Dreamer's World August 06, 2018 - Misguided Priorities And Sports

Dreamer's World August 06, 2018 - Misguided Priorities And Sports
    The whole Ohio State saga troubles me. The typical defense of Urban Meyer from some of the “fans” of the football program is that his winning games somehow absolves his responsibilities as a human being. The failed arguments that those in charge somehow can avoid responsibility for their actions or lack thereof is getting tiresome. In this particular case, Meyer has no room to maneuver. His wife is involved in this case. His wife is an employee of OSU, and bound by the same responsibilities as her husband, independently of him.
    Someone in the Meyer household should be in big trouble for their action or lack thereof regarding this incident. For Shelley Meyer, she responded to the victim in a humane and caring fashion. I cannot fault her for the offers of support and help, but I can fault her for not reporting this incident according to university procedures. If Shelley Meyer told her husband and considered herself absolved from any further official responsibilities, then she is a fool. Even if she told her husband, she was still responsible for reporting the incident on her own. If she failed to do so, she violates her independent contract with the university.
    Urban Meyer expects us to believe that he knew nothing about the incident, at least that is what he says depending on which day he chooses to make a statement about it. Once again the same responsibility as a university employee applies to Urban Meyer in the same way that it does to his wife. When he issued his statement last Friday that accused OSU officials of knowing about the incident, and that he had reported it by his contract, Meyer fired a shot across the bow of OSU indicating that he was prepared to fight the charges against him. That is his right because we all deserve our day in court. Urban Meyer’s strategy seems to be to remind everyone how many games he has won as the football coach at OSU, not about his conduct when it comes to protecting people who are vulnerable, no matter what the sign in his locker room says about how to treat women with respect.
    I find it hard to believe that the OSU administration would have knowledge of the incident and not acted. OSU is already struggling with another case of sexual abuse, this one against students, and the Meyer scenario is one that creates another headache for the university because it also needs to be resolved. With this knowledge, I also note that OSU has already produced a timeline for competing for the investigation into the incident. I don’t have any inside information, just my thoughts, and instincts.
    If OSU is ready to announce their findings in 2 weeks, I believe it means that Meyer’s fate is already sealed. In a bizarre example of gallows humor, Meyer was just given his own 2-week notice by the university.
    Nothing should ever be covered up like this. The woman at the center of this should never have been so isolated or alone. She should never have had to fear coming forward with her story. Her own family didn’t believe her or tried to keep her from speaking up. I cannot believe how cruel and insensitive people can be. And now Courtney Smith will have her name and reputation dragged through the mud publicly by those who want to protect the football program at all costs. This whole sad tragedy illustrates how warped our priorities have become.
  When a game is more important than the well-being of a person, we have truly fucked things up.


Tags: Post, Sports, Scandals, Sexual Abuse
August 06, 2018 at 12:39PM
Open in Evernote

Comments

Popular Posts