American culture has an unhealthy way of looking to its athletic heroes as demigods who live outside the rules of normal society. Unfortunately, MSU is not exception to this warped rule.
But things need to change. We cannot continue to allow our student-athletes to stomp on the concept of the role models they sign up to be when they join a team.
On Thursday, a day after MSU sophomore defensive end Clifford Dukes was arraigned in the 54-B District Court on four charges of assault and battery and two charges of aggravated assault, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III told The State News it isn’t uncommon for investigations involving student-athletes to be foiled because witnesses don’t cooperate with police.
The prosecutor cited two examples from the 2001 football season.
Those were in addition to junior center DeMarco Monroe’s assault of a former member of the women’s crew team in August. Monroe pleaded guilty to the assault, which occurred outside an East Lansing pizzeria.
It is ludicrous that police officers are rendered powerless in cases involving athletes because witnesses refuse to cooperate. That behavior breeds a culture of athletes who believe they can act above the law.
Even worse, when asked about these cases, athletics officials refuse to comment. The problem certainly will not be solved if nobody is willing to talk about it.
MSU officials also have yet to answer questions concerning the recruitment of sophomore tight end Eric Knott, who was accused of rape but pleaded guilty to lesser assault charges.
The list of MSU athletes who have had run-ins with the law is long, and the national list is even longer.
We cannot continue to let the actions of our athletes go unchecked and unpunished.
Student-athletes are ambassadors on their universities’ behalf to the nation and the world. Certainly MSU leaders would rather the world regard the Spartan as a stellar citizen - not a common street thug.
But the mistreatment of student-athletes doesn’t end with a get-out-of-jail-free card. Sometimes, despite NCAA regulations, they get paid for their services.
A former University of Michigan basketball booster was charged Thursday with giving former Wolverines star Chris Webber and three other stars more than $600,000 while they were in high school and college.
Luckily for Spartan fans, MSU President M. Peter McPherson has done a lot to ensure the university’s athletics program stays clean of NCAA violations. But having a truly clean program goes beyond following NCAA rules.
Before leading his team to an NCAA Championship, one of MSU’s most revered coaches, Tom Izzo, reminded the MSU community that “Spartans act with class.”
That goes for athletes, too.
