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How Long will America’s Most Catholic University Leave its Hero Page Up for a Person Charged with Child Abuse, Neglect, and Murder?

Probably forever. And get a load of all the headlines, many of them featuring his Notre Dame connection. Which you can instantly confirm by clicking on his... Hero Page. UD remains baffled as to why football factories don’t employ someone (respectable universities do) to take down the pages of the disgraced.

Margaret Soltan, April 13, 2019 10:51AM
Posted in: sport

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8 Responses to “How Long will America’s Most Catholic University Leave its Hero Page Up for a Person Charged with Child Abuse, Neglect, and Murder?”

  1. Ravi Narasimhan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 11:27AM

    Hero page? It is an archived standard player bio page from the football team’s website. Every team at ND has a site just like it and just about every D1 school in the country’s athletic department contracts with Sidearm Sports for its own cookie-cutter version.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 12:00PM

    Ravi: Yes, hero page – long flowing descriptions of his brilliant play, awards, etc. ND congratulating itself for recruiting the guy, basking in its connection to the guy. Read the glowing praise on the page.

    Was he suspended from the team for breaking unspecified rules? Yes, and that was a big red flag for ND; but of course they took him back again, and as long as they keep this page up, they continue to celebrate him and get their own name and reputation mixed up with him.

    After all, it’s an old story, football factories recruiting and keeping bad people because they can play the game. As a loudly-proclaimed Christian location, ND could have decided to be more ethical about this than other schools, but it’s just as bad, which makes it a real hypocrite.

    Standard page, yes, and that’s why it should come down – first thing everyone looking for stuff on the guy will Google. What you’re suppose to do – sports or non-sports – when a high-profile person from your school gets in serious criminal trouble is issue a statement and take down his/her institutional pages.

  3. Ravi Narasimhan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 4:47PM

    Before a trial and conviction?

    I did read the page and didn’t see anything glowing about it. It listed his on-field accomplishments and where he stood in the grand scheme of other college and high school players including “rated as 54th-best overall [high school] player according to Scout.com …” It did not tout him as a Heisman candidate or even an NFL prospect.

    Your broader points in your other articles about the hypocrisy baked into college sports are well made. I don’t think this guy is the poster child for it or that ND will willingly hold itself to a higher standard. Hypocrisy and religion get on very well together. The University of San Francisco is the only school I know of that voluntarily shut down, on ethical grounds, an out-of-control D1 sport. 1982 was a very long time ago.

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 4:53PM

    If I recall correctly, it describes his heroically stepping in for an out of commission teammate… and it certainly fails to mention – as it should if it is what you’re describing as basically an objective narrative – it fails to mention his suspension for an unspecified team rules violation. (I haven’t reread it, so if they do note the suspension, let me know.)

    And yes – I think when the charge is sufficiently horrid – and he’s accused of about the worst thing a human being can do – you want to make a statement and take the page down. If he’s exonerated, put the page back up.

  5. Ravi Narasimhan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 5:22PM

    Diminishing returns but the references to his stepping in for an injured player weren’t rhapsodic. The injury rate in football is 100%, whoever plays will get hurt, and another of the many at his position will be put in. And so he was.
    https://youtu.be/oNxLxTZHKM8?t=264

    Team rules violations cover everything from curfew to felonies and even so, privacy regulations can still apply. It would be interesting if university departments had to post details of faculty infractions, violations, disciplinary actions, and other peccadilloes on their webpages. “Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 1997. Completed Anger Management training, 2002. Eligibility to apply for DoE funding restored 2005, etc.”

  6. Margaret Soltan Says:
    April 13th, 2019 at 10:22PM

    Ravi: Faculty infractions: LOL.

  7. john Says:
    April 15th, 2019 at 5:20PM

    i think they should be required to keep these pages online, but with all the details of their transgressions just as thoroughly described…

  8. Margaret Soltan Says:
    April 15th, 2019 at 7:32PM

    john: I think that’s an excellent idea.

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