Thje RIght Moves , continued...

NCAA and Patriot League rules generally don’t allow college athletes to play five seasons. Gough, though, had broken his right foot as a freshman against Georgetown, the College’s second game of the 2003 campaign.
“My family was there for our first home game,” Gough says. “It was a low point of my life. I’m 800 miles away from home, trying to make new friends, then I get hurt for the first time ever.”

He had to limp around campus in a walking-cast for six weeks. In retrospect, Gough reasoned that two punts and a solo tackle hardly equal a football season. He figured that 2003 should not count as one of his four seasons of eligibility. Gough wanted to be declared a medical “red-shirt” as gridiron folks like to call the wounded-in-action.

But there was a snag. With his foot still healing, he had dressed for the 2003 family weekend game against Dartmouth. After the regular punter shanked a kick on the previous series, freshman Gough was dispatched to punt late in the second quarter. At the time, nobody considered the long-range consequences of that 26-yard Game 7 kick. That punt, however, would cast a dark cloud over a later claim that his foot, broken in Game 2, should be considered “a season-ending injury.’’

Fast forward to January 2007. Gough was still stewing about his team not making the playoffs. Any application for a medical hardship waiver seemed destined to fail. He didn’t have much of an argument. He had played in a game more than halfway through the 2003 season. Gough had to demonstrate that his foot had not healed completely when he punted and that using him in that Game 7 was a mistake in judgment not of his doing.

Casey wanted one more at-bat. He knew that his pal, Steve Silva ’05, had returned for a fifth season in 2005 and made All-America as a tailback. Silva was telling him it was “the best decision he had ever made.” Assistant head coach Mike Pedone and others were urging Gough to take a shot at a medical waiver.

Fortunately, Casey knew an excellent lawyer who wouldn’t charge him … his father, Arnie Gough.

His dad knows a lot about overcoming long odds. Arnie grew up in Gary, Ind., during an era when the city was labeled a murder capital.

Through determination and hard work, Arnie won acceptance at Notre Dame University where he excelled academically and as a 110-yard high hurdler. A Notre Dame Law School grad, he practices corporate law in Chicago.

He and his wife, Julie, a nurse, encourage their five children to pursue their dreams. Son Charlie is in law school at Notre Dame; Eric is playing football for Division 3 St. Thomas University; Mary Margaret and Phil—a promising quarterback—are doing well at Fenwick High.

Arnie entered the legal fray, digging into his son’s case, trying to fashion a plausible argument. Rose Shea, the College’s associate athletic director and compliance officer, helped assemble testimonial and documentary evidence from team doctor Phil Lahey ’69, trainer Anthony Cerundolo, coaches, campus administrators and faculty members. Arnie enlisted the expert legal assistance of Robin Green Harris, a NCAA specialist.
“My family spent some serious time and money fighting my case,” explains Gough. “We had to show through X-rays and medical opinions that I was hurt and should not have been playing in Game 7—and that I didn’t play for the rest of the 2003 season.”

Just in time for spring practice, the NCAA granted Gough a medical waiver.

The RIght Moves continued >>