey teams.

Yes, I said Stanford. Not Robert Morris. Stanford. With a $6.8 billion university budget and 25 straight College Directors’ Cups for overall athletic department excellence. Kessler got involved, and, the next thing you knew, those athletes were back in competition again.

You think this guy is worried about playing a road game in Moon Township? Please. He had Stanford as an appetizer. The NCAA for dinner. And RMU’s legal team will be an after-dinner breath mint.

Here’s the worst part for RMU. Kessler doesn’t need this case. Look at his resume. He just wants this case. He’s taking it for kicks. To clean up a mess. To right a wrong.

He saw how RMU jerked around its players. He knows how obvious it is to make his argument. It’s like Mario Lemieux hunting an empty net goal for a hat trick.

You can bet Kessler has a copy of Robert Morris athletic director Chris King recorded on a Zoom call telling student-athletes that the university bosses intentionally withheld plans to dissolve the programs from players and coaches in the name of a “PR strategy.”

You’ve also got King admitting that roughly three weeks went by between when he was informed the programs were likely to be eliminated and when players were allowed to find out.

Poor King. All he was doing was being transparent. A rare quality in that administration.

Do you know how I’m so confident Kessler has that tape? Because I have that tape! If someone got it to me, someone got it to him.

Keep in mind, the premise for Kessler’s potential legal argument is that he believes the school fraudulently withheld its intent to eliminate the teams while the teams continued to actively recruit new players and retain current players in what has a become a free transfer year for NCAA athletes thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Seems like he’s got a pretty good basis to launch a complaint, eh? Well, that and the fact the men’s team was on the verge of closing a recruit three hours before the coaching staff was informed that the kid was about to be recruited to a team that wouldn’t exist.

As Howard likely was getting his brain wrapped around the allegations put forth in the Kessler letter on Monday, he got smacked with another letter of legal inquiry five hours later from well-known Cleveland attorney Kevin Spellacy, whose son (Aidan) was planning to return to the Colonials as a senior.

Spellacy’s client list reads like a Cleveland Browns media guide. What the name Bobby Del Greco has been to Steelers who step out of bounds, Spellacy is to the Browns. He’s meant more to the Browns collective defense than Clay Matthews, Myles Garrett and Hanford Dixon combined. Now Spellacy feels like playing a little offense.

Howard would be best served taking a knee.

RMU isn’t outlasting those two guys in court. It doesn’t want to fight two legal battles at once. If this school is so bereft of funds that it has to cut the programs, why spend more on fighting these battles in court than they will to give the players a full year to figure out funding to stay alive long term?

RMU officials said in May that it would cost the school about $1 million to keep the two teams alive this year. How much do we think it’ll cost before we see resolution with those two litigious pit bulls?

In the end, Robert Morris should have a right to set its budget how it sees fit. If the university doesn’t want — or can’t keep — hockey, it shouldn’t be forced to maintain the teams. Even if the executives weren’t particularly nice guys in the process of making that call.

Theoretically, in court, the argument, “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it,” doesn’t sound like it should hold much water.

Well, unless how you do it is intentionally deceptive.

Howard and company should realize fighting that argument is, indeed, more trouble than it’s worth.