What Does a Social DIsaster Sound Like? - The Duke Men's Lacrosse Team winning it's 3rd National Championship in the last 5 years

This blog is primarily about politics and current events, rarely about sports.  But the Duke Lacrosse team is one of the few times where politics, national events, and sports collide.  I have been playing the "fastest game on two feet" for over 30 years and the first time I saw a Division 1 college game was in 1983 when Johns Hopkins was playing Syracuse for the National Championship.  The Johns Hopkins Bluejays beat Syracuse in an exciting game during Memorial Day weekend in 1983 and I have been a Bluejays fans every since.

But there are two other team I will root for during the NCAA playoffs, the Duke Blue Devils and the Bryant Bulldogs.  Why?  Simple.  The Duke Lacrosse team and 3 of their players were nearly destroyed by a false rape charge in 2006 by a mentally unbalance black stripper.  There have been many cases of college athletes committing sexual assault and it does happen too often, but his case seemed fishy from the start.

One of the things, which still disturbs me to this day,  is the activism of the Professors immediately assuming the players guilt and using the case as proof of patriarchy and white privilege on campus.   The case had the explosive combination of race, sex, and money all rolled into one nice package.

Another thing that sill bothers me to this day, after the State Attorney General declared the players INNOCENT  of all charges, there has been no formal apology from the Duke, the Administration, not the Professors, who declared the players guilty.  Unless you consider the settlement with the players and apology.

The reason I cheer for the Bryant Bulldogs is Coach Mike Pressler.  He was the ONLY person fired from Duke regarding the False Rape Hoax.  No professor was fired for presuming the players guilt.  No members of the Administration was fired for their handling of the case.  The only person fired was the Coach of the innocent players.  The Rape Hoax nearly destroyed the man's career and life.  I applaud Bryant University for taking a chance on him and they are seeing the fruit of their efforts.  Bryant made the NCAA Tournament last year and the beat the #2 seated team this year for their 1st tournament win ever.

Please email Karla FC Holloway (karla.holloway@duke.edu) and Wahneema Lubiano (wah@duke.edu) to let them know about the victory. Both these women were prime sponsors of the "What Does a Social Disaster Sound Like?" ad when the Rape Hoax was first getting attention.