USNA scuttles Navy QB's career

Actually these two cases are pretty similar. One guy was accused of rape and acquitted but was allowed to stay in school and compete pending the outcome of the trial.

The other group was kicked off their team and left to twist in the wind over what turned out to be a lie.

 

There's a similar story to this in "Absolute Americans," a great book about the USMA. A TAC officer tries to have a guy kicked out a day or two before graduation because the TAC officer doesn't think the Cadet is fit to be an officer, even though he did everything required.

Luckily higher ups overruled the TAC and the Cadet graduated. And according to the book, he's doing well in the Army.

The service academies are tough. And not always what we might consider "fair."

 

Reference: A Few Good Men.

 

Coach I cover praised Navy off the record during this whole thing, and multiple times. He said they were going to make Duke look bad by letting the whole thing play out, and he knows people at Duke, making me think all along that those Duke boys were innocent.

I don't know that it's right to let someone keep playing during a legal process, but they shouldn't be kicked out of school unless you have choice.

 

Imagine your "boat" gets torpedoed (and I put boat in question because I doubt you'd be using the correct term for a submarine) ... think you'd want to be in good physical condition to tread water for awhile?

 

Kaffee: Whoa. Hold it. We gotta take a boat?
Barnes: Yes, sir. To get to the other side of the bay.
Kaffee: Nobody said anything about a boat.
Barnes: Is there a problem, sir?
Kaffee: No, no problem. I'm just not that crazy about boats, that's all.
Galloway: Jesus Christ, Kaffee, you're in the Navy for crying out loud.

 

Kaffee: Nobody likes her very much.

 

Lets see, the military prohibits a man with a convicted record of violence towrds women, and many moan. 2 years from now when he rapes a prisoner or an enlisted woman, the same moaners will bemoan the fact that the Navy let him in.

Given a no win scenario, just do the right thing. And in their judgement, excluding him, following a full and fair hearing, with counsel of his choosing, facing his accusers, in a recognized court of law, with a jury of his peers and beyond a reasonable doubt, satisifes my definition of fairness. Whether you agree with the decision or not, it was properly made by those in the position to do so.

 

Gotcha. The whole last season thing threw me.

 

To wonder how far they might have to run on a boat is missing the main point. They're not on the boat all the time, and as an officer he'll undoubtedly be administering PRTs himself. What kind of leader would he be -- and to what extent would the respect he received from the sailors under him be affected -- if he can't meet the standard he is requiring them to meet? Besides, have you ever seen an aircraft carrier? If for some reason you have to run from one end of that thing to the other, you'd better be in shape.

He expended all that time and effort in pursuit of this one goal and forsook some primo opportunities because he wanted to go to the Naval Academy, so it kind of boggles the mind that he'd come up short on the run. 10:30 over 1.5 miles is a seven-minute pace. If he's a good enough athlete to play Division I football, and the scholarship offers say he is, that time should not be that hard. Not meeting that standard, in my mind, supports the academy leadership's claim that he didn't try hard enough.

That said, it sounds like a lawsuit may be on the way, if he's claiming others graduated having failed the PRT.

 

Wouldn't a swimming or treading water test be more appropriate in that case?

 

I think if I were running the Navy, and the guy was a competent solider in every other way, I'd probably come to some compromise. Yes, you can have your degree, but you still have to pay back the government. Seems like the kid would have been fine with that. Or tell him, you'll never rise very high in the ranks. There will be a glass ceiling for you as far as your military career. You'll be the officer in charge of the latrine on a submarine in the Southern Ocean. Forever. But basically you've got other Midshipmen saying that they suspect the Navy is looking for a way to save money because of cutbacks by giving him the boot. He's basically got $177,000 to pay back with no job and no degree, and $35,000 of that has an 18 percent interest rate attached. I understand if the military doesn't want substandard officers in its ranks, I think we can all support that, but the way it worked out, they're basically punishing him for giving four years to his country. Maybe they should tell him, 'OK, if you can run the thing in 9 minutes, 30 seconds, you don't have to pay back the loan and we'll give you a degree." Maybe now he's finally got the motivation to get his butt moving.

Meanwhile, we're so desperate for enlisted men, we'll take criminals and HS dropouts.

I guess I understand the whole thing, I just feel a lot sorrier for him than I do Owens.