The following column is the third in a series written by former Daily Free Press sports editors. Scott McLaughlin, who was the sports editor during the Spring 2009 semester, wrote today’s column. McLaughlin graduated from the College of Communication in 2011.
I was hoping my return to the back page of this fine paper would be a joyous occasion, one filled with a bunch of sarcasm and a few moderately humorous one-liners. Instead, all I’ve been able to think about for the last week is Max Nicastro’s arrest and the state of the Boston University men’s hockey program.
Like most of you, I had a number of different reactions when I first read the news. Shocked. Disgusted. Disturbed. Horrified. I felt awful for the victim and hoped she was OK, both physically and emotionally. I wondered how on earth something like this could happen just two months after Corey Trivino’s arrest. I wondered if this was symptomatic of a larger problem with BU hockey.
Judging by the reactions I’ve seen and heard from fans, friends and fellow alumni, these were all common thoughts. The last one – about whether there is a culture problem surrounding BU hockey – has become the focal point of seemingly everyone over the last week. It’s a question that needs to be asked, and one that President Robert Brown’s task force will hopefully be able to answer.
Unfortunately, too many people are trying to answer that question themselves. “Of course there’s a culture problem,” they say. “Have you seen the way hockey players are treated on campus?”
Yes, I have. A lot of people treat them like gods. A lot of guys want to be them, and a lot of girls want to be with them. A lot of professors are more likely to let it slide when they miss class than they would be if it were any other student. Bars let in players they know are underage. I saw all of that in my four years at BU, and I’m sure most of you have as well.
What I haven’t seen is any sort of concrete connection between any of that and sexual assault or rape. I’m not saying there definitely isn’t. Maybe Brown’s task force will find that there is. All I’m saying is that we don’t know if there is, so stop jumping to conclusions. I’ve seen way too many students, alumni and media operate under the assumption that, yes, there is a clear cause and effect here.
I’d love it if hockey players at BU weren’t worshipped. It would be great if everyone treated them like nothing more than 25 typical students, and it would be great if they acted like that’s all they were. Some people (cough, Boston Globe) seem to think the hockey program should be cut if that can’t be achieved.
I have news for you – that can’t be achieved, and the team isn’t getting cut. It’s just not realistic. Athletes are treated differently, not just at BU, but everywhere. In fact, I would argue that it’s much worse in other places than it is at BU. If you don’t think football players at Alabama or basketball players at Kentucky are worshipped even more than hockey players at BU, then you’re being incredibly naïve.
Just look around the very city you’re in now. Red Sox and Patriots players (and Bruins and Celtics players to a lesser extent) are treated like heroes. Even those who are accused of cheating (David Ortiz) or sexual assault (Julian Edelman) are ultimately cheered the next time they hit a big home run or come up with a big punt return.
I’m not saying any of this is OK. It’s that sort of “win above all else” attitude that allowed the horrific crimes that took place at Penn State to be swept under the rug for so long. I’m just stating a fact – athletes in America are put on a pedestal.
Nothing this task force recommends and nothing BU does is going to change that. That isn’t ideal, but it isn’t the end of the world either. The problem at BU isn’t that hockey players are treated differently than the rest of the student body. The problem is that two hockey players made poor decisions and allegedly assaulted other students.
Everyone at BU needs to do everything they can to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. The university needs to make sure all students are taught about sexual assault and how to avoid situations where it might occur. The athletic department needs to make sure student-athletes, especially hockey players, understand how to handle being celebrities on campus and understand how to deal with all the responsibilities that go along with it.
Students need to look out for friends, and athletes need to look out for teammates, to make sure people who are too drunk to control themselves don’t go home alone or don’t go home with strangers and wind up in situations where they might do something they regret.
Perhaps most importantly, BU needs to make sure victims of sexual assault have the means to come forward and get help. This paper is in the midst of a very good series on some of the school’s shortcomings there, and that certainly needs to change immediately.
Unlike the pipe-dream goal of changing the entire sports culture of America, these goals can actually be achieved.
It’s easy to flip out after news like Nicastro’s arrest and say Parker has lost control, that hockey players are animals and that the school needs to make drastic changes in how the program is run. Ultimately, though, we just don’t have enough evidence to support any of that.
If it turns out that Parker and the athletic department have lost control, that they could’ve done a lot more to prevent these incidents, then by all means, flip out. I’ll be right there with you. Until or unless that happens, though, let’s not drag the entire team and the entire school through the mud because of the alleged actions of two players.
You can be furious with the situation and furious with those two players. You can also still be a fan of the team. In fact, there’s no reason not to be.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
