ls56
in
pittsburgh
(no subject)
Wins shouldn't make us forget about Roethlisberger's past actions.
"In case you've forgotten, or would like to gloss it over lest it dampen your guacamole-and-chips plans, Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year old college student.
It's not like this is ancient history, when Roethlisberger was some foolish kid. It happened less than 11 months ago, in Milledgeville, Ga., when Roethlisberger was a 28-year old, two-time Super Bowl winner, who had been accused of rape just 20 months earlier in Nevada.
And while no charges were filed in either case, a look at the Milledgeville police report, physical evidence and an investigative story by Sports Illustrated leaves no doubt that something awfully repellent happened that night in Georgia.
The D.A. overseeing Milledgeville (population 18,000) opted not to file charges against Roethlisberger. And the accuser asked to drop charges because, according to her lawyer, "it would be a very intrusive personal experience" for her; the young woman's reputation was already in the process of being trashed.
OK. But that doesn't mean that something sordid and perhaps criminal didn't take place. The D.A. decided there wasn't enough evidence for an open-and-shut case: the operative word there is enough. The bar in Georgia is quite high in sexual assault cases. And nationally, superstar athletes -- superstar white athletes in particular -- have been given the legal and societal benefit of the doubt forever.
The justice system of the NFL worked more quickly. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Roethlisberger for more than a third of the regular season (and as a result caused him to lose several million dollars of salary), later reducing the suspension from six to four games after Roethlisberger underwent a "comprehensive behavioral evaluation."
Goodell wrote to Roethlisberger that while he recognized that "the allegations in Georgia were disputed and that they did not result in criminal charges being filed against you," his ruling was because "you are held to a higher standard as an NFL player, and there is nothing about your conduct in Milledgeville that can remotely be described as admirable, responsible or consistent with either the values of the league or the expectations of our fans."
Since last spring, much of the conversation surrounding the incident is the same deafening, reactive noise that always surrounds these types of accusation in the sports world: that it is simply he said, she said. The young woman is painted in terms of being a gold-digger or a drunken slut.
...
Roethlisberger's style of play is called "bruising." That is being celebrated by many this week. For others it conjures up details of the evidence -- "bruises, lacerations and bleeding" -- that was found on a 20-year-old, 5-foot-4 college girl last March, after she went to the police and then to the hospital."
"In case you've forgotten, or would like to gloss it over lest it dampen your guacamole-and-chips plans, Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year old college student.
It's not like this is ancient history, when Roethlisberger was some foolish kid. It happened less than 11 months ago, in Milledgeville, Ga., when Roethlisberger was a 28-year old, two-time Super Bowl winner, who had been accused of rape just 20 months earlier in Nevada.
And while no charges were filed in either case, a look at the Milledgeville police report, physical evidence and an investigative story by Sports Illustrated leaves no doubt that something awfully repellent happened that night in Georgia.
The D.A. overseeing Milledgeville (population 18,000) opted not to file charges against Roethlisberger. And the accuser asked to drop charges because, according to her lawyer, "it would be a very intrusive personal experience" for her; the young woman's reputation was already in the process of being trashed.
OK. But that doesn't mean that something sordid and perhaps criminal didn't take place. The D.A. decided there wasn't enough evidence for an open-and-shut case: the operative word there is enough. The bar in Georgia is quite high in sexual assault cases. And nationally, superstar athletes -- superstar white athletes in particular -- have been given the legal and societal benefit of the doubt forever.
The justice system of the NFL worked more quickly. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Roethlisberger for more than a third of the regular season (and as a result caused him to lose several million dollars of salary), later reducing the suspension from six to four games after Roethlisberger underwent a "comprehensive behavioral evaluation."
Goodell wrote to Roethlisberger that while he recognized that "the allegations in Georgia were disputed and that they did not result in criminal charges being filed against you," his ruling was because "you are held to a higher standard as an NFL player, and there is nothing about your conduct in Milledgeville that can remotely be described as admirable, responsible or consistent with either the values of the league or the expectations of our fans."
Since last spring, much of the conversation surrounding the incident is the same deafening, reactive noise that always surrounds these types of accusation in the sports world: that it is simply he said, she said. The young woman is painted in terms of being a gold-digger or a drunken slut.
...
Roethlisberger's style of play is called "bruising." That is being celebrated by many this week. For others it conjures up details of the evidence -- "bruises, lacerations and bleeding" -- that was found on a 20-year-old, 5-foot-4 college girl last March, after she went to the police and then to the hospital."