The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 11, 1989 - Page 8 *
Icers
Harassment
charges break
'glass house'
Continued from Page 7
When one player was told of what
happened Monday night, he couldn't
believe it happened. "Coach hasn't
said anything to us," this player
said. "I'd have to think coach would
have talked to all of us about it. Are
you sure it involves us?"
Sadly, it does.
No discipline has been taken on
the athletes by Michigan coach Red
Berenson. "I'm not going to pro-
nounce them guilty until I get all
the information," Berenson said.
But Berenson has received the
players side of the story. Has what
he heard from them considered
acceptable conduct to remain mem-
bers of a Michigan athletic team,
regardless of whether they are guilty
of the charges to be filed against
them?
REMEMBER, football coach
Bo Schembechler suspended Leroy
Hoard just for skipping class and
Demetrius Brown was told not to
report to practice at the beginning of
the year because his grades hung on
a teeter-totter.
This problem should also be put
in a certain perspective.
Would six businessmen on a trip
to Edmonton, who drank late in a
bar, receive front page attention, if
they hadn't been on the Red Wings?
No.
Would Petr Klima's name be so
widely known if he wasn't on the
Red Wings? No.
Would everyone know of Joe
Kocur or Bob Probert's problems if
they worked for IBM? No.
BERENSON said athletes live
in "a glass house. You can't make a
mistake." Added Rob Brown, "You
can't throw any stones at it."
And it's true. Maybe what the
players allegedly did is wrong, and
should be charged. But the public
should not play judge and jury yet.
They made a mistake. Fine. But
before you ask for a lynching,
remember that they are human
beings, who make mistakes - like
you, like me.
It may be true that you or I didn't
drive a car into the diag and yell
sexually abusive things, as they
allegedly did. But maybe there was
something else, just as bad, worse,
that could have really put the knife
into your future. You weren't
caught. You weren't charged.
You now laugh off the incident.
YOU also aren't a Michigan
athlete, and even if you were caught,
it might not make the front page.
They have the glass house. And they
live and die with it. Admiration and
glory. Problems and failure.
Because of the actions of four
individuals, a whole team is dragged
down. They are now looked at with
disdain. Twenty-three players don't
deserve to balance the blame of four
individuals.
"If somebody on the team did
something which was illegal,
certainly it doesn't reflect in any
way, the attitudes and the behavior
of the team as a whole," goaltender
Warren Sharples said, who was not
involved in the incident.
It's true. Most professional sports
reporters all say that the most
enjoyable sport to cover is hockey
because the players are the most
down to earth, friendly guys.
It's true too, with the Michigan
team. They're good guys. Friendly.
Outgoing. Smiling. Easy to get
along with, even the ones who were
involved in the incident.
"THERE are so many positive
things about this team," Berenson
said while leaving the arena Monday.
"This is negative. We don't need it."
It is too bad that positive doesn't
make as much news as it should.
Last year the team visited a veteran's
hospital and spent time visiting with
people who were lonely, and only
wanted someone to lend an ear.
They also talk to little kids, give
kids pucks, make the kid leave with
a smile. But you don't see it in the
headlines. Too bad.
On Monday as the team left the
locker room, a little boy no older
than five and his father greeted them.
The boy held in his hand lego
blocks, in the configuration of a
person. He told them it was a model
of a certain player.
The players laughed. Asked
questions. Signed autographs. The
kid left after meeting his idles with a
great feeling inside.
It's because people care so much
about the athlete, like this little boy,
that the glass houses are built, and
as in this case, they sometimes get
broken.
r -------
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Michigan Daily
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