Friday column: Excuses pave way for bad behavior

The human need to engage in denial or justification of wrongdoing is deep-seated.

How deep?

The famed theologian Augustine of Hippo would say it’s a part of the human condition — original sin. In other words, such activity comes with the territory — the territory being mankind — and is about as surprising as, say, a powerful politician getting his church parking lot paved using taxpayer funds.

In the case of disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis, his first response to being busted for using performance-enhancing drugs was to lie. Now, years and millions of dollars later — some of those dollars having come from credulous supporters, his constituents, if you will — Landis is admitting his cheating, though trying to partially justify it with an “everybody-was-doing-it” defense.

In the case of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez, his first response to being accused of violating NCAA practice rules was to vehemently deny doing anything wrong, even getting quite emotional over the suggestion that he and his coaches might care more about winning games than getting his players to class on time.

Now, after the university’s own investigation has shown the practice accusations to be true, Rodriguez is trying to justify the behavior. Mistakes were made, he concedes, while quick to add that they weren’t really his fault. He simply didn’t know the university expected its coaches to submit forms designed to track athletes’ activities until he already had been on the job 18 months. Somebody, he said, should have told him.

Actually, Rodriguez didn’t say somebody should have told him; his lawyer said it. Which is definitely the way you want to go. Your mouthpiece being evasive is always superior to you being evasive.

Let’s say you own an asphalt company being investigated in a sheriff’s probe of the Public Works Department — bitumen being the theme of the day. Better than you declining to answer questions from The New Mexican is your lawyer declining for you, and saying something like, “We are trying to respect the investigation and the process.”

To a cynical journalist, that might seem like code for, “We’re still working out our story.” But it still sounds better coming from someone who’s passed the bar.

Of course, there’s only so much an attorney can do.

When a Georgia district attorney declined to prosecute Ben Roethlisberger on sexual assault charges, his lawyer made it sound as if his client was on his way to joining Augustine as a Saint — no, not the NFL kind.

All of which didn’t keep the NFL from suspending the former toast of Pittsburgh for six games — after which Roethlisberger promised to amend his behavior, saying “I intend to make my family, friends and Steeler nation proud on all fronts.”

Which is nice and all, except as we know, the road to the Warm Place is paved with good intentions.

Or is it asphalt millings?

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.