Editorial —
Athletes must be held accountable for actions
By Shawn Davis, posted 5/3/06

The model college athlete: one that plays the sport he loves, gives back to the community and stays out of trouble.

It is difficult to find a person like that anymore within any athletic program, from the most respected Division-1 schools all the way down to NAIA. With recent rape allegations against the Duke Lacrosse team, it is hard to overlook the stigma surrounding college athletes and even high school and professional athletes. An off-campus party held by the Duke Lacrosse team led to rape charges against two players. The accuser, an exotic dancer and student at another college, claims she was forced into a bathroom by several players who proceeded to rape her. Whether or not the accuser’s story is true, this is an incident that could have been avoided. It is an incident that happened because there is no such thing as the model student athlete anymore. It happened because some kids believed that they were invincible and failed to see the consequences of their actions.

We live in a society where winning is everything. It brings money from boosters and builds $75 million dollar arenas. Winning is what can make or break a coaching career, an athlete’s career and even an athletic director’s career. Winning is what people pay to see. Without winning, there is no money. We have put so much stock in winning and profit that we have lost sight of some of the morals on which our society is based. At what point are we going to stop rewarding athletes for their reckless and disruptive behavior? These are people given every chance to succeed, and yet so many are blinded by their reputations and images to see that they represent a university, town or state.

In society today, student athletes are surrounded by winning. A star high school player can do anything he wants, as long as he puts up 40 points or scores the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter. These athletes receive letters from big name universities that will stop at nothing to have these players in their programs. They are on top of the world, living a life most of us would not know how to live, a life with expectations and pressure which is hard to duplicate.

Now, I understand that being the member of a Division-1 team is like having a full-time job on top of the regular school work load, so I commend athletes that excel in both areas. I am not targeting all athletes; I am targeting the athletes who live above who they are. Sure, we all like to have a good time, but at what point do we draw the line between a good time and flat out stupidity? At what point would a normal person say, “Let’s have some strippers over to a party and rape and skin them,” as what was allegedly written by Duke Lacrosse team member Ryan McFayden in an e-mail. Athletes need to recognize that they live under a microscope. If they do something downright stupid, someone is going to find out.

MU has had its fair share of athletes who have tarnished the university’s reputation. Former basketball players Ricky Clemons and Jeffery Ferguson were arrested for assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Former football player A.J. Kincade was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon last month and Jason Simpson, a senior safety for the football team, was arrested and suspended from the 2005 Independence Bowl for possession of marijuana. These kids are given an opportunity to live their dreams, dreams that they might not be able to live without their god-given talent. Yet some athletes can’t grasp that the decisions they make can tarnish those dreams.

From the first day student athletes impress someone, they are socialized as heroes and stars, people who can do no wrong. This is where society needs to change. The athletes develop an image that they are invincible. When teenagers feel this way, it is hard for them to realize how their decisions affect everyone and everything around them. 

When athletes start throwing parties in which strippers are raped and assaulted, when athletes start waving weapons at random people or choking their girlfriends, that is where we need to draw the line. When they begin to believe they are better than everyone else and can do no wrong, that’s when they begin to engage in senseless acts. They have been conditioned from the day they started playing sports that they were a person of stature. It is our job to not look at these people as celebrities and not to put this type of pressure on 18, 19, 20 and 21-year-olds. Rather, it is our job to make sure that they obtain a college education and represent their university as respectful young adults. We cannot expect athletes to live perfect lives, but at least we can take away some of their fame. These are kids that we are relying on to bring money to colleges, when in reality they should be playing a sport that they love.

When an athlete blurs the line between sport and money, that’s when this phenomenon takes place. Athletes get wrapped up in their popularity and fame, and they lose sight of their goals and engage in stupid activities. The Duke incident is no different. These are just kids for which we have such high expectations. Instead of showering them with praise, let us look at them for what they really are – college kids with their whole lives in front of them. Let’s not let the athletes forget that. 

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