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Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp tackled the recent happenings with the Michigan State University football teams, while Rochelle Riley, another Freep columnist, tackled the Tigers Woods story.
I could not agree with Sharp any more on this topic. What happened with the players was a terrible situation and MSU needs to dish out some harsh punishment. As for Riley, I think she hit the target on Woods, but she had to take a dig at the Republicans along the way.
That's standard move out the Left Playbook. Sneak attacks, red herrings, bait and switch, cast blame and/or light on another situation to lessen the impact of the fiasco they are dealing with.
First, here's Sharp's take on MSU
It’s getting uglier at Michigan State.
And no ski mask can conceal the embarrassment and anger on the faces of those within the Spartans’ football program betrayed by the selfishness and stupidity of players who broke the trust that they will publicly conduct themselves honorably as a representative of the university.
I’m tired of the “all kids make mistakes” casualness that excuses behavior that basic common sense could prevent.
If it’s true that about 15 Michigan State football players were involved — in some form — in a cowardly attack against fellow students in a setting meant to celebrate the selflessness of philanthropy, each one should be promptly kicked off campus.
It doesn’t matter if it was a first-time offense or if his participation existed solely as a follower of the pack. Coach Mark Dantonio has no alternative but a blanket policy that bad judgment carries a heavy cost.
He already has dismissed two players and suspended eight others as a result of the Nov. 22 altercation at a dormitory. A fraternity threw a potluck dinner at Rather Hall for its charitable work. The attorney representing one of the suspected victims said eyewitnesses told campus police that 15-20 men, most thought to be football players and a few wearing ski masks, crashed the affair and triggered violence.
Forget about second chances. Forget about fostering an environment in which young men could perhaps gain long-term value from short-term adversity. Dantonio must protect himself. Idiocy such as this has the potential for bringing down coaching regimes. How? If a perception of players blithely ignoring team rules dictating public conduct gains steam.
A coach’s reach isn’t limitless. He can’t babysit 24/7. His control exists exclusively in the creating the tone of what’s expected from players on the practice field, in the weight room, in the film room, in the team meetings and on the field during the game. Once the players leave his watch at the football facilities, a coach only can hope that his players understand the simple edict of staying out of trouble once they become college students. If they can’t, then they must bear the full weight of the consequences of their actions.
Dantonio knows he will take the hit. He is the last line for responsibility because he’s making the big bucks. It’s his program. He must accept the negatives and positives. If that requires him taking a harder disciplinary line, then so be it. If that costs him future highly regarded recruits who believe their extraordinary physical gifts earn them leniency when they screw up, so be it.
This was disgusting. Adding further bile to an already distasteful situation is that the Rather Hall incident occurred across the street from the Kellogg Center, where 90 minutes earlier the team’s season-ending banquet concluded. That means this conspiracy had taken root, was taking root or was about to take root while the team officially commemorated a season that earned a third straight bowl berth.
Who cares if the suspension of the eight players, including key wide receivers Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham and cornerback Chris L. Rucker, compromises the Spartans’ chances of winning their bowl?
It’s the Big Ten. Its teams lose bowls anyway even if they are at full strength.
Dantonio must make his anger over this known to his players. He trusted them. He gave them the benefit of the doubt. He can’t profess to treat them like men and then do a 180 to make excuses for them as if there were impressionable 20-year-old “kids” who sometimes don’t know the difference between right and wrong.
Now, Riley's turn
Leave Tiger Woods alone.
President Barack Obama has decided to send 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan -- and Sarah Palin, in her first missive as a 2012 presidential candidate, praised his call. And we can barely keep up with the fate of the war -- and with who is pulling Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's puppet strings this week -- because we're rabid over a fender-bender that came after a rumored fight that came after a suspected discovery of an alleged indiscretion ...
Affair. Maybe two. Possibly four.
Affairs are the habits of the rich and famous. I am angry for his wife and ashamed for his children, who might one day read the stories or see the news clips. But I would be angrier on behalf of a friend.
I don't know Tiger Woods. Few of us do.
Shame us on for needing the Tiger myth so much. Shame on us for clinging to the idea that a sports star, who except for his amazing swing and uncanny ability to read and conquer golf courses, is more than just a guy, as capable of the same mistakes and foolishness as any other guy.
Tiger Woods might have hired a team of people to polish the pedestal on which he has stood for the 13 years that he has been a professional golfer, but we put him up there.
We fell for him
Tiger is, whether we like it or not, human. He's just a guy, one who can do stupid guy things. Like many men before him who were U.S. presidents and congressional representatives and governors and giants of industry and singers and such, he can do amazing things in his professional life while hiding things in his personal life that are neither amazing nor prudent nor smart.
Yes, we thought he was perfect. We fell for the myth and him -- hook, line and 18th-hole sinker.
He mapped out the perfect life: clean-cut golfer who stole America's heart on the "Mike Douglas Show" when he was 2, who became the first golfer in history to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles when he was 20 and who won his first major championship, the Masters, by 12 strokes, when he was 21.
He is one of the world's best-known and richest athletes. He appeared to be a loving husband, a doting father.
Until last weekend, we thought he was perfect.
And we needed that.
In a world where everything can be ugly and so much can be negative, we have counted on Tiger for a decade to do little wrong -- on the course and off.
But then word broke of an alleged affair with a waitress. And that former secret allegedly was the reason he left his house in such a hurry that he drove his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree.
His injuries sent him to a hospital. His refusal to talk about the fender-bender sent his life into the media stratosphere.
Not well-handled
Had Tiger talked, issued a statement from the hospital saying that he and his wife had had a fight and that he didn't mean to take out a fire hydrant ...
Had he said, "It's not a big deal, here's a hundred thousand dollars, and I'm sorry about the tree" -- then maybe the President wouldn't have had to compete with the Tiger for attention.
Then perhaps the police and media wouldn't have spent so much time trying to find out why Tiger wasn't talking.
Then perhaps Us Weekly wouldn't have found Jaimee Grubbs and published her claim that Tiger left her voice mail asking her to change her phone settings so her number, not her name, would show up on his phone.
Woods apologized for his "transgressions," a word I know mostly from gospel hymns. What happens next is between his family and him. I don't buy sneakers based on whether some other guy wears them. I hope we stop teaching our kids that, as well.
This week, Tiger Woods reminded us of what we knew, but ignored, what he knew but let us believe:
"I am not without faults, and I am far short of perfect," he said in a statement.
He never was. He's a golfer, not a saint. He's a guy, not a god.
So leave him alone.
I like the dig at Steele. Maybe Riley should look into how President Obama is having his strings pulled by SEIU, ACORN, GE, Big Banks and Big Business. Won't happen because when a Democrat is in the pocket of special interest, it's for the good of America and when it's a Republican, it's part of an evil empire conspiracy to keep people poor.
Riley does have a point about Woods' children and wife being hurt, and he is human. I think the Woods family is going through a horrible time and could use our prayers and not our intrusion. However, when you put your face on every cereal box, have your own clothing line, and endorse products to the tune of $100 million, you have to expect the tabloid side of America to crawl all over you when bad things happen.
