[Husker] Living

[Steve Reichenbach]

> > I am not blowing and blustering about it either but you cannot
> > compare a football player in a supposedly high profile program with
> > just the average kid in the student body either.  They should know when
> > they sign the letter of intent they are going to be living in a fish
> > bowl and should govern themselves accordingly.
> 
> I strongly, but respectfully disagree with you here. The argument of
> whether these players should be held to a higher standard, if they are
> role models, etc. even pre-dates the Solich vs Callahan wars and on
> this issue I definitely fall on the side of the players. Because I play
> football am I not allowed to act like your typical 18-year old who
> wants to drink and party and chase girls? If your reasoning is that I
> am on scholarship, then what about the chemistry student who is on full
> scholarship who does the exact same thing with no retribution from the
> University and without being drug through the media.

This shows a pretty thorough lack of understanding about how UNL and
other universities operate.  First, I doubt that any action will be
taken at the university level --- just I doubt that the university
structures would deal with any other student in this circumstance.
This incident took place off-campus, did not involve violence, and
is apparently a misdemeanor --- all non-factors that otherwise might
get the university involved.  Second, I expect that there will be
consequences with the football program, which provides Horne a scholarship
and which has certain expectations.  I would expect that other units,
including academic units such as the Chemistry Department (or the
Computer Science and Engineering Department) have their own set of
expectations.  For example, if one of the students supported by my
department were guilty of academic dishonesty, they would almost
certainly lose their support immediately.  On the other hand, there
might be a lesser sanction for a scholarship athlete guilty of the
same transgression.  Each unit has a different set of expectations
for its students and takes actions based on different goals and
needs.

> The bottom line is that we are still talking about teenagers,
> teenagers who are more than likely going to follow all of the other
> teenagers when it comes to pursuing certain aspects of the college
> experience. Why should the rules for them be any different?

The answers to this question seem so obvious I hesitate to provide
them, but Jeff seems to be posing this as a real question.  First,
consider the statement: "teenagers who are more than likely going to
follow all of the other teenagers".  First, it is simply untrue to
say that "[a]ll of the other teenagers" are drinking under-age in
bars, providing a false ID, providing false information to police,
and carrying marijuana.  Second, most of those that might do such
things would suffer significant embarrassment and grave consequences
if caught.  Why shouldn't Horne suffer significant consequences?
So, the rules are are the same for Horne as for anyone else, but
the consequences might be different.  The consequences are different
for Horne because he accepted the benefits of a football scholarship
and in return there are expectations, including expectations related
to his participation and his behavior.  Certainly, these behaviors
violate those expectations and there are consequences.  Not everyone
has those consequences because not everyone is a scholarship athlete
for a program that has the goal of the highest level of excellence.