Arizona State names Herm Edwards coach, announces new NFL approach to program

Arizona State announced Sunday night it is taking a new “NFL approach” to building a college football program by both naming Herm Edwards its new coach and sharing its plans for a “general manager structure” within the Sun Devils program.

The department’s New Leadership Model will be similar to an NFL approach using a general manager structure. It’s a collaborative approach to managing the ASU football program that includes sport and administrative divisions, which will operate as distinct, but collective units focused on elevating all aspects of Sun Devil Football. This structure will allow the department to form a multi-layered method to the talent evaluation and recruiting processes, increase its emphasis on both student-athlete and coach development and retention, and provide a boost in resource allocation and generation.

Edwards, a 63-year-old ESPN analyst and former NFL head coach, will lead the charge as “a head coach who serves as a CEO,” according to athletic director Ray Anderson, Edwards’ former NFL agent. Anderson also notes that “the head coach will be a dynamic and tireless recruiter.”

USA Today’s Dan Wolken previously reported that Arizona State hopes offensive coordinator Billy Napier will remain with the program to “have substantial input in the operation from top to bottom.” Napier’s name was not mentioned in the Sun Devils’ press release.

Edwards’ last coaching gig was in 2008 with the Kansas City Chiefs. He has not been in the college game since 1989 when he was a defensive backs coach for San Jose State.

“Passion for my faith, my family and my occupation as a football coach are the things that have driven me back to the grass,” Edwards said in the release. “My personal commitment to build young men to be whole people through the game of football is completely in alignment with the vision President Michael Crow and Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson have for this program. I stand ready for the challenge of working with them to elevate Sun Devil Football. I am very excited and humbled to be the Arizona State head football coach.”

Here are some additional details on Arizona State’s planned restructuring. You try to make sense of it.

The New Leadership Model will allow for resource sharing and strategic planning between the football staff and administrators who are directly involved with the program. … Sun Devil Football’s existing recruiting infrastructure will be upgraded through additional staff support and evaluation resources, by instilling a culture of accountability at all levels … The New Leadership Model affords coordinators and assistant coaches more flexibility in how they develop student-athletes on the field, and enables Sun Devil Football to build on the ‘Championship Life’ program already in place through the Office of Student-Athlete Development to better equip student-athletes with the tools and skills necessary to succeed in their respective future endeavors.

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New York’s Metropolitan Opera suspends relationship with conductor

NEW YORK – New York’s Metropolitan Opera on Sunday said it was suspending its relationship with longtime conductor James Levine pending an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

“Mr. Levine will not be involved in any Met activities, including conducting scheduled performances at the Met this season,” the Met said in a statement issued Sunday night.

The Met also said it has appointed Robert J. Cleary, a former U.S. attorney and the current head of the investigations practice at the Proskauer Rose law firm, to lead the investigation.

The statement said that the misconduct “took place from the 1960s to the 1980s, including the earlier part of his conducting career at the Met.”

The full statement was posted on Facebook:

The move to suspend Levine came a day after the New York Post first reported that one of Levine’s accusers claimed he had sexual contact with Levine as a teenager. Met officials said they learned of the police report last year and announced they were launching an investigation. Then on Sunday, The New York Times reported similar accounts from two other men accusing Levine of sexual misconduct.

One of Levine’s accusers, Ashok Pai, also spoke to The Associated Press in recent weeks but declined to tell his story on the record at the time. He declined to be interviewed again when contacted this weekend.

According to the Times, Pai said he was sexually abused by Levine starting in the summer of 1986, when he was 16. He reported the allegations to the police department in Lake Forest, Illinois, in October 2016. Details of the police report were first reported on Saturday on the New York Post’s website. Met officials said they learned of the police report last year.

Pai said he reached out to police in Lake Forest because some of his encounters with Levine took place there in the mid-1980s. Levine served as music director at the Ravinia Festival, outside Chicago, from 1973 to 1993.

Chris Brown played principal bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for more than 30 years. He told the Times that he and Levine masturbated each other when Brown was 17 at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan, where Levin was on the summer program’s faculty.

James Lestock described a similar account there when he was a 17-year-old cello student.

“Based on these new reports, the Met has made the decision to act now, while we await the results of the investigation,” said Peter Gelb, Met General Manager. “This is a tragedy for anyone whose life has been affected.”

An email to Levine’s manager seeking comment on the accusations was not immediately returned.

Met officials said in an earlier statement that Levine has denied the charges.

Saturday afternoon, Levine conducted a performance of Verdi’s “Requiem” that was broadcast on radio worldwide. It was expected to be his last appearance at the Met for at least the rest of this year and possibly the foreseeable future. Levine was scheduled to conduct a New Year’s Eve gala performance of “Tosca.”

Months after the Met acknowledged learning of the sex allegations in the Illinois police report, the opera company honored Levine with the title of Music Director Emeritus.

The Associated Press does not generally name alleged victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward with their allegations. In this case the three alleged victims agreed to have their names published in the Times.

The accusations against Levine, among the most prominent classical music conductors in the world, are the latest in a stream of sexual misconduct charges involving high-profile men in entertainment and the media that have rocked the nation since accusations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein were reported in October.

Levine served as music director of the Met from 1976 to 2016, when he assumed the position of music director emeritus.

Levine has struggled with health problems including Parkinson’s disease in recent years but was scheduled to conduct several productions this season.

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