Tennessee recruit deserves second chance, but not a scholarship (blood pressure warning)

Sports illustrated ^ | Friday May 8, 2009 | Andy Staples

[Wilhelm Tell]

Have none of the posters here made a youthful indiscretion?

I remember throwing firecrackers where I should not have. Others can perhaps remember doing indescretions like drawing grafitti, drinking beer underage, etc. I think torture/rape is a bit more than an indescretion, but maybe I am a prude.

I understand that unless someone did something bad enough to be locked up for the rest of his life, he at some point will need a second chance. However, many of us somehow managed to never hurt anyone, we just follow the rules and do the best we can. We toil our way through life and no one for so much as a millisecond thinks we deserve a first chance, much less a second chance. We find, if we are lucky, that rewards we earned twice over are grudgingly half-given to us. But if you are a violent criminal, suddenly you deserve any number of chances. If you manage not to rape or kill a second time, you are a moral giant, Socrates reborn! Those of us who never harmed anyone are supposed to grovel before the criminal who "learned his lesson" and acknowledge his superiority. People who perhaps have earned a chance are supposed to surrender it so someone else, who perhaps deserves nothing, can enjoy a second chance.

[Betty Jane]

Maybe or maybe not on him deserving a second chance. But no on having him receive a scholarship when there are other young men who would love to receive a football scholarship who never aided in the rape and torture of their cousins?