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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 2233087, member: 837"] Yeah horrifying is the right word. I spent time after reading it trying to make sense of it b/c it's terrifying to think that it happened simply b/c it was something to do or that it was enjoyable to these guys. What I think you see, when I re-read it, is the effect of tremendous, oppressive poverty and desperation and the dark psychological effects they have on some people. I mean the dude Strickland didn't even have a connection, really, to Isaiah smith. Why the did he care so much about getting revenge? And the sexual assault stuff is just insane. The only possible explanation is that they all saw the two kids as privileged (white in one case) class and therefore enemies, essentially. Even when they get $1500, they spend it all immediately. It's crazy. And laughing at the sentence I read as being happy to go to jail rather than continue living whatever life that was. Of course the two stories that kind of get lost amid the absolute insanity of the torture narrative are: -- smith got out. He had a chance to graduate from a good school! Sports got him out of this junk ... but he still couldn't just take advantage of his good fortune -- needed to not only deal drugs but brag about and then try to set up a scam on the drug dealers. That type of story just really bums me out. -- yet another miserable example of how sports has become way too important in our world. The U of R coaches and administration are looking the other way on some kid so they can go 5-4? Really? They could lose 70 straight games and I doubt I or anyone I know would even be aware of it. What are they doing? It feels like a good time to say the type of thing that I don't think gets said enough: from the perspective of a 39-year-old father of three, if you or your kid played/plays football at u of r or baseball at shippensburg or soccer at lycoming -- I don't care. Like, not even a small amount. It's cool but completely irrelevant. I don't think people quite understand this. I care as much about that as I do about the latest annoying story about what your dog did or how great a round of golf you had when I wasn't there to see it. If you/your kid played/plays a major sport somewhere big, it's cool. Really, it is. But even so, I still don't really care that much. If I bump to Tyler lydon today is think it was unusual but I wouldn't speak to him (or bother him) and I would probably forget I ever saw him two years from now. Not sure where this rant is going other than to say -- if you're a coach or administrator at a place like u of r and one of your athletes screws up somehow -- the life lesson learned is waaaaaay more important than the 9 tackles you need to replace this Saturday. [/QUOTE]

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