The passion some people have for sports can be overwhelming. Full grown men will drink together, then come to blows about whose team has the best quarterback. A dad will attack his son's little league coach because his son doesn't play enough. Anybody who's got that ‘one friend’ who drops F-bomb rants on Facebook (because his team lost) knows some people are obsessed.
It’s a big reason why innocent children get raped; because we care more about winning than anything else. Punishing the offenders could hurt the football team. From Penn State to Steubenville High, it’s all about protecting the program.
The strategy they use is genius: blame the victim. Residents claim the press is on a witch hunt, terrorizing high school boys. Meanwhile the coach let the players involved play in games. Jerry Sandusky said the little boys he sexually abused preyed on him. He’s only a burly linebackers coach, what could he have done? He was powerless.
So their defenders protect these ‘victims’ at all costs. Joe Paterno was the all-powerful decision maker at Penn State. Every coach, every janitor answered to him. Yet we’re supposed to believe he had never heard of 'male rape', and couldn’t keep Sandusky out of the showers. We’re also led to believe Governor Tom Corbett, once attorney general with apparent knowledge of Sandusky’s abuses, feels Penn State is being unjustly punished. Lawyers for the 16-year old boys charged in the Steubenville rape are claiming their clients’ right to a fair trial has been destroyed by Anonymous posting incriminating images. The boys took the images themselves, but they’re the victims here.
These high school kids are treated like professional athletes. We give them press conferences so they can tell us what college they’re going to. We do this, even though they have contributed as much as the Kardashians. They continue to develop that god-like mentality, and if they make it to the pro’s? You get Pacman Jones, Tank Johnson or Kenny Britt. Nothing but train wrecks who hurt other people, protected because they’re cash-cows.
It’s not surprising how rampant this mentality is. The question is, how do we stop it?
It seems like we can't. Money and wins are all some people care about.
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