I'm sitting here with Lefty, halfway watching this BCS Championship game and I am disgusted. I'm disgusted for several reasons, most of all because I have to cheer for Auburn (yuck), my Buckeyes aren't in the championship game (damn), but most of all I am disgusted because Florida State University's team is headed by a man-child that is not being held responsible for bad behavior-- read: possible CRIMINAL behavior, so that he can play a child's game for a few million drunk armchair quarterbacks. For the ability to play a game well, we, under the leadership of the NCAA, have chosen to ignore the fact that Jameis Winston was not charged with sexual assault, even though an accuser has made a public complaint.
Now listen, I am aware that college football is a HUGE moneymaker. I am also aware that we are talking about teenage boys, who are experiencing their first times away from home; growing into the men that they are going to be, etc. Let me say this as emphatically as possible-- I DON'T CARE. I know that often times, Colleges and Universities head into the ghettos of American cities and recruit these boys and make them sign at least two years of their lives away to play this game. Again, I don't care. I know that student-athletes are unable to make outside money and live impossible close to poverty (like almost all other college students) while they make millions for their respective schools. Hmmm, I don't know how many times/ways I can say that I don't care, but you get the message.
I don't hand out sympathy for Jameis Winston, or any other student-athlete because guess what? Parents of his victim did not send their daughter to school to be (possibly) raped by an entitled douchebag. Parents do not sock money away to send their child into harms way-- and they definitely do NOT send their child off to college so that they can become a pawn in the game of college athletics. What kills me about the whole situation is the adults in the situation are not even
pretending to be impartial. They are not even going to bring charges against their golden goose. What? I mean, can I get an investigation ( a real one)? Can I get some follow through? No. Hmmm, and what if she were your daughter… would you care more then?
Let me just say this-- I am a part of Buckeye Nation. I love Ohio State. I'm obnoxious about it. Lefty graduated from there-- and I grew up down the street from the school. I am the second biggest Ohio State fan there is (mama HBB is the biggest fan). So much shit has been thrown at our boys-- and yes, I do know that they are not innocent-- NO college program is. Say what you want about the kids and our coaching staff, but at the beginning of the season, our STAR running back, a fellow you may have heard of, Carlos Hyde, was accused of hitting a woman outside of a bar. He was suspended for three games. There was VIDEO proof that he did not DO what he was accused of, and Urban Meyer STILL made him serve his suspension, for being in the situation in the first place. And he should have. Senior year, be damned. They SHOULD be held to a higher standard. They should be held responsible for their actions. They should be taught that they don't get everything they want.
No one deserves to be raped. No man, no woman, no child. I don't care what you are wearing, where you are partying, what you had to drink, what day of the week it is, or where you go to school. The idea that one person is expendable because the accused is an athlete (at any level) is preposterous. There is no intelligent argument that will convince me that there is any other truth than that. If someone is not willing to share themselves with you, it is never, ever ok to take what is not on the table. Whether you make a million dollars or two dollars a day. And we as a society have GOT to stop awarding sub par behavior, simply because a person can dribble well, or throw a perfect spiral, or make a goal. What societal norms are we creating, sitting on our asses and still co-signing the tired excuse that boys will be boys? When will WE make people act against those who make our college kids victims, simply because they can? When will our daughters mean more to us than our office sport pools?
