THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250577
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 65 lines
Used to be, it was easy for an observer sitting in Hampton Roads to blame ``them'' for the troubles afflicting college athletics.
It was always ``them,'' the jock factories far from here, that spawned the truly embarrassing, sometimes scandalous, incidents of athletic misconduct.
Oklahoma. Nevada-Las Vegas. Miami. Nebraska.
We all have our favorite ``thems.''
Those Texas football schools.
The Bible Belt behemoths.
Those renegade independents.
It was ``them'' that did it.
But recent incidents give one pause. Our bony finger of indignation need not point so far over the horizon.
The trouble moves closer to home. Them has become ``us.''
Them is Virginia Tech, where football players turn up on police blotters.
Where two players are being sued by a woman who alleges they raped her in their dorm room.
Where an investigation was launched after a member of the track team said he was beaten by a group of football players.
Where the football coach is urged to crack down on his players' off-field escapades.
Them is the University of Virginia, where four athletes associated with the basketball program have been in trouble with the law.
Where a Cavalier basketball recruit slashed the face of a football player with a box cutter.
And now them (us) is located just up the street at Old Dominion University.
Joe Bunn, a popular and well-known athlete in Hampton Roads, has been thrown off the basketball team. An ODU coed, whom he allegedly assaulted, is pressing charges.
The story is troubling and yet, not surprising.
Maybe that's the most troubling part of all, that we have grown numb to the epidemic of violence by college athletes, especially the violence directed at women.
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the epidemic touched campuses close to us. National studies are complete and well documented, after all.
They tell us that wherever college football and basketball players gather, incidents of rape, gang rape, assault, alcohol abuse and destruction of property rise.
Not a day goes by, it seems, when newspapers don't carry stories about jocks in trouble with the law. But how many incidents of athletes abusing women do you suppose go unreported? How many times do school officials cover for athletes? How often are women persuaded not to press charges?
In our morally relaxed social climate, there might even be some who are stunned by ODU's quick handling of Bunn's dismissal.
If the school's swift action startles us, it may be because we have been conditioned to believe the star athlete always is given preferential treatment.
It's easy to see why we would think this way. Officials at some institutions of higher athletics are often so slow to do the right, or smart, thing.
At ODU, disappointment lingers in the wake of the Bunn incident. But a controversy has been avoided. The school sent a strong message with an act of simple justice. Sent it to us. And to ``them.''
Joe Bunn, who has withdrawn from school, has more important things to worry about than basketball.
ODU showed that it does, too. by CNB