Monday, November 12, 2007

Oklahoma State boots Chris Collins from Football Team (Finally)

Today Oklahoma State finally came to the conclusion, six days after they should have, that players convicted of aggravated sexual assault have no place on their football team:
Linebacker Chris Collins was permanently dismissed from Oklahoma State's football team Monday, six days after he pleaded guilty to the felony aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in Texas.

Coach Mike Gundy met with Collins to inform him of the dismissal, according to a statement released Monday evening by Marlene Strathe, the university's interim president.

"Chris has been a model student-athlete since he arrived at OSU last year and coach Gundy felt that he had earned the privilege of hearing the decision face-to-face from his head coach," Strathe said in the statement. "During the meeting coach Gundy informed Chris that he would no longer be a member of the football team and the university supports coach Gundy's decision." . . .

"Because of the way Chris has conducted himself since coming to OSU, we will honor his athletic scholarship so that he can continue his education at OSU, if he is so inclined," Strathe said. "If he decides to transfer to another school, we will assist him in doing so. We feel deeply sad for everyone involved."

Head coach Mike 'the press is the problem' Gundy has adopted the same approach in this case:

Gundy bristled when he was asked a fourth straight question about Collins, on what information the university was lacking before it could make its decision.

"I'm not going to talk about Chris Collins all day, OK? You with me?" Gundy said. "I'll talk about Baylor but there's just not anything to talk about. As soon as we get everything, we'll try to do the best we can to give all the information and come to a conclusion."

Get a clue Mike. There is no one to blame for the bad press in this case but you.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well it's a bad situation all around. First of all what the media in some stories leave out is the fact that Chris Collins was 17 at the time this incident happned. Another important part is that the girl said that she was 16 years old, and the friend girl that she was with also told this information to the prosecution. In order for this act can be classified an aggravated sexual assault is if force or coercion is used. The coercion came in when the girl had been drinking alchohol that was not given to her by Collins. What is a 12 year old girl doing out past 11 pm anyway ? So assuming you were 17, and you thought you were with a 16 year old girl, now the picture is in a different light. How many seniors out there date freshmen ? We have all done it as men. So for those that didn't know , now you know the real story. This was consentual, which the girl stated. The alchohol made it aggrevated. Message to little girls that lie to little boys, it may seen like the thing to do, but you are playing with some young man's future by not being honest.

Profane said...

Yes, anonymous, most teenage boys date girls than them. Most teenage boys with a clue will also switch on their 'jail bait' radar if their is ANY question about the girls age.

Yes, it was the victims fault that she snuck out. No, it was not her fault that she was plied with vodka and raped.