We all have our own journey. At the age you guys were sitting up all night with screaming babies and trying to keep the wife sane, I was destroying my liver and hanging out with strippers/porn chicks. There's a reason I kept my private life so far away from my family in my 20s. The baby at 45 thing isn't bad at all. The teenager at any age is a much bigger handful. The baby and I just fly our helicopter around the house torturing the cats. She's cute, but she has a mean streak and we get along famously in that regard. Thank you for your kind words.
I read that article about how UF was "out in front" of the situation and I totally disagree. What it means is that any jilted girlfriend of a QB can completely screw a team by falsely accusing her ex of sexual assault. With the guilty until proven innocent response he's in limbo until an investigation can clear him. I think this incident was a disgrace.
It may surprise you gipper but I have the same concern as you. What I am not clear on is if UF did not do what they did and the charges weren't dropped there would have been a huge outcry.
Believe it or not, I agree with both of you to an extent. However, the real disgrace has been the history leading up to this kind of stuff being the acceptable way to handle a situation. The schools and administrations, on the whole, have shown that they won't do the right thing until they are forced to do the right thing. It's not everyone, but it's enough that one generation after another believe this is acceptable behavior. It absolutely has to be stopped. I'll give you an example, and before anyone just writes it off as anecdotal, please stay to the end. I know 6 women who were raped and 5 of them had their rapists convicted. I know another 11 women who were raped and wouldn't bring charges against their rapist (not attacker, rapist) because they were afraid for a variety of reasons that never should enter into the equation. Now, I'm not special. It isn't news that I know so many women who were attacked. I promise you, YOU DO TOO. The only reason that I'm actually aware of them is that I volunteered at the women's shelter in the Shoals area for a bit and was shocked at the number of women who volunteered their time for the program and why. With that being said, the other side of the coin is the false accuser. I believe they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The fact that too many of these fake victims simply get to walk away is another major contributing factor. You guys may not realize that it is as big of a problem as it is, but I assure you that it is and it won't stop until we change the way we think about the issue. I don't know how many of you guys read the Famous Jameis case, but it's really bad. Again, I ask of you.. why are these kids in school? Why is football ever held over their heads setting the temperature and controlling the time table of the situation? Seriously, is football that important? The Florida State's of the world make the Duke situations possible.
I agree with you Corey As to FSU. I also congratulate you on the volunteer work you have done in this area. I may know as many women as you do who have been raped but am not aware of their situation. However the few I am aware of most never went to trial. So I think I understand why action has to be taken like UF did. If you don't mind I am going to save your stats, not your name, for possible future use.
I recall 4 ND players who had sex with a woman and eventually were charged with sexual assault. 3 ended up without charges and 1 was convicted. All were thrown out of the school. In the Harris case, the kid's been labeled a rapist, he's missed school and the Fla. football team has been effected by his absence. So what would happen if the "victim" were thrown off campus, kept from attending classes, until the investigation was complete? Hey Title IX says women should have the same advantages as the men scholarship winners.
Interesting you mention that case Gip since I cite it ALL THE TIME to folks here who believe ND recently covered up a rape in the most recent case. One of the many reasons, I believe, you have to handle things openly and out in front is for precisely this reason. I know a lot of you guys may not realize this, but in a lot of circles, ND is currently painted as a school that protects rapists and covers up the circumstances of a death in order to regain football prominence. Now, while we all may laugh at that, it's still very much a popular viewpoint and not all of them are radicalized, mouth breathing ND haters. Funny enough, when I ask people why ND would throw out kids for consensual sex but protect a rapist, they have no idea what I'm talking about. BTW, weren't those guys booted for parietal violations?
Bill, Thanks but it's not all that noble. The women were running into a lot of problems with protection, secrecy and enforcement. You'd really be surprised at how little of a help law enforcement is, especially when it's one of their boys, or a friend of their boys involved. Trying to hide a human (or humans if there are children involved) in an area in which everyone seems to know, or be related to every 3rd person you encounter is hard enough. Add in the evil human element, and it's even more difficult. Even more shocking is the naked disregard for law or human decency by some of these people. By all means, save the stats and spread the news. It was a really eye opening experience for me. It's not that I was totally ignorant to the cause before, but I had no idea it was as bad as it was.
I thought about that case as well Gip. Those 4 guys were booted as soon as the allegations were made and even though they eventually cleared their names with regards to the rape charge, they were never allowed back at ND. 3 were totally cleared and the 4th I think had a different lawyer who talked him into taking a plea deal and he did, if he hadn't and gone to trial like the other 3 he'd have won as well. I'm sure the victim, felt further victimized by the system but the were able to make the case that she was up for partying with the players and afterwards decided she really only wanted to party with one of them. Corey is not right about why they were not allowed back, it happened off campus so there were no pareitals involved. It was just smarmy the whole deal and while I don't remember what the offical reason was, they never returned. We had another case, Cooper Rego, who was also booted when charged and he was never convicted of anything either but he was never allowed back either and in fact he transfered to WVA and when they came to South Bend the had to leave him home as he was barred from campus for his lifetime. I think everybody remembers when Ross Browner and that bunch got suspended over sex, but it wasn't rape...it was they got caught "partying" with a local girl in their dorm..now that was a parietals violation. No cops were called there were no allegations of assualt, etc. Just broke the rules against sex in the dorms. They were allowed back of course. We had a case at Texas a couple of years ago where a chick went back to the hotel room of Case McCoy and another player after the Alamo Bowl and had sex with Case while the other guy watched. She cried rape as well, but in the end with drew the charge just like this young woman. Naturally alochol was involved and the rumor that went around was she was pissed because the other guy filmed it with his iphone. Which is also what happened to the 2 guys who were charged with rape before the season at Texas, they picked up a chick on 6th street who lived in a UT Dorm where they lived and went back to her room. This one is going to go to trial so we should eventually have some details, but one of the things that is known is that one of the guys got out his iphone and filmed the other guy. It's is alleged both had sex with her and of course all were drunk. Those 2 guys are in deep trouble and even if they get cleared they will never play for Texas again.
I understand what gipper is saying and can't disagree but do understand also the point Corey is making. Thing is we don't live in a black and white world where right and wrong is obvious. We live in a world of varying shades of grey. Probably the biggest loser here is Muschamp. Last nights game made his likelihood of staying at Florida as our Head Coach more difficult for him.
Bill, Not entirely related here on this topic, but Muschcamp's situation reminds me a lot of what John Cooper went through here at Ohio State! Both were good coaches and recruited well. Coop's failing was he could not beat Michigan.