PERRYGRAPHS

Baylor's Scandal

Riffing on Sports Ethics

This is turning out very different from where I intended it to go. I envisioned an academic column from my philosophy background discussing ethics – you know, hedonism, utilitarianism, authority, manipulative, even motives. Well some of that is in here, but the piece is much more rambling and personal than I expected. Some preaching sneaked in too. So here are my thoughts, still very much under development.

My fellow alumni and I were recently brought up short by the firing of our much-praised football coach Art Briles. The President was also demoted to Chancellor (he later resigned that position) and Professor because of his involvement in cover-ups of multiple rapes by several football players and others on campus. I immediately thought of Penn State's beloved Joe Paterno, who was also caught in a cover-up that enabled an assistant to continue to molest boys. Then my mind ran back 10-15 years to an even worse case where a basketball player murdered another at Baylor. Then I thought of multiple offenses at LSU in my home state, where it seemed every year, players were violating curfew, getting drunk in bars, and being arrested for assault. Something similar happened to two Alabama players in the off-season in nearby Monroe, LA last month. And rightly or wrongly, I remembered years past when Florida State footballers were in constant trouble with the law while Bobby Bowden was making the Christian tour circuit. Football is a violent sport, and some players won't leave the violence on the field.

With my major in philosophy and continued interest in the subject, several new wrinkles in ethics came to mind. By new wrinkles, I mean current real life problems that you don't find as such in academic ethics. Here are the issues I've considered so far.

Cover-up has risen to be the almost unforgivable sin. Richard Nixon fell because of his cover-up, not because of his authorization of the break-in at the Watergate. No one said (publicly at least) that Paterno or the school could have prevented the earlier molestations by the coach. But they do feel that when the wrongs first came to light, immediate and strong action should have been taken so no one else was hurt. Likewise at Baylor, the problem was the lack of immediate and decisive response to the young women when they first reported the rape. Just last night I found a news article about a very good running back named Chafin who had physically beaten his girl friend on three occasions. She took pictures and eventually reported it. The coaches did nothing until the police arrested him. I'm not sure why they are so slow to respond. After all, the football program regularly suspends participation by athletes for “violation of team rules,” so halting participation after an accusation of rape should be a no-brainer.

Note from the academic ethics point of view, rape and child molestation are assumed to be wrong, sins if you're religious, felonies in any case. Motivation here is the “pleasure” of the perpetrator, a selfish form of hedonism. From the psychological point of view, most abusers were themselves abused. Still, these are college students, trained athletes who cannot succeed without discipline within their sport. They DO have the ability to follow rules – the team rules, practice rules, and the on-field rules that result in penalties if you break them. Shouldn't they be held accountable for rape and violence as quickly and decisively as a referee throws a flag for chop-blocking?

Much more serious is the macho male defense that the victims are not really victims, but invited the attack by their dress or being available. After all, what should a coed expect if she's drunk at a fraternity party after midnight in a mini-skirt and low necked blouse? (At Baylor a frat president drugged a girl at a party, took her outside the building to a quiet place, and raped her.) The correct answer is she should expect to be treated with respect as a human being. Even in our over-sexed society, adult informed consent is expected. Indeed, the on-campus discussion has moved on into how explicit the consent needs to be. A number of people now take the position that the girl must say explicitly that she wants intercourse before the couple proceeds. Others assume that positive participation will suffice. It's a little ridiculous to say one must now pause and get a notarized document before continuing. On the other hand, how does a gal prove she said (and kept saying ) NO?

But there remains, IMHO, some traction in the drunk past midnight accusation, just not limited to women. The most common violation I hear about is drunken football players outside bars at midnight-thirty. During season, this violates curfew, but often gets them arrested on public drunkenness, fighting, or assault. I've known coaches with no toleration for this, and they immediately suspend the player or kick them off the team if the offense is serious enough.

City councils, county supervisors (Police Jury in LA), with police and sheriffs should not tolerate this behavior. They need ways to shut down bars that serve already drunken customers and probably need to back up the closing time an hour or more. Actually they do have ways, but seldom use them. I did not over in Monroe a neighborhood bar has been shut down under protest for a year or so, because they were always too boisterous for what the residents thought should be a quiet neighborhood. No one is up to any good carousing after midnight, or at least 1:00 a.m if they work the late shift.

That said, there is evidence that too many men in college administration still have an almost Islamic attitude toward rape. If a woman is raped, it's her fault. To the contrary, an accusation of rape should be taken seriously at once. If an athlete is accused, he should be suspended immediately until an investigation results in a finding of guilt or innocence. If innocent, of course, he will be re-instated. If guilty, he should be off the team with the information passed on to any other team looking for a reference. Law enforcement should be notified. School and team policy should be clear and automatic. Players should be made aware at the beginning of every season. Colleges must also not rush to judgment. Remember the Lacrosse team falsely accused after a national scandal?

The firing of Briles and Paterno raise another question. In American culture we always seek someone to blame. If something goes wrong, we want heads to roll. But how much can we expect a head coach or athletic director to know about the everyday life on campus and in the town? Apparently, the contemporary answer is “almost everything.” Briles has held out players for whole games or the first quarter for “violating team rules.” That includes even star players. I follow Baylor football very closely and had never heard of two of those accused. (One of them, however, had been in trouble at another college that said they communicated the information in the transfer letter. Baylor athletics denied they knew.) The third was an all-American even casual followers are likely to know. The new one I found last night was a frequent player. I await the publication of the full report to see what Briles knew and when he knew it. [Read the report recently, but it's not explicit at that point. Some of the report was done orally and the information may have come there.]

Colleges in general are reluctant to publicize rapes. I've lived between two LA Tech campuses for 17 years and read the local paper daily. I almost never read a story of rape, even date rape. With around 12,000 young adults in that community, what are the odds of even a month passing without reluctant sex? When you add in several thousand colleges across the country with 300 – 40,000 students in each, I wonder how much rape, near rape, date rape goes on we never hear about. Law enforcement suggests at least two or three times the reported amount.

The investigative report indicated that Baylor had not followed procedures outline in Title Nine regulations. When they first came out, they made a big splash for requiring equal sports opportunities for women. As a result colleges have added or strengthened various sports. What I didn't realize until I read the report is that the Title also deals with setting up a system to deal with problems like this, and even prevent them. It's encouraging that Jim Grobe, the new interim head coach, spent seven years on the NCAA ethics committee, some years as chairman.

So far, here are the ethical issues we've looked at:

Rape

Response to rape reports

Cover-ups

Consent to have sex

Community pressure

Conflict of values: sports, negative publicity, and justice

Can you imagine the pressure on the head coaches when they first get a report of a rape (or other felony). The guy is employed to build a team and win games. Ideally we talk about his role as a teacher, role model, and developer of character, yet we've all known coaches who were outstanding in those areas, but got sacked because their teams were not winning.

No coach wants scandal. No coach wants to believe his players would commit a felony. Remember, some of these guys are becoming friends with a coach after several years. You want to stand up for your friends. At LSU the starting quarterback was drunk and disorderly, and as I recall attacking or defending himself with a knife. Do you want to kick your headliner off the field?

My guess is that coaches need to expand existing systems to include felonies. Nearly every coach has a published rule book with penalties listed. Sneak out after curfew and you don't play the first quarter this week. Do it twice, a second quarter, etc. Miss practice or be late, and the penalty awaits. I believe at the beginning of the year and in the handbook, the head coach and athletic director should clearly state that an arrest or serious suspicion of a felony will result in immediate suspension until the issue is resolved. If guilty, you're off the team. Period. So the coach does not have to decide as the issues come up. The act has consequences – every time, every person.

In fact, after reading the law firm's report of their investigation, I find they believe the problem was systemic. They blame the leaders for a sloppy system with untrained people and lackadaisical response. Although they interviewed victims and dozens of others, at least on paper they did not commit to describing particular incidents. Their claim was upper level administrators (read Briles and Starr) were responsible for the existing system and culture. Their many recommendations all added up to strengthen the system and take each reported rape seriously.

They also report a culture favoring football players. Of course, this is endemic everywhere and includes most athletes. Who has not thought athletes get graded less severely, perhaps have failing grades boosted to passing or better? Here we transition to values.

The chief stress here is the pull between athletic success and the primary mission of the school, which must be education. In conflict, the tension between the two must always result in academics winning. Still, it must be said that athletics raise the awareness to the general public and undoubtedly attracts students to the academic side. I remember at 10 years old in Dallas I idolized Bobby Layne, then a nearby high school star and seriously wanted to go to the University of Texas as he did. When I surrendered to the Baptist ministry, I went to Baylor instead and considered the Longhorns mortal enemies. We had serious discussions as to how Texas and the Aggies could play each other and both lose!

On the other hand Baylor made known in its alumni publications that the donations to academic chairs, scholarships, and the like equaled that dedicated in recent years to the new football stadium. Personally I get upset at the discussions that arise every year over paying football players at the college level. I now smile at my naivete a few years ago when I was proposing a scholars athletic conference similar to the Ivy League because some quality academic colleges were playing sports at only mediocre levels. I thought Baylor might join SMU, TCU, Stanford, Tulane, Vanderbilt, and Rice in a more balanced conference. Then the Bears, Horned Frogs, Cardinal all moved into the top 10-20 rankings, and the rest showed signs of significant improvement.

I've written way too much for a one time blog, but then it's not a one-timer. I plan to continue looking at this and related material in future posts. Meantime, if you're a sucker for punishment, here's an excellent article on rape reports at colleges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/07/these-colleges-have-the-most-reports-of-rape/