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Tennessee recruit deserves second chance, but not a scholarship (blood pressure warning)
Sports illustrated ^ | Friday May 8, 2009 | Andy Staples

Posted on 05/09/2009 5:08:08 PM PDT by CowboyJay

Every time I read about Daniel Hood, I feel worse for Xavier Ramos. Hood is an offensive lineman from Knoxville (Tenn.) Catholic High who signed a letter of intent earlier this week to play football at Tennessee. He will be on scholarship in the fall. Five years ago, Hood was convicted of kidnapping and aggravated rape. According to court documents published by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, as a 13-year-old Hood helped a 17-year-old boy bind Hood's 14-year-old cousin to a bed with duct tape and then watched as the older boy sexually assaulted her with a household object.

-snip-

That player should have gotten Hood's scholarship. Or maybe there was a walk-on already on Tennessee's roster who sets a perfect example on the practice field and in the classroom. That player should have gotten Hood's scholarship. That doesn't mean Hood, now 19, should have been prevented from playing football at Tennessee. "I don't deserve a second chance," Hood told Knoxville radio host Hallerin Hilton Hill this week. That isn't true. Though Hood made a horrible mistake, his life shouldn't have to end there. Even the victim of the attack believes that, which is why she wrote a letter on national signing day asking Tennessee to consider her cousin in spite of that fateful night. "He is becoming a very mature adult and will be a great asset to any college and to society as a whole," she wrote. "If anyone has any concerns about our relationship or Daniel's remorse about the situation, feel free to contact me."

(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: football; puke; punk; rapist
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Kids get turned down for coming up one point shy on their SAT's. But apparently violent sexual assault of a 14-year-old doesn't disqualify someone from being on scholarship at the University of Tennessee.

You heard Coach Kiffen: "feel free to contact me".

1 posted on 05/09/2009 5:08:09 PM PDT by CowboyJay
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To: CowboyJay

Life’s all about winning the football game, whatever it takes!


2 posted on 05/09/2009 5:18:21 PM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: CowboyJay
the victim of the attack...consider her cousin

The victim was the cousin.........And the only reason this thug is worthy of a scholorship is because he can play football..

I know a kid who was valdictorian of his private high school, made all state hockey defenseman, graduated in the top percent of his private college in Massachusettes, couldn't get into U.M med school when he applied because of "quotas", went to Europe and played semi-pro hockey for a year until he could get into U of M med school. Graduated from from U of M med school in the top 12 of his class, went to University of Pittsburgh for medical training, then just graduated this past December from Harvard's thorasic surgery program........

The damn kid earned and deserved every academic scholarship offered from every educational institution he has attended. Unfortunately he never qualified because his parents made too much money............Even rich folks have to float loans to pay for the education this kid deserved.

Maybe he should have been a football or basketball player........

3 posted on 05/09/2009 5:25:59 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This country isn't going to hell in a handbasket, it's riding shotgun in an Indy car....)
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To: CowboyJay
Though Hood made a horrible mistake, his life shouldn't have to end there.

Yes it should, that stupid hound dog has more sense than Hood and the two digit UT foot Ball coach. Here's hoping you lose big Kiffen, you halfas* dirt bag.

4 posted on 05/09/2009 5:26:57 PM PDT by org.whodat (Auto unions bad: Machinists union good=Hypocrisy)
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To: Theodore R.
According to the Knoxville News networks...

The Assailant has admitted and repented the assault
The Victim has forgiven the assailant
The High School (Catholic) is vouching for the student
Who has been saved, and by all accounts has remade his life
The Tennessee School believes the above enough
to give him a chance.

I don't know,
But the word in town is that the kid is real

5 posted on 05/09/2009 5:30:17 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: CowboyJay

http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/050509hoodopinion.pdf


6 posted on 05/09/2009 5:32:35 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: HangnJudge

None of that matters. This kid should never have even seen a high school football field.

I’m quite sure he cut a deal with the DA to avoid being prosecuted as an adult along with the 17-year-old.

The only scholarship he should have received is one to the State Pen. Preferably with a cellmate named ‘Bubba’ having limitless acess to duct tape.

If I were a UT ticket-holder I’d ask for a refund and Kiffen’s head on a pike. Surprised there aren’t people burning licensed apparel on campus.


7 posted on 05/09/2009 5:40:08 PM PDT by CowboyJay (Can a dead guy get a break around here?)
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To: CowboyJay
None of that matters.

Certainly, there is a strong opinion to that effect in town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallerin_Hilton_Hill

on the Hallerin Hilton Hill Morning show a few days ago
(A Very Conservative talk show host)
This was a “spirited” topic of conversation

8 posted on 05/09/2009 5:44:57 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: CowboyJay

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4148579
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2009/may/05/catholic-star-gets-ut-football-scholarship-despite/


9 posted on 05/09/2009 6:00:11 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: kcvl

For anyone who didn’t click on kcvl’s link, it is a detailed court account of the actual crime. There’s no way this could be construed as youthful indescretion.

The (Hood’s own blood relation) 14-year-old victim’s body was approximately 70% covered at one point by duct tape including her eyes, breasts, and genitalia. She then had her legs duct-taped to the bedposts and was raped with a toilet plunger. Afterwards, she was urinated on.

Hood could have alerted his father and an older female relative who were in another part of the house at any time. After the attack, Hood and the other assailant went back to watching TV as if nothing unseemly had taken place.


10 posted on 05/09/2009 6:02:42 PM PDT by CowboyJay (Can a dead guy get a break around here?)
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To: CowboyJay

Sounds like Hood will fit right in in Knoxville.


11 posted on 05/09/2009 6:05:12 PM PDT by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: CowboyJay

It seems more reasonable than not to give a kid who committed a crime when he was 13 and has been crime-free for the six years hence a second change. Have none of the posters here made a youthful indiscretion?


12 posted on 05/09/2009 6:27:13 PM PDT by boroman
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To: boroman
Nope! I did not dare do anything even if my mom did not know anything about it. She would have dreams about it and tell us exactly what happened. My great grandmother was a Cherokee Indian and we think some of her descendants got the ability to see things. Another example, after our daughter died in 2004, we went to see her in another state. She told us what had happened at her granddaughter's funeral and where my husband and I were sitting. Spooky, yes, but having grown up with it, we did not think anything about it.

Something else. When my brother and my niece went to tell my mom about Jan, she asked them why they were crying although they were not at the time and said she had figured it out who had died. Frankly, I had rather be reading than getting into any kind of trouble when I was a kid. I am still a very avid reader.

13 posted on 05/09/2009 6:36:29 PM PDT by MamaB (Heb.13:2)
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To: boroman

Let’s see, to me a youthful indiscretion is sneaking out of the house, taking the car without asking, skipping school, drinking, smoking. Helping to tie a girl up while she is raped with a toilet plunger, watching and then going to watch tv is not a youthful indiscretion!!


14 posted on 05/09/2009 6:58:50 PM PDT by panthermom
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To: panthermom

What is it then when a 13-year-old does that? Is it a crime that should hound and haunt them the rest of their lives? Are you an angle?


15 posted on 05/09/2009 7:11:28 PM PDT by boroman
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To: CowboyJay
What Xavier Ramos has to do with any of this is beyond me. The kid was mistakenly offered a D-1 scholarship early last fall, It was rescinded as an accident within two days. Over the next five months, no other D-1 level team offered him, thus proving the mistaken offer was a good faith error.

The kid then lands a scholarship at Cal Poly, which while not "the big time" is still a college football scholarship that will give him a free ride and a more than decent degree if he applies himself. Therefore, he has relieved his mom as much as he would have at Oregon.

If he's really an NFL talent, the League will find him regardless.
16 posted on 05/09/2009 7:17:41 PM PDT by Goldsborough
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To: boroman

Hope you just forgot to add ‘/s’ to the end of your post. Hate to say it, but if this ‘kid’ were black, he’d still be sitting in prison.


17 posted on 05/09/2009 7:20:58 PM PDT by CowboyJay (Can a dead guy get a break around here?)
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To: Goldsborough
What Xavier Ramos has to do with any of this is beyond me.

I thought it was a weird angle to take on the article, too. Dwelling on the literary genius (or lack of) of someone working for a rag like S.I. would be missing the point, IMHO.
18 posted on 05/09/2009 7:28:59 PM PDT by CowboyJay (Can a dead guy get a break around here?)
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To: CowboyJay
Kiffin got the job b/c of his daddy. UT made a big mistake hiring him, this is just another reason.

Sick crime, guys that do this kind of crime absolutely do not deserve a scholarship.

19 posted on 05/09/2009 7:38:22 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: boroman

I have 3 boys, 18, 17 and 12. That is not a boyish mistake!!! It was not an 18yr old and a 16 yr. old statutory situation. Please spare me, 13 and involved in a rape? For a 13 yr. old to stand by and participate in such a crime is sick to me!!! And btw the word is “angel” not angle, an no I was not an “angel”, but I did have respect for other human beings. I was also raised with a conscience, a conscience that would never let me cross that line of harming another person for pleasure.


20 posted on 05/09/2009 8:40:52 PM PDT by panthermom
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