Making Sense

I’ve been trying to make sense of the football scandal at the University of Minnesota.  The team threatened to boycott the Holiday Bowl after 10 teammates were suspended over an alleged sexual assault.  Football coach Tracy Claeys then tweeted “Have never been more proud of our kids.”   The suspended “kids” at the very least put themselves in a compromising position and at the worst escaped prosecution for a crime they took part in.  At latest report, authorities are not pressing charges.  Oh, by the way, the other kids dropped their boycott after a couple of days.  Claeys has since been fired.

I prefer life simple, dry and cut, black and white, if for no other reason that a gray instance like this is all too hard to deal with.  Bigtime college sports and alcohol are not a good mix, not when a sense of entitlement is thrown into the stew.  If only college football coaches acted like Woody Hayes, off the field instead of on.  Then, players would be too afraid to try anything possibly felonious.  But I have to admit there is also a part of me that believes if no formal charge can be drawn, the accused have to be deemed not guilty, unless the school can discipline them for breaking team or school rules, e.g., in-season and/or underage drinking.  Then by all means throw the book at the offenders.

I’m lucky as a parent of a daughter that nothing like this ever happened to Clare.  There was a party I heard about where one of her teammates punched a guy.  That’s one way of getting the message of “‘No’ means no” across.  Unfortunately, not everyone has that option available to them.