"Out of Control" by Bruce Feldman

[Earl]

Note: this lawsuit has been settled, but there is a gag order on the entire case. So, we don't know the outcome. Initially, the Benefields were asking $40 million in damages.

Out of Control
by Bruce Feldman
ESPN The Magazine

Birmingham clings to its nickname with white-knuckled fists: "The Football Capital of the South." (At least that's better than "Bombingham," the moniker it earned in the '60s as America's most racially charged city.) And while the place no longer hosts the annual Alabama-Auburn slugfest, it does have a new team to cheer: The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

UAB may be just a commuter school lost in the shadow of two in-state behemoths, but it is a commuter school hell-bent on raising its profile. And in Alabama, the land of Bo and The Bear, the quickest path to getting on the map cuts across the gridiron.


UAB football players cast a long, intimidating shadow.
In fact, UAB took a no-huddle approach to building its program. Just five seasons after its launch as a D3 doormat in 1991, Blazer football hit the big time. The school had plucked Watson Brown -- folksy and funny and carrying deep-fried cred on the recruiting trail -- from Oklahoma's staff. Ol' Watson assembled a crew of gridiron grunts, fielding 22 transfers when UAB made its 1A debut on Aug. 31, 1996. The Blazers got whupped 29-0 at Auburn that day, but Brown flashed that televangelist smile and doll-eyed his way through the postgame. "Soon," he promised in a kudzu-thick Tennessee drawl, "evah-one'll know 'bout UAB football."

***

The most important recruit in UAB history was a freckle-faced, carrot-topped 14-year-old named Brittany, who finished high school in under a year. UAB pursued the 5'1", 120-pound bookworm like it would a quarterback who could rope the deep out. Brittany, who looks like a cross between Little Orphan Annie and Molly Ringwald, grew up an hour down Route 280 in tiny Childersburg (pop. 4900). Frank and Jackie Benefield, as country as cornbread, had been trying for a child for 20 years before Brittany was born. They called her the miracle baby. When other children were stuck on c-a-t, Brittany could rattle off b-l-u-e-b-e-r-r-y. Her second grade teacher suggested Brittany jump through to third grade. Jackie Benefield wasn't sure, but figured the teacher knew best.

The Benefields were protective of their only child, who had her dad's wide smile and her mom's soft eyes. Brittany's social life revolved around a church youth group, its skate parties and Bible classes. Her folks were strict about what she could do. While other sixth-graders rehashed Home Improvement, Brittany kept quiet about her favorites -- Bugs, Daffy and Mister Ed. When Brittany was in seventh grade, Jackie bought her a new dress for the spring dance. But when a student threatened to bring a gun, the school cancelled the event. That's when the Benefields decided to home-school Brittany. The child prodigy earned her degree at 13. Still, Frank, now 60, and Jackie, 54, worried about Brittany's future. "I always thought, if we just lived to see her educated and able to take care of herself, she'd be okay," says Jackie.

In March 1999, 14-year-old Brittany was accepted at Auburn, making headlines in The Birmingham News. When her scholarship money got lost in a bureaucratic maze, Auburn told the family not to worry, they'd hold her place for the next class. A few weeks later, though, Jackie got a call from UAB. They wanted Brittany too, and they were offering full tuition. Jackie was thrilled -- and ner-vous; Birmingham, after all, was the big city.

Brittany, having spent day after monotonous day at home, couldn't stop smiling. Her plan was to finish law school before she turned 21. As it turns out, Brittany Benefield's day in court arrived three years ahead of schedule -- not as a lawyer, but as a plaintiff accusing 26 UAB athletes of sexual abuse and a university for its culpability in the matter. Acting through her mother, Brittany Benefield has filed lawsuits under Title IX in state and federal courts. The Benefields are suing UAB trustees, administrators, coaches, athletes, resident assistants, police and others. At the time of publication, the Benefields were seeking $80 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

This is the story of what happens when a naïve 15-year-old prodigy collides with an upward-reaching football program, some of whose players feel like they own the campus.

***

When the Benefields first met then-UAB president Ann Reynolds and VP of student affairs Virginia Gauld, they made their reservations known, according to statements contained in their complaints. The Benefields say they told the UAB brass that Brittany had never been away from them for more than a day. "I was worried about her crossing the street or someone snatching her," says Jackie. A meeting was set up with Warren Hale, director of student housing, and Susan McKinnon, assistant VP of enrollment management. The Benefields claim they were assured by talk of security escorts. According to their complaints, they were told the dorm to which Brittany would be assigned, Rast Hall, housed only freshmen and had security every night, and that residents needed a key to enter the building. The Benefields allege Hale and McKinnon also promised that one of the girl's suitemates would be a resident adviser, a student who would monitor Brittany's activities and mentor her. The UAB officials wanted Brittany to enroll immediately for the winter quarter in December 1999. Her folks wanted to wait until she was 15. They agreed that Brittany would begin in the spring, a month after her 15th birthday.

Of the roughly 700 men who lived on campus, nearly one in nine played football.
From the start, Brittany was a minor celebrity at UAB, although she says the other students saw her as more circus freak than star. "I felt very out of place," she says. "When people found out my age, they were like, 'what are you doing here?' I mean, it was okay to hear that now and then, but 10 times a day? I was pretty lonely."

Her suitemates, who'd been on campus for six months, had their own friends. With no one to talk to -- or watch TV or grab a burger with -- her days dragged by in solitary routine: wake up, go to class, head back to the dorm, study. Her parents brought her home almost every weekend, with Jackie working longer shifts just so she could pick up Brittany on Thursdays.

Brittany carried a 3.5 GPA in basic freshman courses in her first quarter. The Benefields say they wanted her to take the summer off, but she was adamant about continuing classes so she could graduate in three years. "I figured if I made her come home, she'd just be staring at the four walls," says Jackie. "I guess that was my mistake." To Brittany, the only bummer was that she'd have to change dorms, because hers would be used to house summer-camp students.

***

Drenched in sweat on a steamy Louisiana night, helmets in hands, the UAB squad stomped and hollered and let the football world know they could no longer be ignored. As 86,000 dazed LSU fans watched, the visitors jumped on the Tiger's face at midfield. On Sept. 23, 2000, the Blazers -- upstarts with a cartoon dragon on their helmets -- took home a 13-10 upset victory and a $410,000 paycheck. Who-AB? Not anymore.

Man, you should've heard Ol' Watson before the game that night, down in the bowels of Tiger Stadium just before his Blazers took the field. The air was heavy with sweat and menthol; Brown was all fire and brimstone: "Fellas, lemme tell ya 'bout the irony we have here tonight," he told them. "Those guys in the other dressing room are no better than you. Every day you go up against guys who are as good as they are. I know that. You know that. They just don't know it yet. But tonight -- tonight! -- they're gonna fiiiiind out."

Brown took a long slow breath, and the team recited the Lord's Prayer. Brown glanced around the room like a proud father. His baby had sure grown up fast. The 2000 UAB Blazers looked nothing like the rag-tag squad that got blistered by Auburn in '96. Out were the D1 castoffs. In were speedy cover-corners and run-stuffing linemen from Atlanta, the Florida Panhandle and every holler in Alabama. Brown turned sleeper recruits into nasty playmakers. He took Prop 48 kids, gave 'em some love and sharpened the chips on their shoulders. It worked in the weight room, on the field and in the classroom (more than 60% of the team members were honor students). Sure, they had a few renegades. Heck, everybody's got a few, right?

Everyone inside that cramped room knew they were building something here. Most teams have more cliques than a sorority house, but the Blazers were different. They were tight. Maybe it was Coach Brown's pep talks. Maybe it was month after month of gut-busting practice. Or maybe it was the players' visibility. Of the roughly 700 men who lived on campus, nearly one in nine played for Brown. They literally had the run of the place.

***

Just a post pattern from the UAB practice field is Blazer Hall, a 12-sided, eight-story, antiseptic building that resembles a hospital ward more than a dorm. In the summer of 2000, Blazer housed mostly football players, a few basketball players, a handful of women -- and one 15-year-old girl.

The family's complaints allege that when all of Blazer's residents assembled for an informal introduction on a June evening, an RA scanned the crowd and paused on Brittany, uttering an introduction that still rings in Brittany's ears: "Okay, this is the 15-year-old y'all been hearing about." Brittany remembers a split-second of silence giving way to the sound of 40 heads turning at once.

If Brittany had been lonely from day one on campus, she felt absolutely isolated during those first days in Blazer Hall. The Benefields say in their complaints that, because the school didn't offer her another RA for a roommate, they chose a single room for Brittany. They say they preferred Brittany living alone to her sharing space with female students who might have beer in the fridge and boyfriends staying over. On her third day in Blazer, Brittany says, she entered the elevator and encountered a mountain of a man, a Blazer football player with a bushy afro and hands as thick as cinder blocks. Brittany tried to avoid making eye contact, but the man faced her as the doors shut. "Whussup, shorty?" he huffed, according to Brittany. She remembers feeling the blood drain from her face. He said he knew her; she was that child genius. He asked if she'd help him with a paper. Brittany panicked and stammered: "I'm 15."

"Well, you don't look it," she says he told her.

Brittany's emotions swirled as she stepped off the elevator. The comment about her appearance transformed her initial fear into a feeling that surprised her: acceptance. Maybe she belonged in this strange place after all. "That made me feel a lot better," Brittany says. That night, she says, the player brought his paper -- and a six-pack of beer -- to her room. Brittany says she had never had a beer -- or any kind of alcohol -- but felt compelled to accept when she was offered one. According to Brittany, one led to another. And another. Brittany got wasted. She'd never even kissed a boy, and now she was making out with the player. Then they had sex.

The next morning, the burly football players seemed a lot less menacing to her. In fact, Brittany says, they began to treat her as if she belonged. That night, another player asked for homework help, and brought over more beer. Brittany says she got drunk again and the player persuaded her to perform oral sex. The next day, she says she got drunk and had sex with a third player, who introduced her to pot. "I felt accepted," Brittany says. "I felt like they were my friends."

The players joked with her that she was becoming their "play thing." She began hanging with them all the time. They'd sit outside Blazer downing beer, bumming cigarettes, watching cars go by.

On Aug. 7, the school got the exposure from its star recruit that it had hoped for. The Birmingham News ran a front-page story about Brittany and a 16-year-old male student, headlined "Whiz Kids." On campus, though, Brittany was no longer known as a 15-year-old prodigy, but as that 15-year-old rumored to be doing half the football team.

According to an e-mail from Hale attached to the complaints, he states, having heard the rumors, that he called Brittany in for a meeting with a UAB police officer. They asked if she was having sex with football players. She said no. The complaints allege the school didn't investigate any further, nor did it notify the Benefields or Alabama's Department of Human Resources of their concerns of drugs and sexual activities, despite a state law requiring they do so in the case of a minor. However, the e-mail reflects that Hale did talk to the Benefields regarding Brittany "hosting guests." The Benefields acknowledge Brittany stopped coming home as much, and that she slept all weekend when she did return. But they say they figured she was just overworked.

An e-mail from Hale, included in the complaints, indicates that he did meet with Blazers special teams coach Larry Crowe, letting the coach know that school administrators had heard rumors about his players and Brittany. According to the e-mail, Hale told Crowe that a girl Brittany's age could not consent to sex. No matter the situation, it was statutory rape. Later that week, the complaints allege, Brown told his team to stay away from Brittany. "If this gets outside of me," he said, "I can no longer help you." He allegedly added that it could mean "jail time."


At first, Brittany felt accepted when the UAB athletes paid attention to her.
Apparently the Blazers didn't heed the warnings. Some team members interviewed by The Magazine echo comments in the complaints that a few days later, Coach Crowe pointed to Blazer Hall and told his players to stay out of Brittany's room. The next week, according to the complaints, the players got a warning from "Officer Andy" -- a.k.a. Anderson Williams Jr. -- a UAB cop who was moonlighting as the team's unofficial speed coach. Before lecturing the Blazers about lengthening their running strides, he allegedly reminded the players to "be careful" with the underage girl.

The Blazers opened the 2000 season on Sept. 7 with a 20-15 home victory over Chattanooga. Brittany recalls feeling like she was part of the program, cheering like they'd just beaten Alabama. She'd grown even more alienated from other students, but now she didn't give a damn what those losers thought. Though she had moved back into her old dorm, Brittany's partying escalated from beer to whiskey to vodka. Other students say her room reeked of weed, but that was just the beginning. She told The Magazine that the players turned her on to coke, ecstasy and LSD, and she says one player even tried to turn her out. She declined to let him pimp her, but she kept sleeping with football players and began hooking up with some members of the basketball team. She was being passed around like a mix tape. In all, she alleges, more than two dozen Blazer athletes took their turn. The complaints even allege that an employee of the UABPD and the student who plays Blaze, the school's mascot, came knocking on Brittany's door.

Experts say her attitude was not unusual for a female who has been sexually abused. "It's not uncommon for a woman who has been raped to engage in promiscuous behavior," says New York-based sports psychologist Mitch Abrams, who specializes in trauma-abuse counseling. "People say, 'See, she's a slut,' or 'See, she loved it.' But rape is about power, not sex. Someone took her power and now she was trying anything to get it back."

Brittany tells of one especially harrowing night, when she was invited to the room of two football players. When she walked in, she says, two other men were there as well and each of the four took his turn with her. She recalls leaving the dorm in tears, telling no one.

Later that September, a UAB police officer and other administrators called in Brittany to discuss a curfew, according to the complaints, and Brittany was again asked about her sexual involvement with athletes and drug use. She denied it all. The complaints allege they didn't push the matter further, nor did they alert the Benefields, who weren't even notified when her GPA plummeted to 1.9.

That Saturday, the Blazers -- following their huge win at LSU -- crushed Louisiana-Lafayette, 47-2.

Meanwhile, Brittany's downward spiral continued. She stopped going to class and got high day and night. When some of the players stopped coming around, Brittany began using meal and rent money to buy drugs, and, according to the complaints, on Nov. 7, the school sent an eviction notice to Brittany rather than her parents, even though the Benefields were financially responsible for her room and board. The Benefields allege UAB didn't contact them until five weeks later, when Jackie received a shocking call telling her that her daughter was getting kicked out of her dorm for not paying rent.

The Benefields raced to UAB, but Brittany was nowhere to be found. Frank Benefield says he could barely speak when he filed a runaway report with the UABPD. The next morning, the Benefields' phone rang. It was Brittany, asking to be picked up at the local airport. Her parents made the 12-mile drive, but Brittany wasn't there. Instead, she and a friend, a reputed Birmingham drug dealer, were breaking into the Benefield home, swiping a handgun and blank checks.

The next day, Sunday, Dec. 17, the Birmingham police nabbed Brittany and her friend at a pizza parlor for trying to pass a bad check. When they arrived on the scene, says Jackie, Brittany broke down. Their miracle baby, tears streaming and body trembling, admitted she'd spent all her rent money on drugs and that she'd passed a couple of dozen bad checks. The Benefields took their daughter back to Childersburg, but Brittany disappeared again after one night. Four days passed before she called her father from a gas station near campus. She told him she'd been staying in a boarded-up apartment. She wanted to kill herself. "I was a zombie," Brittany says. "I was a broken person. The things I'd been through were unreal."

Two hours later, Jackie opened her front door, laid eyes on her baby and winced. "I didn't know her," she says. "I saw her face. I saw her hair, but when I looked into her eyes, they were hollow. I didn't see who was behind them." The Benefields put their daughter in rehab. It was Christmas Eve.

Four days earlier, according to the complaints, UAB president Ann Reynolds had received an e-mail from VP Virginia Gauld, telling her that the prize recruit had tragically spiraled into drugs, alcohol and degradation. The e-mail's last line was chilling: "Some times [sic] we win and sometimes we lose!" Reynolds' reply was just as cold. The Benefields' suits allege that Reynolds quipped the whiz kid's story had the makings of a "B movie," and that "she was clearly overprotected and doted on by elderly parents. Warren Hale and others are to be praised for trying."

So if everyone was "trying," is anyone to blame? None of the defendants will comment on the case, but all have either denied the Benefields' allegations or moved to dismiss the complaints in court. "We're not called on to defend factual statements," says Doug Jones, who represents six UAB administrators. "We're called on to defend legal allegations." Ken Lay, a public defender for 17 Blazer athletes, released this statement: "Most of the athletes we represent know little or nothing about Ms. Benefield or her allegations."

Brittany's story may prove to be the most extreme recent case of sexual abuse in college sports, but it is not unique. Since August, athletes have been accused of sexual assault and rape at Colorado, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame and Oklahoma State. And those are just the public accusations. In many college football towns, police forces have long had officers designated to deal with athlete-related investigations. They're often the first dispatched to the scene and have a prior working relationship with coaches. The Oklahoma State victim, for instance, has alleged that a police officer tried to coerce her into signing a prosecution waiver while she was in the ICU.

"There is such an incestuous relationship [between police and athletic departments]," says Kathy Redmond, founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes. "It's very frightening." Seven years ago, Redmond accused Huskers DT Christian Peter, who'd already been accused twice of assaulting women, of raping her four years earlier. No criminal charges were filed against Peter, but Redmond's lawyers brought a civil suit against him and the university. Soon, she was taking on an entire football-mad state.

Redmond's lawyer filed a Title IX lawsuit contending the school was liable under the federal law because the university failed to provide a safe environment from sexual harassment -- and that inhibited Redmond's right to an education. NU and Peter settled out of court without admitting liability. Says Redmond, "I don't think anybody understands the power that law has over college sports."

Here's where that power lies. Rape and sexual assault are harder to prove in criminal court than in civil court, so many victims find their only recourse in a civil case. Title IX suits offer an opportunity for the victim to be heard away from potentially biased local jurisdictions, plus access to the deeper pockets of universities rather than just to individual defendants.

Dr. Abrams, the sports psychologist, agrees that victims and lawyers don't know the ramifications of Title IX -- yet. "You could see hundreds, if not thousands, of silent victims come forward," he says.

On Aug. 30, 2001, the same day the Blazers opened a new football season by beating Montana State, 41-13, John Whitaker and Terry Dytrych, lawyers for the Benefields, filed a civil suit in state court against 44 people, including members of UAB's administration and police, two coaches, 26 athletes -- and the mascot.

***
Turnovers! Watson Brown sweeps sweat from his shaggy mop of hair, crinkles his nose and shakes his head. Just 45 minutes into UAB's 2002 spring game, and Ol' Watson is a plastered hair from his boiling point. It's bad enough that his QB has tossed four picks in the first half. Did he have to throw one in the doggoned red zone? At least the QB levels the dude who picked him off. That almost makes Brown crack a smile. Over the past month and a half, Brown's boys have surprised him with the best hitting since he came to Birmingham.


There are moments when Brittany will sit on her bed and just zone out.
UAB is on a roll, on the field and off. Brown has inked the school's strongest recruiting class and the Blazers beat mighty Tennessee for a prized QB recruit. Two of his kids (not named in the lawsuit) went high in the NFL draft: DE Bryan Thomas (first round, Jets) and DT Eddie Freeman (second round, Chiefs). Mirroring the rise of its football program, out-of-state enrollment at UAB has nearly doubled, and total enrollment is up 20% since 1998. Still, Brown figures if the Blazers pull a 3â??8 this fall after last year's 6â??5, they'll be just another flash-in-the-pan. Brown refuses to blame the lawsuit for his team dropping four of their first six in 2001.

The Benefields say they couldn't care less if their daughter's lawsuits are a distraction for the Blazers. They want justice. They want someone to pay. In April they filed a Title IX suit, this one in federal court, against the university trustees. No criminal charges have been filed against the defendants in either of the Benefield lawsuits.

Six projected UAB starters are defendants. But there's little locker room talk about Brittany or her lawsuit. Some players don't deny bad things happened with the 15-year-old prodigy, they just downplay how bad things really were. "We think they're just trying to get money out of the school," says one player not named in the suit. "There's not much we can do about it. I just hope it doesn't make the team look too bad."

***

The miracle baby is 17 now, but despite a heavy dusting of midnight-blue eye shadow, she still looks like an apple-cheeked 14-year-old. She does clerical work in her mom's office; she can't afford to go back to college. Instead, she attends weekly substance-abuse sessions. Her meetings with a rape counselor are down from four a week to just one. Three years ago, she chased life at warp speed. Now she barely makes it from day to day. There are moments when she'll sit on her bed and just zone out.

At a crowded Birmingham barbecue joint on a sunny April day, Brittany sits beside her mom and talks about her nightmare. Conversations at nearby booths clatter to a halt, but Brittany refuses to speak in hushed tones. This is her life. She has learned not to be ashamed, only reflective. She admits she was naïve and maybe not as smart as she thought. The big lesson she has learned? Brittany pauses briefly before the words spill out.

"Never trust anyone."

http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no12uab.html

[Earl]

Obviously, the post that I submitted above was not written by me. What I did was to copy and paste a post at a sexual harassment support forum website that had been submitted by one of their Admins. This webpage is http://shsf.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=421. With the exception of the brief Note at the very top of the post, the text is that of an article that appeared at the espnmag.com website in
May 30, 2002 and was also published in the June 10, 2002 issue of ESPN The Magazine. The webpage for the article itself is http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no12uab.html.

I will make comments later when I have time.

[Ray]

That is a tragic story. Really sad. Who knows where that girl might have ended up if she hadn't been derailed.

[Fat Man]

Somebody only 14 years old should not have been placed in a dormitory where they had a lot of jocks.

At that tender age she should have been place is a more secure dorm set up for gifted young under-aged students.

I have noticed that most people who have high IQs, while intellectually and academically they may be a real whiz at academics, but emotionally they may still be immature and more easily taken advantage of.

Under aged gifted students should have their own dormatory.

The jocks should be kept in cages when they're not playing sports.

[Earl]

Somebody only 14 years old should not have been placed in a dormitory where they had a lot of jocks.

You're not kidding. Whoever came up with the idiotic notion of coed dorms must have been trying to facilitate rape.

What do you think of the player who said, "We think they're just trying to get money out of the school. There's not much we can do about it. I just hope it doesn't make the team look too bad"? A 15-year-old child who had a very promising future has her life ruined, thanks to some of his teammates; and all he can think about is his team's image. And to think that we are all supposed to look up to him and put him on a pedestal simply because he's a college football player (which is exactly what the wonderful folks who run the sports media expect us to do). What a self-centered jerk!

[Earl]

One of the reasons why I'm so angry about this dated news item is the simple fact that if I had not discovered the webpage for this article (whose text I copied and pasted in my first post) in a random Google search, I never would have heard about this terrible scandal. Reader, ask yourself this question: Would an article like this one (which is a good example of investigative reporting) ever appear in the sports section of your local daily? The answer is obvious. Of course not. And why not? Because (with the exception of a few sportswriters like Robert Lipsyte, Bruce Feldman, and Jeff Pearlman) the sports media does not function as a true journalistic institution. Instead, they are to sports what the Volkischer Beobachter was to Nazi Germany and Pravda and Isvestia were to the Soviet Union. Most of the people who run the sports media usually have no desire to report on the dark side of sports. They don't believe in reporting all the facts. Instead, the sports media is driven to persuade as many people as they can, especially when they're young and impressionable children, to become sports fans. After all, there's money in it. Who cares about right and wrong when you can have a cushy job that really has no stress in it?

I'm particularly concerned about the almost total lack of investigative reporting in the sports media. The mission of journalists is to expose corruption and inform the public. I personally have come to appreciate investigative reporting. My sister was a journalist for many years. I can tell you from what she has told me over the years that investigative reporting is hard work. If the reporters don't do the job they're supposed to do, then the crooks in business and politics will be able to get away with their misconduct at the expense of others and perhaps even the entire country.

How often does the sports media do any investigative reporting? Take high-school and college football. How often do you hear of a sportswriter or sports columnist pointing out that some individual high-school and college football players are bullies? You pick up a book some sportswriter has written about
high-school football in his state. While he's busy praising football players as if they are more important to their schools than other students, does he even acknowledge that a few are bullies? Have you ever heard any sports columnist saying that particular allegations of rape by one or more football players at a high school, college, or university should be investigated? Now, I'm not making a negative generalization about football players. Of course, the majority of high-school and college football players are neither bullies nor rapists; and some of them are very decent, hardworking kids, indeed. But what about those in the minority who are jerks or thugs? Should they be treated the same as the decent players? This is actually unfair to the decent players, but it's exactly what the sports media has done for many years. They seem to believe that any and all teenage boys (without exception) who don a football uniform automatically become heroes. This lack of reporting is not what a true journalistic institution does. But the sports media is not a journalistic institution; it's nothing more and nothing less than a propaganda mill.

I've noticed a peculiar attitude that some football fans have; and that is, they seem to be unable or unwilling to recognize the possibility that even one of their gridirion "heroes" might be less than honorable as a human being. I grew up with a former university football player who was an arrogant bully. He once beat up a friend of mine who was having to take growth hormone injections, which just shows what a coward the player really was. The player and I attended the same high school. Two years after we had graduated, I told my best friend (who had graduated from another high school) that this player was a bully. Even though we were best friends, he refused to believe me. I was amazed. Of course, he had never met the player. Several other decent guys I knew who had actually had a lot of dealings with the player knew from their own personal experience that he was a jerk. After I had closely observed the local sports media for years, I came to the conclusion that my best friend had been brainwashed by the sports media, which had always portrayed the player in a positive light, despite the fact that he was not a decent human being.

I have no problem with reasonable football fans. After all, my older daughter, who did not have "school spirit" when she was in high school but became a fan of her university's football team, attended many of the football games at the university where she gruaduated magna cum laude last year. She enjoyed watching the games with her friends and has a lot of good memories of those times. I never had a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the mindless attitude of some people that high-school and college football players should not be held accountable for mistreating others off the playing field, just as long as they play the game well.

I have seen a pattern in the sports media's lack of journalistic responsibility. In 1974 there was a scandal at Notre Dame University in which six members of the football team were accused of committing gang rape. After receiving death threats, the alleged victim did not press charges; and the scandal was soon covered up. That was the year of Watergate. The sports media had an excellent opportunity to show journalistic mettle by exposing their own Watergate in the world of college football; but being the frauds they were, they chose to chicken out. They really did not care that a gang rape may have been committed by Notre Dame football players. There was no investigative reporting. Mickey Herskowitz, a leading sportwriter, brazenly denied (without providing any facts at all) that there had been a gang rape. But there were facts, facts that the sports media refused to report. I posted about this scandal in another topic months ago last year, and I will post about it in this topic later this week.

Around 1999 (sorry, but I don't remember the year) I was cable channel surfing when I chanced to come across an Investigative Reports program. I had missed about the first ten minutes of the report; so, I don't know when the reported events took place. There had been a major scandal in college football at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. A player with a notorious reputation had been recruited to play football at that university, despite the fact that he was suspected of having committed rape at the other university. Two coeds at the University of Minnesota were interviewed for this documentary. Neither of them looked like sluts or groupies. One of them, who was shy and even looked plain, said the player had forced himself into her own dorm room and raped her there. (Again, the "blessings" of coed dormitories. My wife just told me that the feminists are to blame for coed dorms.) The coach who was supposed to have been teaching the players not to sexually harass young women laughed in the faces of these two coeds when they told him what that player had done to them. The scandal was exposed by a local newspaper reporter, who was not a sports columnist. The coach I just mentioned was discovered to have been sexually harassing women himself. The entire coaching staff was forced to resign; but the player, who was expelled by the university, was never prosecuted, free to go his own way. (I wonder if he committed rape again. Quite likely. That's justice for you.) Again, this terrible scandal was never reported in the sports section of the local daily I read, which serves one of the largest cities in this country. Had I not chanced to see this program on cable TV (not on a sports channel, by the way), I never would have heard about this scandal.

Well, the sports media must get upset over something. Of course, they do. Even criminal misconduct off the playing field really is no big deal, but performance on the playing field is everything. If the football team at a local high school with a powerhouse reputation has a lousy season, then the sports writers will become agitated over that. Mark McGwire is a compassionate man who set up a foundation to help abused children while he was playing professional baseball. But the sports media went after him like a pack of bloodhounds because he was suspected of steroid abuse. (Meanwhile, accusations of rape by individual college football players go almost unnoticed. I guess steroid abuse is a more serious offense than rape. Besides, the women were probably asking for it anyway.) The poor guy was even hauled before Congress to answer questions by nosy politicians. What a waste of the taxpayers' dollars. (See, critics of this website, I admire individual athletes.) And there was the near hysteria by our ever vigilant sports media over Michael Vick because he tortured dogs. What righteous indigation! Self-righteous, rather. (I was afraid the sports media's phony indignation would make me puke. Did the sports media become outraged over what happened to Britanny Benefield?) He even had to spend time in prison. Yes, Vick deserved to be prosecuted; but none of the UAB football players who ruined the life of that child prodigy will spend one night in jail. They got away with it because they were football players. The sports media proved that they care more about dogs than they do about young women or even girls. The truth be told, if Michael Vick had raped a young woman instead of torturing dogs, the sports media would not have cared; and he would not have spent a single night in jail. That's the sports media.

Again, I recognize that only a minority of high-school and college football players are bullies or rapists; but the guilty few usually go unpunished, thanks in large part to the sports media.

[i_like_1981]

Somebody only 14 years old should not have been placed in a dormitory where they had a lot of jocks.

You're not kidding. Whoever came up with the idiotic notion of coed dorms must have been trying to facilitate rape.

What do you think of the player who said, "We think they're just trying to get money out of the school. There's not much we can do about it. I just hope it doesn't make the team look too bad"? A 15-year-old child who had a very promising future has her life ruined, thanks to some of his teammates; and all he can think about is his team's image. And to think that we are all supposed to look up to him and put him on a pedestal simply because he's a college football player (which is exactly what the wonderful folks who run the sports media expect us to do). What a self-centered jerk!

Man, some people are just damn stupid, aren't they? Putting a young girl in the same dormitory as a bunch of muscleheads who act like they own the whole world. I don't think anything like that would happen over here; dorms of the sort tend to be single-sex over here. Probably for the best - you know how possessive jocks can be when it comes to females. And the worst thing, they don't seem to care at all about what happened. Although I'm sure justice will be served eventually. It could take a while, though. I hope some sort of punishment is given out.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[sparkle]

I am surprised a 14 year old reports to no one. That was the real problem.

[Earl]

You're right. They should have made special arrangements for that poor girl to live off campus.

[Earl]

Anonymous 03/23/10(Tues)21:24 No. 3854243

Earl seems like an ok guy. He isn't all gay and anti-sports, he seems to be more critical of the sports media and culture at large, and I agree with him on some things.

Thank you.

[Fat Man]

Anonymous 03/23/10(Tues)21:24 No. 3854243

Earl seems like an ok guy. He isn't all gay and anti-sports, he seems to be more critical of the sports media and culture at large, and I agree with him on some things.

Thank you.

Well, I think the people over at 4chan need to be made aware that there was once a time when I did not actually HATE sports, but was merely not interested in sports.

But, it was the years of bullying in school from some of the jocks and from a couple of teachers that taught me to hate sports. And in high school when my science teacher who was also the school's football coach was too damn busy coaching his team to teach science, but made us watch cartoons instead after leaving the class room, well, that just added more fuel to the fire.

So, it was sports that taught me how to hate sports.

Otherwise, I would not be actually hating sports now, but still merely not interested in sports.

But, that's still not good enough for most sports fans. I'm suppose to absolutely love sports.

Sorry sports fans, but I can't love something that destroyed my life.

Sports taught me how to hate sports.

[i_like_1981]

Anonymous 03/23/10(Tues)21:24 No. 3854243

Earl seems like an ok guy. He isn't all gay and anti-sports, he seems to be more critical of the sports media and culture at large, and I agree with him on some things.

Thank you.

A compliment off the people on 4chan, Earl. You should print it off and frame it. This is a trophy of sorts. One of them has actually given praise to one of the members on here! I thought it would be you. It always is.

Why is it I am never able to uncover any of these most interesting nuggets of information over there? Whenever I decide to go for a snoop, I usually find the most recent thread on this site has gone from their boards. They don't last long on there. Must learn to improve my timing!

In comparison, here are some things they've said about me:

i_like_1981 is by far the biggest faggot there.

Why does that 1981 fag post a fucking essay every time he responds?

This guy's getting a newsletter from every team in the NFL.

I_LIKE_1981 = so fucking mad

i_like_1981 confirmed for huge faggot

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[i_like_1981]

Anonymous 03/23/10(Tues)21:24 No. 3854243

Earl seems like an ok guy. He isn't all gay and anti-sports, he seems to be more critical of the sports media and culture at large, and I agree with him on some things.

Thank you.

Well, I think the people over at 4chan need to be made aware that there was once a time when I did not actually HATE sports, but was merely not interested in sports.

But, it was the years of bullying in school from some of the jocks and from a couple of teachers that taught me to hate sports. And in high school when my science teacher who was also the school's football coach was too damn busy coaching his team to teach science, but made us watch cartoons instead after leaving the class room, well, that just added more fuel to the fire.

So, it was sports that taught me how to hate sports.

Otherwise, I would not be actually hating sports now, but still merely not interested in sports.

But, that's still not good enough for most sports fans. I'm suppose to absolutely love sports.

Sorry sports fans, but I can't love something that destroyed my life.

Sports taught me how to hate sports.

Same here. Well, not the sports themselves, but the sports bullies who regarded everyone with no interest in them as inferior and deserving of bullying. They went at me quite a bit - as you know. I hated sports played with bats and sticks like cricket as when the teacher was engaged in another matter I would tend to get struck by one of these implements. Oh, we had some real bastards in our high school. The PE teachers didn't help either; they refused to believe there were some young boys who were more in need of having their fitness built up in a less pressurising environment like a gym room. They threw us all out on the field like we were all the same; we all loved our games. But we didn't. Oh no, some of us did indeed have differing opinions, and for these differing opinions we were classed as the outcasts of the year. To be different is a sin, as far as they cared.

The recent gym visits of mine have been most pleasing. I like going there. It builds my confidence and I feel I gain so much more from that than from being forced to play team sports that I quite clearly have no use for. If PE teachers and components thought more along the lines of building individual fitness than competition, I would never really have found much to say against sports.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[sparkle]

You're right. They should have made special arrangements for that poor girl to live off campus.

An 18, 19, or 20 year old who thinks he is a real hot shot does not have the best personal judgment. It doesn't make them a rapist, but I see this more as the fault of parents. If u are a young naive teenage girl living amongst an unsupervised group of young men, rape is probably inevitable, or at least I think coercion is the word?

[Earl]

When I was of college age, I wouldn't have wanted to date a girl who was that young (as opposed to one about my age). It's too great of an age difference. Gives me the creeps, actually. Sounds perverted.