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When it comes to enabling deeply troubled students if they can throw a ball, no one does it better than…

… the University of Nebraska.

[Nebraska football player Lawrence] Phillips was arrested [in 1995] for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Kate McEwen, a basketball player for the Nebraska women’s team, and was subsequently suspended by head coach Tom Osborne. The case became a source of controversy and media attention, with the perception arising that Osborne was coddling a star player by not kicking Phillips off the team permanently. Osborne walked out on a press conference when asked “If one of your players had roughed up a member of your family and had dragged her down a flight of steps, would you have reinstated that player to the team?” Outraged Nebraska faculty proposed that any student convicted of a violent crime be prohibited from representing the university on the football field.

Some of Phillips’ heartbreaking letters from prison can be read here. He has killed himself.

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A fond look back at the Coach Osborne years.

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JND, a friend of this blog, points out in his comment that UD went and missed the best part of this article. Here it is.

“If I had to guess, [Coach Osborne] genuinely believed that he was the best person to address the problems a player was having—that with his strengths as a role model, as a disciplinarian, as a man with great moral turpitude, he could put these guys on the right path,” said Paula Lavigne, a reporter for ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” who was a reporter and editor for the Daily Nebraskan in the mid-90s.

Well. She learned her stuff at Nebraska.

Margaret Soltan, January 13, 2016 5:54PM
Posted in: sport

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5 Responses to “When it comes to enabling deeply troubled students if they can throw a ball, no one does it better than…”

  1. JND Says:
    January 13th, 2016 at 11:08PM

    “as a man with great moral turpitude”

    a Kinsley gaffe by an alleged journalist?

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    January 14th, 2016 at 2:58AM

    JND: I actually missed that! Going back to the article now…

  3. theprofessor Says:
    January 14th, 2016 at 9:05AM

    One suspects he was looking for “rectitude.”

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:
    January 14th, 2016 at 9:31AM

    Fortitude?

  5. dmf Says:
    January 14th, 2016 at 10:21AM

    http://www.omaha.com/huskers/former-nebraska-teammates-remember-loyal-flawed-lawrence-phillips/article_96d816f0-a806-50e7-b6b9-904270bb6aba.html

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