Well, you take the comparative approach. Let’s say you’re comparing the University of Oklahoma and Florida State.
In the case of Oklahoma, the video of one of the most prominent students on campus punching the lights out of a woman remains private, and after a suspension the student has been put back on the football team; in the case of FSU, the video of a similarly prominent student punching the lights out of a woman is public, and he has been dismissed from the team.
Those who’ve seen both videos are able to offer a more detailed comparison.
Some are saying the Mixon tape is worse than the DeAndre Johnson tape, but I disagree. I thought the Johnson video was more graphic. The picture is more up-close from Tallahassee, and Mixon’s response appears more instinctual, which cuts him a little slack, for what that’s worth.
So, okay. You can choose a school where the assault was instinctual, versus a school where the assault was premeditated… You can choose a school where students who do this to women are put back on the team, or a school where students who do this to women are kept off the team… Hm… Hm…
An Orlando Sentinel columnist puts the matter in terms of the great currency of any university: knowledge.
[FSU] kicked [De’Andre Johnson] off the team Monday after video was released of him punching a woman in a bar. Somewhere, Ray Rice was having elevator flashbacks and Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon was grateful he plays for a school that still knows how to protect football stars who slug women.
The Sentinel writer even puts it in terms of one of the university’s disciplines: philosophy.
If a female … falls after getting hit by a football player and nobody sees the video, is it really that big of a deal?
Not at Oklahoma.
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If you’re a parent thinking through this decision with your daughter, maybe you should tend toward FSU. The batterer there gave the act a moment or two of thought, which would maybe have given your daughter a little time to defend herself… And actually Mixon is one of two woman batterers brought back onto the Oklahoma team – they obviously like their hard-hitting players, er, seasoned…
On the other hand, if tradition matters to you, you’ll find Oklahoma standing firmly and proudly in the past. One writer looks back on
… the days when athletes battering women was just another one of the dirty little secrets of big-time sports — right along with academic fraud, failed drug tests and severe head trauma.
But at Oklahoma, it’s still like that!
Still — Decisions, decisions…
July 8th, 2015 at 9:38PM
At a time in the past, Florida State was intent on being an educational enterprise.
It’s now committed to being a reality tv program.