White light gonna kill me, goodness knows

It seems that football coach Jason Stinson has been acquitted of murder charges after one of his players, Max Gilpin, collapsed and later died of heat exhaustion during a team practice.

Part of me is upset at this acquittal. I have no doubt that Stinson did exactly what he was accused of doing. He proclaimed that he was going to keep his players sprinting until one of them quit the team. He denied them water, and either expressed or feigned anger at them, calling one different player a "coward" after that player collapsed and vomited during the practice. The victim was apparently struggling to keep running to impress the angry coach that he was not a coward.

But then, you knew sports were like this, which is why you didn't go out for the team. You had more sense than to expose yourself to this kind of hazing malarkey. And that's what this is, exactly: yet another hazing tragedy.

Americans have got to get themselves over the foolish notion that any time a tragedy occurs, somebody is "responsible" and must go to prison. Stinson was following in the footsteps of a long line of coaches, drill sergeants, and similar figures who imagine that there's something ennobling about their hazing rituals, that they motivate their charges, "build character", or whatever bullshit they invent to justify them.

It also came to light that the victim was taking the amphetamine Adderall for "attention deficit disorder", i.e. being young, male, and extroverted. This can't have helped. He was apparently mildly fluish at the time as well.

This was a tragedy waiting to happen. The Stinson incident was not the first. "In the decade ending in 2004, 24 young football players -- 19 of them in high school, three in college, and two in the professional ranks -- have died of heat stroke..." It will happen again, so long as young men imagine that they can "prove" themselves by enduring these sorts of ritual hazing. Until we learn to hold this kind of "sport" in the contempt it deserves, there will be others.

White light gonna kill me, goodness knows

It seems that football coach Jason Stinson has been acquitted of murder charges after one of his players, Max Gilpin, collapsed and later died of heat exhaustion during a team practice.

Part of me is upset at this acquittal. I have no doubt that Stinson did exactly what he was accused of doing. He proclaimed that he was going to keep his players sprinting until one of them quit the team. He denied them water, and either expressed or feigned anger at them, calling one different player a "coward" after that player collapsed and vomited during the practice. The victim was apparently struggling to keep running to impress the angry coach that he was not a coward.

But then, you knew sports were like this, which is why you didn't go out for the team. You had more sense than to expose yourself to this kind of hazing malarkey. And that's what this is, exactly: yet another hazing tragedy.

Americans have got to get themselves over the foolish notion that any time a tragedy occurs, somebody is "responsible" and must go to prison. Stinson was following in the footsteps of a long line of coaches, drill sergeants, and similar figures who imagine that there's something ennobling about their hazing rituals, that they motivate their charges, "build character", or whatever bullshit they invent to justify them.

It also came to light that the victim was taking the amphetamine Adderall for "attention deficit disorder", i.e. being young, male, and extroverted. This can't have helped. He was apparently mildly fluish at the time as well.

This was a tragedy waiting to happen. The Stinson incident was not the first. "In the decade ending in 2004, 24 young football players -- 19 of them in high school, three in college, and two in the professional ranks -- have died of heat stroke..." It will happen again, so long as young men imagine that they can "prove" themselves by enduring these sorts of ritual hazing. Until we learn to hold this kind of "sport" in the contempt it deserves, there will be others.