According to S. Daniel Carter, in an article in the Huffington Post, college athletes are frequently getting into trouble. Carter believes it would be prudent for colleges to run background checks on their athletes.
You may have pause, but Carter is Director of Public Policy, Security On Campus, Inc. He is certainly no novice to the profession. Carter writes that one out of every fourteen players in the 2010 preseason Top NCAA footballs teams had been charged with or cited for a crime. This finding was the result of a joint investigation report conducted by Sports Illustrated and CBS News. A significant number, around forty percent of those cited were for serious offenses, including assault and battery, domestic violence, robber, and sex offenses. In the majority of the cases the player was either found guilty, had pleaded guilty, and faced some penalty as a result of the conviction. So no sweet innocents in football. Or not many, anyway.
Carter maintains that if the NCAA doesn’t act upon this and start conducting background checks, then law enforcement will ultimately become more involved.
Look, while there have been changes in recruiting athletes and most athletes come under greater scrutiny, I have talked with a few over the years who candidly told me that with all the fawning over them, they started to believe they could get away with just about anything. Some told me that they were like spoiled children and were programmed with a certain sense of entitlement. Whether they committed crimes or hurt others in the process was really a secondary concern.
Of course, with the ones I spoke to, their measure of self-critique as a matter of hindsight. One such athlete, actually a friend of mine, confided that he was led to believe he had the world on a string. His promising career collapsed under the weight of scandal. The mechanics of the scandal, point shaving, had been someone else’s idea. But, being young and stupid, and thinking himself above the law, my friend went along with the problem He was bounced out of college sports and consequently professional sports. So much for that promising career.
Not much time goes by before you pick up the paper and watch on the news that an athlete, usually with an attitude, has been arrested for something violent or stupid. Or both. The very nature of privilege and that sense of entitlement just causes otherwise naive young men to commit crimes that are often career wreckers. But not all that often. Frequently, as they are considered special and privileged, these athletes are let off with a slap on the wrist. There is big money at stake here, what with alumni, tickets, bowl games, endorsements, whatever. So thuggery gets a pass. Which in turns encourages others to emulate that behavior. And so the cycle continues.
I suggest you read Carter’s article in the Huntington Post. As he makes his case, background checks for college athletes are no such a bad idea.
