PROBLEMS FOR PELINI
Why he’s under fire despite Youngstown State success
Bo Pelini has done lots of unsavory things during his coaching career.
Ranting at his players during games. Throwing temper tantrums on the sidelines. Even accosting an official after a game and drawing a reprimand from his big boss while the head coach at Nebraska.
But none of that compares to what the former Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator and longtime Stoops family friend did Saturday.
Pelini played a convicted rapist.
Read that sentence again.
Here, let me help: Pelini played a convicted rapist.
In the second half of a blowout victory, the Youngstown State coach inserted defensive end Ma’lik Richmond. The player’s name may not ring many bells, but he was a high school football player in what became an explosive rape case in Steubenville, Ohio. The victim, a high school girl, was repeatedly and publicly sexually assaulted while passed out in the early morning hours of Aug. 12, 2012. Much of it was photographed, videoed and shared on social media for all the world to see.
Can you imagine? Sexual assault is a terrible, horrible ordeal to endure regardless, but to know strangers saw what happened to you? To know that your attackers violated you in private, then made those vulgar acts public?
There aren’t words to adequately describe the pain that the victim felt
then and now. Time does not diminish that suffering.
Richmond and another football player from Steubenville were found guilty in the case, which was covered by major networks and national publications. Richmond was sentenced to a year in a juvenile detention center for raping a minor; he served less than 10 months. Trent Mays, the other player convicted, was sentenced to a minimum of two years.
Richmond eventually started college, attending a couple small schools but showing no interest in playing football. The first college he attended didn’t even have a team.
Last year, Richmond enrolled at Youngstown State, and by all accounts, he didn’t intend to play football there either, even though the Penguins are one of the best FCS teams in the country. He didn’t contact the coaches. He didn’t attempt to join the team.
Then, Pelini got a tip Richmond was a student at Youngstown State.
The coach sought the player out. Recruited him. Convinced him to walk on.
According to a newspaper story earlier this year in the Youngstown Vindicator, Pelini said he decided to go after Richmond after conducting his own investigation into the player’s past.
(I hope I don’t need to remind you how poorly coaches tend to be at “investigating” players, especially ones who they believe can really help their team.)
The fact Pelini sought out, then welcomed a convicted rapist onto his football team is frankly enough to get him fired.
But allowing a convicted rapist to play in a game?
It’s unconscionable. And yet, after the game, Pelini said, “You have to be happy for the kid.” Happy?
Kid?
Is this guy for real? As rape survivor and sexual assault advocate Brenda Tracy tweeted, “Intentionally cruel words and heartless action.”
Tracy herself was gang raped by four football players in 1998, and
two of them played for Oregon State. Ultimately, they were allowed to continue playing by then coach Mike Riley. He called them “really good guys who made a bad choice.”
Tracy has said that hearing those words and seeing those players back on the field haunted her for years.
There’s a woman who feels the same way about what happened Saturday at Youngstown State.
When people on the campus learned earlier this year that Richmond was on the football team, there was a backlash. Petitions were signed. Protests were planned.
Youngstown State and President Jim Tressel — yep, that Jim Tressel — decided that Richmond wouldn’t play this year but that he’d be allowed to stay on the team. That prompted Richmond to sue the school and ask for a restraining order. A judge granted it late last week, which meant Youngstown State had to allow Richmond to rejoin the team.
But there was no ruling about whether he had to be allowed to play. The judge didn’t mandate a certain amount of playing time, didn’t say he needed to start, didn’t rule he had to be on the field at all.
That would be Pelini’s decision.
There had to be plenty of people at Youngstown State telling the coach that he couldn’t play Richmond. It would bring scrutiny on the school. It would be a thumbing of the nose at women not just on campus but everywhere. It would be a black eye.
But in the second half of a game that was already decided, Pelini went against good advice, not to mention common decency and subbed Richmond into the game.
By his words and his deeds, Pelini doesn’t understand what is wrong with this situation. He has talked about second chances, but what about the victim? She doesn’t get a second chance. She can’t erase the trauma.
Pelini played a convicted rapist.
He has a really good team. He is a fairly good coach. But much like Art Briles and his assistants complicit in the Baylor sex scandal, Bo Pelini must give pause to leaders on college campuses everywhere.
Is this the kind of man you want coaching your football team? Is this the kind of person you want as a leader of young people?
Some of his actions before were unsavory.
This is downright repulsive.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.