Live from the Nuke Free Zone

[A friend of a few of the Zoners, Primis, wrote this on his LiveJournal, and I liked the rant so much, I decided to crosspost it here. I like guest editorials, after all, and this one is from a slightly different perspective that most of the Zoner’s rants, so I figured it might be interesting to put here. Comments can either be addressed below, or at at his original entry. This rant does involve some things some folks aren’t going to like, but on the whole it’s rather well written and rather topical. If you like Primis’ writing, you can read more of his stuff at his livejournal or his webpage. -kat]

Interesting things now are coming out of Boulder, Colorado and not-surprisingly they are the very sort of things I expected as soon as the media condemned Colorado University, Gary Barnett, and the football program over the rape allegations.

I’ve stated before in various forums and mediums that I suspected that there was a good chance that most or all of these allegations could turn out to be blatant and all-out lies. The reason being that the Boulder Prosecuter in charge of this case is a woman and, quite frankly, overtly comes off as a total feminazi, and has been way too media-friendly about all this without actually offering up any proof of her claims. Therefore it wasn’t going to surprise me if she would jump all over the case and get all sorts of media attention without really having any proof of anything, and that’s exactly what has occurred. And that bothers me. And what I have to say regarding it is probably going to irk some people.

The story that outlets like ESPN *haven’t* been telling you is that former players, coaches, parents, and others are all lining up in dozens right now backing up CU, Barnett, and stating that all these various claims are lies and that they know because they were there and saw what really went on.

The worst of all this is the Katie Hnida situation, where the most backlash seems to be focusing for both sides. The media is eating Hnida’s story up because she’s a female kicker.

I’m really, really, really not going to rant on all this at length. I actually had typed out a HUGE rant on this last week but didn’t post it, partially because it was so lengthy to absorb (yes it was longer than this, scary huh?). However I don’t want to let this all go, and I want EVERYONE to consider some actual facts everyone seems forgetting about:

1). Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly wrote and published his article on Katie Hnida’s rape allegations (and basically blatantly defended her in the article as though the allegations were true without having any actual proof) on a week when he just so *happened* to be in Bristol, Connecticut (ESPN’s headquarters and studio) on “unrelated business” and conveniently then was available for tons of live in-studio interviews and appearances on ESPN. Considering Reilly resides in and spends most of his time in Colorado… something there doesn’t add up to me…

2). Again in relation to Hnida, specifically, anyone who actually follows college football will remember that at the time when she was at CU we heard a LOT of talk about her being a problem on the team — specifically that she was disruptive during practices and that she was expecting unreasonable special treatment and exceptions. When she transferred finally to New Mexico there was some talk that the reason she did so was because it was her way of throwing a temper tantrum, taking the ball, and going home because she wasn’t having things her way 100% of the time. Why it is nobody has flat-out suggested she just may have sour grapes is beyond me. But then again that wouldn’t be much of a story would it?…

3). …and nobody wants to say this (even though Barnett amazingly did, although he picked a god-awful time to do so), but Hnida is not a caliber of kicker to deserve playing NCAA Division I football. Anyone who has actually seen her play and kick in a college game (I’ve seen several of her games) can attest to that. Her inconsistency level is far beyond what is acceptable for a kicker the NCAA Division I level, and it was a mistake ever letting her play. Keep in mind however that this was NOT Barnett’s mistake — former coach CU Rick Newheisel was the one that brought her in, then left Barnett to deal with the problem. And well, we know what Newheisel’s legacy is all about by now. So has anyone considered the possibility that Barnett actively wanted to get her out of Boulder but that the athletic department or football boosters wouldn’t let him, because of the publicity?

4). So far there has not been anything more than rape “allegations” in all of these instances. “Allegations”. Read that again. “Allegations”. That means someone is claiming something happened. No proof, no confessions, nothing else.

5). Are you really going to tell me that there’s no chance that some of the accusers didn’t possibly look at the Kobe Bryant trial (which is all going down in, you guessed it, Colorado) and think to themselves “Hmmmm…”? You don’t know, I don’t know, nobody knows. It *is* kinda’ odd that this is all happening in Colorado though isn’t it?…

6). Lastly, there’s this. In regards to the strips clubs, ordering strippers, and recruiting things… how on earth is one man or a couple men supposed to keep an eye on 80-some young men (yes, that’s how many people are on a college football roster, people) 24 hours a day? I’m an only child, and I can tell you for 100% certain that both my parents combined never could keep up with everything I was doing, I got away with some stuff. It happens. That doesn’t make it right, but it also doesn’t make it Barnett’s fault, or any of his coaches. Blame athletic boosters, and the athletic department as a whole for that one. Particularly the football boosters… and news flash — this happens at EVERY university when is comes to football and basketball recruiting. Colorado’s recruiting isn’t corrupt — NCAA recruiting in general is. So if you want to clean up CU’s recruiting I had darn-well better see some definite motions to clean it up everywhere else as well. Otherwise, CU isn’t who you need to be going after, because the NCAA itself has know about this all along…

What does all this mean? It means that once again, the media is controlling the situation, what you think, and how you think. Never once yet have I seen a talking head come out and speak about the entire situation in any manner except one that suggests guilt and that all the allegations are true. Undoubtedly this is exactly what the prosecuter wants and intended. If any of these turn out to be true and have evidence, then those responsible should BURN… simple as that, without a doubt. “Prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!” to borrow a phrase from Kornheiser and Wilbon.

But we don’t know anything, guys. Not yet. So let’s lay off this whole thing a bit and find something out before everyone rushes to judgement, because if you’re familiar at all with the situation there are some things that don’t quite add up yet… so let it play out and we’ll find out how deep this whole thing really does run, if at all…