Winston, Jenrette removed from team; police, MSU silent

While it makes sense to assume that these two incidents are connected, as you do in the article, it has not yet been confirmed and therefore can’t be deemed fact. The lead of this story is misleading. Is it about these two being dismissed or the incident at the residence hall? I sure hope you have facts and sources on the record to back up your assertions – if you are wrong you open yourselves up to lawsuit. Especially with this paragraph, “Victims and those familiar with the incident said they knew Winston was involved and that an assailant had dreadlocks. Winston was jailed earlier this year for assaulting an MSU hockey player.”

While I am almost positive the incidents are related I would never say so in an article that’s published in a newspaper, it’s irresponsible journalism. Just a thought…

I’m very interested to see who else from the team is involved, if any. Winston and Jenrette are both on crutches (ACL and broken foot respectively). It seems unlikely that they were the only ones involved, especially since all the reports didn’t mention crutches, which would be an identifying characteristic.

If you are a going to be a racist piece of shit at least have the testicular fortitude to print your whole name. Don’t be a coward and hide behind a computer screen. Doing so makes you no better than these two losers

it seems like iotas are always around the action, but still. its bs how the university is covering up for the fb team.

It is a disappointing and unfortunate state of affairs, the overtly white supremacist hostility in these comments.
This type of anonymous condemnation and racist slurring are themselves acts of violence.

I also have to question the ethical compass and editorial discretion exercised in the composition of this article, which uses hearsay and the very absence of information from official sources, to write a story about speculation, singling out two fellow students for this type of kneejerk public reacting.

Let’s consider our own responsibility to
1) (as affiliates of a University) think critically in evaluating media discourse, and
2) (following from the Declaration of Independence) interrupt or halt cycles of violence and injustice, be they of the physical or the psychic variety.

Perry Miller
American Studies PhD 2013
Michigan State University

Perry,

While correlation does not imply causation, and the speech in the comments is defamatory, your defense of the university’s opacity and the consistently unconstitutional actions of the MSU Police Department is just as horrifying.

There is no room for forgiveness in this case, either of the assailants or the public officials who support them through muteness.

Actually it’s pretty standard policy for any university not to speak out when it could incriminate anyone affiliated with them. It is the police’s job to do the incriminating.

It’s just the university’s job to disseminate when appropriate.

Perry,

Get over yourself. The condescension and elitism in your response was overwhelming. Plus, nobody is impressed your getting a PHD in “American Studies” from a third-tier university.

Finally, if we leave it up to Perry, a university newspaper should not run an article about two football players being tied to an on-campus ambush which sent another student to the hospital.

It leaves me no comfort that a MSU football player can almost kill a fellow student with a sucker punch and then “do his time” and then rise to starting tailback a few months later. Its just a disgrace.

Lets go back to the attack on the hockey player. This was a planned out attack on the people at that house by a “group” of men. The group were football players. One guy was singled out and spent time in jail.
Now this new incident is the exact same thing, a planned out attack by a “group” of men. You can single out Winston and Jenrette because they already had issues and make them the scap goats.
The real issue is there is a continuing problem at MSU regarding its football program. This is being covered up just like the last incident.
I’m sick of hearing about poor Dantonio, this guy is the problem.

“singling out two fellow students for this type of kneejerk public reacting.”

***************************8

Actually, tho’ I’m an alumnus, I take offense at even calling a paid football player a “fellow student”. They have NOTHING in common with the other students, the ones who are there for an education and to graduate.

The only reason they take a few classes is to meet the technical obstacles. These are not students anymore than professional football players are residents of their team’s cities.

To call them students, in the same category as the real students, is an insult to the actual students of the University.

From what I can tell, the SN has simply reported what has been reported to them by the Head Football Coach. At this point, I don’t see how any reasonable person can blame either the University of the SN for this particular story.

With respect to what is NOT being reported, federal privacy laws prohibit the University from releasing much of the information that it appears some of you want to have access to. With respect to the police, it seems more than reasonable that they would not release information until the point where they can actually confirm what they have found and the matter can (if?) be forwarded to the prosecutor.

In the meantime, it is understandable that people will vent on matters of public record (e.g., history of Glenn Winston) and past practices of the football program related to misconduct. That said, I applaud Coach Dantonio for taking swift action, and look forward to similar approaches in the future. A lack of discipline off the field, and in the classroom, translates to a lack of discipline on the field.

And I was stupid thinking racism was fading away in USA. Yeah, the two football players are criminals but reading the thread of responses made me realize that there are bigger problems in the society.

lyle, while I appreciate where you are coming from, I think it is important to note that the vast majority of FBS (MSU or elsewhere) players are in fact students first. While there are a handful with NFL level talent (and a few more who THINK they are), MOST realize that their scholarship is an educational gift. MOST student athletes work harder than you can imagine, and unless you have actually been a student athlete (in college), you truly cannot understand that. Negative news stories dominate headlines, and attract attention that feeds negative stereotypes. However, I can promise you that for every Glenn Winston, there are 10 genuine STUDENT athletes. MOST of them have schedules that the average student would dread. Sure it comes with privileges that we would enjoy as well, but that does not change the fact that they have virtually no freedom. In addition, they also cannot benefit from the generosity of others like the rest of us (NCAA violations). The problem here as I see it, is that is takes very few rotten apples to spoil the bunch. Until the rotten ones are removed, the whole bunch is at risk. My guess is there are few more rotten ones in the mix, and Coach Ds job is to identify them quickly and do the hard work of eliminating them as well.

Those who use profanity (e.g., racial epithets) do not have the words (i.e., lack the education) to say what they really mean. For the ignorant few who continue to use the N word, I can only hope that you will reconsider your use of tuition money, because apparently the education you are receiving is going to waste.

John,

I appreciate your reply, and perhaps I do owe some of the student athletes an apology for lumping them all together. I’m sure there are some who would be here at MSU, or another college, even without their scholarship. I do applaud them.

I still think your ratio may be off, and my opinion of these particular individuals remains the same. They are not students in the true sense of the word.

John:
I agree with you that grouping athletes together as a whole is in poor judgement. I also agree that the majority of student athletes are in fact, here to get an education.

However, I do believe that most FBS or other major sport (basketball, hockey) athletes are in fact, only here to play sports. This is demonstrated by the fact that Izzo’s graduation rate of ~80% is considered high among D1 programs. I have no idea what the football program’s graduation rate is but I would imagine it is in fact, lower.

Meanwhile, I’m going to make an assumption based on nothing, that the non-major sports have graduation rates of 90%

The University’s and Dantonio’s unwillingness to come clean with the facts here will create a vacuum in which speculation, innuendo, and misinformation will take over. They will come out of it looking badly, even if they’re not at fault. It’s always the cover up that gets administrators in trouble, not the crime, but they never seem to learn that.

Why is everyone conflating the university, the administration and the police?

While the university might be bound under strict FERPA laws, the police department has different privileges. Remember that suicidal freshman (I mean “terrorist”)? He sure was outed fast… DPPS is muzzling the facts here, and it shouldn’t stand.

Good people of State News readership, I apologize if my language was over-florid, condescending, horrifying, anus-associative, or otherwise disagreeable. In the future I’ll work on being more concise, however as this is an institution of education it’s sometimes necessary to pile the ideas and learning high, and deep.

Everyone has the right to an opinion. I’ll be happy to consider yours seriously when you’re ready to support it similarly, with clearly stated full name and affiliation to the University. That builds trust and respect.

I maintain that these two students should not be singled out for a piece that’s really about journalist interaction with University administrative and police departments, about transparency versus opacity.

That’s a great topic, but as someone mentioned earlier these students are also entitled to privacy under FERPA. The question I want to raise is what are the consequences of speculative reporting that compromises the privacy of fellow students, or of anyone, when there are such observable consequences and perhaps others we don’t know about. Isn’t there an ethical imperative to not do this? What do you think?

This is what I think. Regardless of who is President, violence is violence and racism is racism. Please consider: can one act of violence be used to justify another?

Racist language (slurs and stereotypes) are acts of violence. They recall older systems of domination-subordination and the dictatorship of white supremacy, reigns of terror and systematic violence in the USA.

This is a nasty baggage which I say we speak back to when we see it “passed” somewhere, like on anonymous comment boards. The same with other vocabularies of hate, like misogyny and homophobia. As critical thinkers in a participatory democracy we have a shared responsilibity to question, challenge, and interrupt cycles of violence and injustice, in physical or any other form.

Poor guys … its obvious that socio-economic inequalities caused these bright young men to behave in this way. I am sure they will find a way to over come this obstical and become contributing members of society.

I applaud Dantonio’s decision to kick these players off the team. However, if he decides to let either of these players play again, I will seriously begin to question his integrity. Football is a privilege and unless you treat it as such, you deserve to be no part of our football team. Case closed

First off for the racists, go off an comment on the circle jerk that is stormfront. The adults are talking on this site.

On the story, I will not be surprised to find out if Winston or Jenrette are involved. The fight is probably over some b.s. reason, and certainly wasn’t worth losing their scholarships over. I wish they’d have applied the same effort they use in beating up their fellow Spartan against the opponents they played on the field. We’d at least be 8-4.

Before this fight MSU football team had enough trouble with the weak season, but we at least had a bowl game. Now we look bad, and this story is national.

For all the Dantonio haters, he took immediate action. You can’t always know how a player is going to be off the field when you are recruiting. Dantonio gave Winston a second chance and got burned. I’d rather Dantonio make thought out decisions like that rather than shoot from the hit and kick off someone for any infraction.

The question everyone should be asking right now is: “What would have happened if Dantonio announced that Winston was done playing football at MSU when he was convicted, rather than reinstating him within hours of being sprung from the slammer”? Dantonio sent a message with his actions, and what happened the other night is a consequence of this message.

I agree with you, Mosie. They should have told him he was done back then. This wasn’t some student prank like TP-ing a sorority house or even burning your own couch. This was an attack on a fellow human being.

hmm..