Couple things here. First, you’re right I wasn’t on here yet when the Tumpkin situation went down, glad to hear a lot of people were disgusted with it as they should be. Upset to hear that some people were trying to blame the victim. I see where your coming from with the attempts to find ethical “outs” as you say. But reiterate that’s not just a football thing that’s an every day thing. Business people will do the same if their company comes under fire, many academic higher ups would do the same as well. My point was that it’s not at all related to football it’s the way a lot of people in positions of power react because they don’t want to lose that power. Second, really, you’re saying because I capitalized football when it’s what my phone autocorrects it to when I type insinuates that I’m ignorant and that I’m projecting? Jesus dude, I wasn’t offended by your initial post, maybe the text came off as such but trying to say I’m projecting because I’m ignorant myself is churlish. I wasn’t trying to tell you how to arrive at your beliefs, I was stating my opinion that it’s not a football thing, it’s a position of power thing. And clearly you can’t have a conversation without telling someone to go f*** themselves just because their opinion differs from yours. I didn’t call you ignorant, I was saying it’s an ignorant thought to think this is an only football issue. “and the capitalization of "football" in your post is more than a little telling” that’s a good one I’ll have to let my phones natural autocorrect know that apparently it’s too infatuated with Football
Fair enough. I have been salty as **** today, largely because of things that have nothing to do with this board, so I am sorry I told you to **** yourself. When I got to the "by all means" part of your post, it set me off a little. Mea culpa.
What I will say in response to the substance of your post is this: While I agree with you that DV is a problem in all walks of life, I do think that there is an element in the culture of football that leads to it being a larger issue. (Not unlike other testosterone driven pursuits, such as police work or military service.) My issue is that, when stuff like this happens in football, there often seems to be a subsequent attempt at damage control (which is usually a much higher priority than caring for victims), and then a strong desire from fans to exonerate enablers. A little self-reflection is never a bad thing, and I sometimes question if my support for college football might make me part of the problem.
To wit, when the news of what is going on at Ohio State came down, my immediate reaction was to wonder if this could impact Meyer, and thus Ohio State, and thus the entire sport. I thought of the competitive impact first.
Wow, I wonder if their recruiting is going to suffer! It might be fun to watch Urban Meyer go down! Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing to consider at some point, but I do believe that the initial reaction on both sides tends to be in terms of how it will impact their enjoyment of football. Oh yeah, there is a woman who got the **** beat out of her, but as long as I act upset enough about that, I can also relish watching the hated Buckeyes get theirs!
And when I think about it, that really sucks. We have threads on this board that announce every college football scandal, and they inevitably are just about whether or not the NCAA will crack down on a program, and whether we will be treated to the grand spectacle of a scandal. Not to mention the fact that it has become commonly understood among college football fans that everyone is cheating. We don't talk (much) about how bad the DV was at OSU, or the impact on all of the girls that were raped at Baylor - we talk about whether the institution tried to cover it up. (I'm guilty - Check out my outrage in the Baylor thread, or the title of the Michigan State thread that I started.) We (not you, everyone) love scandals at other programs, because we believe they make our program look better by comparison, even if we do not explicitly state it (or even realize it).
You and I both know for a fact that young men are plied with promises of sex and power in exchange for their football skills. We know for a fact that they are treated in such a way that they enjoy privileges that their peers do not. We know for a fact that football is a hyper-masculine culture, with all that goes with that. And, we know for a fact that football creates injuries that cause psychological disorders among some its participants that last a lifetime - the very type of disorders that are also prevalent among perpetrators of domestic violence. So, is it wrong to ask if football has a little bit to do with crimes involving football players and coaches?
And yet we hide behind statements like "It's not just a football thing." Well, no ****, but football certainly seems to have created a culture where this stuff thrives, and creates an incentive for men who are put in charge of molding young men - like Urban Meyer - to cover it up and enable it. Is it unreasonable to wonder if the money and importance of winning contributes to that? If I vote for someone that ends up doing things that I do not believe in, I still have to own the fact that I voted for them. In football, like with other things, we vote with our eyeballs (as ratings figures) and with our wallets.
So, my comment about you capitalizing "football" was meant to be a little zinger at your expense, but I do believe that, as a culture, we tend to treat things like football as important cultural institutions. And, the more ugly stuff that happens around the sport (and you have to admit that there has been quite a bit as of late), the more it makes me question my enjoyment of it on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm just saying that, as a lifelong football fan, the tipping point of my turning away is a lot closer than I ever thought it would be, and I would really like it if the sport would do something substantive to address the problems it has.