Rutgers shame

From the New York Times...

Kia Vaughn, the Rutgers women’s basketball player who filed a defamation lawsuit last month against Don Imus and CBS Radio, among others, over his reference to the team as “nappy-headed hos,” has withdrawn her suit, according to a filing she made yesterday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx.

Like I said before, while I understand her outrage, it's not like anyone really believed him. Imus would ultimately be able to use the Flynt Defense of "satire" to excuse what would ordinarily be considered slander. Then again Vaughn isn't Jerry Falwell and as far as I know hasn't been "outed" as a [gasp] Christian, so the legal double-standard that allows offenses against Christians, might apply.

In a rather ironic and related story from the New Jersey Start-Ledger...

In a letter to the academy's superintendent, Rutgers President Richard McCormick apologized for the "disrespectful and disgraceful behavior" some fans exhibited during the 41-24 Rutgers victory at a sold-out Rutgers Stadium. Rutgers Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy and Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Blimling are also sending an open letter to students today to denounce profanity in the stands and ask for better behavior at future games, university officials said.

The apologies came after a column was published in The Star-Ledger today detailing obscenity-laced chants Rutgers students hurled at the visiting Midshipmen - including some who will be fighting for the U.S. military after graduation.

"No student-athlete should ever be subject to profane language directed at them from the crowd, and certainly not the young men of the Naval Academy who have made a commitment to serve our nation in a time of war," McCormick wrote....

The column reported that Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen with 'F--- you, Navy. F---you, Navy. F--- you, Navy."

The column, another so-called media "blog" by Mark Dilono, tells more...

"There were wives and small children up there," said Squires, an academic recruiter for the academy who has been to dozens of away games and never seen such contempt directed at his team. "Our Midshipmen reacted the way they were taught. They didn't respond, but the band started playing 'Anchors Aweigh' to drown them out. Me, I felt like going up there and smacking somebody. I was mad, and it bothered me all weekend."

Booing, cursing, chanting obscenities, unfortunately, are now part of the game day experience. It's easily been three decades since fans across the country in all sports began spending more time and creative energy jeering the visitors and officials than cheering the home team. Rutgers is far from the worst. They're not even the worst in New Jersey, not with the Jets' fans still in town. Still, every penalty against the Scarlet Knights is greeted with a chant of "a--hole, a--hole, a--hole."

And this is typical of Rutgers' fans?

So, remind me again, why was there such a fuss about Don Imus?

Posted by Danny Carlton at September 12, 2007 8:56 AM