Shame on U
As in University of Miami. For those who missed it, there was a brawl of criminal proportions between Miami and FIU on Saturday. Seems that everyone jumped into the fray, police had to break it up, one player for Miami wielded his helmet as a weapon, and the defensive co-captain of Miami stomped on a fallen FIU player. All in all, 31 players were suspended for one game, 13 from Miami and 18 from FIU. From there, the story takes a different path.
FIU reacted strongly and swiftly on Monday, kicking two players off the team, suspending the others indefinitely, and ordering anger management classes and community service for the team and coaches. Miami's reaction? To make the suspension for the helmet-wielding fool indefinite and requiring community service. That's it. Nothing else. The rest of the thugs miss one meaningless game against Duke and are then back. The guy stomping on people? One-game suspension. He and his helmet-wielding pal should be off the team and behind bars.
I would take it one step further if I were U of M president Donna Shalala. The program has been an outlaw program for basically the last 20 years, save for a stretch under Butch Davis. This is the third on-field incident for the team in its last 7 games. Their players, two especially, were captured for the world to see on video tape committing acts that would get you arrested anywhere else. If Duke cancelled the lacrosse season on what are now questionable charges, rushing to judgment before all the facts were marshaled, then don't you think the Miami season should be cancelled for stuff that's out there for anyone to see and seems based on the facts that have come out so far (see 60 Minutes from Sunday) to be worse than anything that the Duke players did?
Even though I am a Democrat and liberal myself, I can't help but wonder if Shalala, who served in the Clinton Administration, is one of those too-soft-on-crime liberals. Coddle them, hold back the stick? What Miami and FIU did was atrocious, criminal, and shameful. FIU gets it. Miami doesn't. Shame on them.
Update: Miami says the penalties are fair and strong enough. They do add that anyone who fights in the future will be thrown off the team, but still, it's not enough given the team's history and I fail to understand how someone who stomps on a fallen player is suspended for only one game.