Tuesday, November 17, 2009
What if it was your son - or your daughter?
If your son embarrassed himself in a scandal, would you go on talk radio and gripe that his suspension hurts the team? If you would, what would you say to the parent of the girl?
We applaud Razorbacks basketball coach John Pelphrey for reminding us that there is no “team” where there is no discipline. We also appreciate his stand for self-respect and having some regard for the reputation of your teammates.
Pelphrey has more on the line than anybody in his decision to suspend five players and to make the suspensions concurrent. His career depends on success on the court. He still chose to get the players’ attentionwith what he describes as the biggest hammer he has - taking away game time. These decisions are almost certainly correct. We say “almost” only because he did not - can not - disclose his full reasons. That is right and proper. His goal is to correct behavior, not to cause wider embarrassment. Until and unless we have reason to believe otherwise, we presume his reasons for each suspension are strong ones. There is more than enough known to the public to justify most of his actions.
Three of the suspended players - Marcus Britt, Glenn Bryant and Nick Mason - were involved in sexual escapades at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house. An allegation of rape is now under investigation by a special prosecutor after the local prosecuting attorney decided against filing charges.
We support these suspensions regardless of any prospect of charges. The players are innocent of any crime until and unless they are proven guilty. However, the legal behavior they engaged in feeds stereotypes of college athletes, young men, college life, fraternities and just about any other group unfortunate enough to be associated at this time with these team members.
The fact that some gripe about the suspensions or that they are to run concurrently only shows how low and base these fans’ expectations of behavior are. Many of these “fans” do not care about the people involved any more than they care about horses at a track. We hope the suspended players realize this. Others think that “getting ahead” in life is all that matters and that ethical behavior does not. We disagree. Respect, including self-respect, and dignity has to figure into any calculation of the worth of someone’s life at some point. There is more to life than winning on the court - or on the horse track.
We have never faced the temptations an upper echelon student athlete does. To be talented in sports and granted the huge sense of entitlement that goes with it is a challenge of its own. So far, those involved have not met their challenge. It is not that they failed in public that hurts. It is that the behavior they engaged in was so public.
Courtney Fortson and Stefan Welsh are two other players who were suspended indefinitely. Britt received a six-game suspension. Bryant is out for two games and Mason is out for the semester.
Fortson sent a crude Twitter message about the fraternity house incident. What Welsh was suspended for we cannot guess. We note the comment of athletic department spokesman Phil Pierce: That the incident at the fraternity house was not the sole cause of Tuesday’s discipline. He also indicated that some of the behaviors resulting in the suspensions date back to the end of last season.
There appears to be a pattern here. We support the coach’s decision to break it. We also note that he could have kept at least one of these players - Welsh - from suspension and we would have been none the wiser. Pelphrey’s decision to add Welsh to the list shows a strong desire to get a grip on his team. We commend that.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/17/2009