College Football rape conversation... can this lead to change?

Wednesday rape victim Brenda Tracy met with Husker Coach Mike Riley and his Athletic Director for over an hour, and then with the Nebraska football team.

The story is here:
Brenda Tracy feels great weight lifted after talk with Riley, Husker players | Football | journalstar.com

and a less "local" version from USA Today here:
Rape survivor Brenda Tracy meets Nebraska coach Mike Riley

and worth a read if you have followed the Baylor stories, or have any interest in the subject of college athletics.


Riley was coach at Oregon State when the rape occurred in 1998. Riley, it seems, went out of his way to give a voice to this woman now, even though he could have handled it better back then, and is now Head Coach at a different school, but times, standards, and people do change. He had first invited Brenda Tracy to see him at Oregon State, but then left for Nebraska, but let her know that the invite still stood.

Can things like this make a difference, or is it all just more window dressing?

It seems that people here at Nebraska really believe in their nice guy image, the embarrassment of Bo Pelini's tantrums not withstanding. Than's why Bo got canned after a 9-3 season, so the story goes, because the AD really wanted somebody like Mike Riley who could win games without being an embarrassment to the school, and bring the Nebraska culture back to where it once belonged.

Or, is it all just window dressing? The Baylor folks probably think that they're nice guys too, but I can't imagine that kind of thing going on in Lincoln without somebody internal blowing the whistle long ago.

 

Any movement forward is good.
Any note is good.

Problem is it's all hidden, ambiguous, confused, conflicted, grey, etc.
On all sides...the truth gets lost, the anger gets lost.

The key is to keep prying it open...bit by bit.
Make people aware.
Make mindsets change.
Make priorities change.

Fact: It's never going to be enough...no matter what, even if everyone and their mother goes to prison and entities fall...or at least it feels that way.

But you can't go overboard either...create posses. Throw perps into the Black Hole of Calcutta.
1. They "may" not be guilty (it does happen). But 2, even perps have rights, a life....and 3 we don't want to go their level.

We just have to let as much truth emerge as possible. Get people to act the right way as much as possible. Change the environ as much as possible.

Sometimes in the real world, things are done in tiny steps. There's no clear justice. No happy endings. Not everything follows the plot arc and is tied up in the end.
I believe in pushing forward, bit by bit, where you can, when you can.

It's a grind, but it's the world.
Every little bit helps.

 

Can things like this made a difference? Yes.

They don't solve the problem, but every little bit helps. There needs to be a cultural change within colleges and universities, especially major ones with elite athletic programs. But each step along the way helps.

Is it window dressing? Maybe. I'd like to believe coaches who take visible steps like this are doing it with the proper motives and sincerely believe and push the correct message. But it would be naive to be so sure that in a tiny corner of their mind they didn't consider the public relations advantage.

 

This is beautifully written. And something I needed to read today.

 

And, as "boys will be boys," I'd bet that was just what some of Coach Riley's players were thinking when she talked to them about rape. Or, would a great rack on a 40+ year old be beyond noticing for college age men?