Column: Blood's in the water. Thorp shouldn't have to jump in

The sharks might be down here with me in Tampa Bay. But the blood is in the Carolina blue waters of Chapel Hill.

They’re literally swimming in it up there. Maybe even dispensing it from the Old Well.

First, the head coach got the axe. But the blood thirst didn’t stop at Butch Davis. No, Dick Baddour decided to jump in too, taking the opportunity to fall on the sword for an early retirement.

I can’t blame Baddour for ignoring the football team like a lot of us. But Butch was under his watch, and the resignation sent the right message. Chancellor Holden Thorp wasn’t wrong to only “reluctantly” accept it. That reluctance didn’t work out so well with Davis’ firing, but better late than never I suppose.

But firing Thorp? C’mon, let’s not rub it in. The football team’s mistakes might have proven that we can be stupid at UNC, but we can’t possibly be that stupid. Or maybe some of us really are.

That means you, whoever you are. I don’t believe for one second that you truly think the University should @FireHoldenThorp, as your Twitter name would suggest. Not to overdo it with the sharp objects analogy, but firing the chancellor for a problem created well below his already low (by comparison) pay grade would be tantamount to cutting off UNC’s nose just to spite its face.

Don’t take this as a love note professing my unflagging support of everything he’s ever done. I certainly haven’t agreed with his every move. Remember that public records request?

But there’s no question that enough is enough. And no, he doesn’t pay The Daily Tar Heel’s bills. That seemed to be a point of confusion for some when we sued him and the late Davis and Baddour last year.

Davis was the only one who absolutely needed to go. His boss’s resignation was just dessert.

It’s only because of Thorp’s love for his alma mater and home state that the University is lucky enough to have him. Plus, I doubt his right-hand man, Bruce Carney, can tolerate another interim post.

Thorp has acknowledged publicly that he had no interest in paying this much attention to athletics when he entered South Building. At an October Faculty Council meeting, he said, “I did not want to stake this much of my career on intercollegiate athletics.”

It’s a shame that he’s had to. It’s almost worse that some want athletics to bring a chemistry professor down.

Maybe, hopefully, the sharks are just a little thirsty at the moment.

C. Ryan Barber is Opinion Editor for The Daily Tar Heel