… is a dangerous place.
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Updates are coming in. So far it looks as though three people are dead and several wounded. Current and former football players seem to have been involved in the fight over a woman that set off the shooting.
June 10th, 2012 at 5:52PM
That headline is over-the-top. I expect commenters to the local newspaper to suggest connections between urban thugs and troubles near the university, but not University Diaries.
June 10th, 2012 at 7:11PM
I disagree, Stephen. There’s a direct link between the football culture that places like Auburn foster and violent outcomes. Things like this – not as bad, but like it – happen quite often on big sports campuses.
When it suits it, Auburn calls football the front porch of the university. It certainly is right now – news outlets all over the world are giving Auburn and football great prominence. It’s a fair call to point out the link between tolerating violent people because they play football and producing violent outcomes off the field.
As to my use of the word corrupt: There is no doubt that Auburn’s football program has been incredibly corrupt – paying off players, creating bogus courses, Bobby Lowder, etc., etc. – for fifty years.
June 11th, 2012 at 8:12AM
Margaret, I have to withhold judgement until the official report comes out. There are people who like to show how tough they are by starting a fight in a biker bar, or, even more stupidly, going to the Legion post where Special Forces veterans congregate, and taking on the varsity to establish your street cred is in the same class of foolishness.
Thus, until the official report comes out, I cannot accept that these players were acting in an entitled manner (made a pass at the suspect’s date?) or that they were coming to the defense of invited guests at the party, whether those girls were football groupies or not. The link you suggest is not yet proven.