Hazing, out in the open?

[Seahawk]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080821/SPORTS01/808210368/1027

If this was brought up elsewhere, my apologies.

I realize hazing happens at just about every NFL preseason camp, but should I be surprised that the Tennessee Titans did this stuff in full view of the media? I've covered camps where rookies showed up one day with awful haircuts and stuff like that, but it wasn't done for the cameras.

With hazing being a fairly major issue these days, particularly at the high school and college levels, I'm surprised an NFL team would do this kind of stuff so openly. What is pictured here seems like it was done in fun, but it still seems to be in poor taste.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

It has been done before in front of the cameras for a while.
I recall one - maybe the Steelers? - where a high draft receiver (Plax?, Holmes?) was taped to a goal post and doused with powder.
I've seen other Titans hazing footage as well.

I always thought this subject would be a great investigative story for someone.
We had a kid who latched with an NFL team but was injured due to a hazing incident. The kid was cut - but not before getting a settlement from the team. The settlement reportedly, had a nondisclosure contract.He tried to get back into the NFL, making a few preseason camps, but he never made the cut.
I'll bet he wasn't the only one who was ever injured during a NFL hazing incident.

 

[Seahawk]

As I think about it, I thought the Saints had a pretty major hazing incident involving a gauntlet of sorts in which rookies were hit with numerous things, such as socks filled with coins. Some guys were injured there, and some veterans were cut in part due to their involvement.

Because it can escalate (which it often does with younger groups of athletes), I guess it just surprises me that it is still largely laughed off. Maybe I am naive.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

No, you're not the only one surprised this still goes on and appears to be tolerated.

 

[Big Buckin' agate_monkey]

I'm probably late on this, but: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilsonhigh


High school hazing incident that turned sexually abusive.

 

[qtlaw]

I'm probably late on this, but: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilsonhigh


High school hazing incident that turned sexually abusive.

As the father of two young boys my heart nearly burst thinking about that. What courage by the boy who came back to play.

Its so sad that you can never return a boy's (or girl's) childhood.

As for the coaches, I find it hard to believe they did not hear something and did not know what was going on.

Road trips (wrestling, football, etc.) were some of my fondest school memories because you got to bond together. My coaches could hear what was going on.

 

[Seahawk]

Had not read that story, BBAM. The type of things that happen can be quite disturbing, and it is hardly a "boys will be boys" thing. It happens with female athletes as well, and they can be 10 times more vicious.

I have to agree with qt. I am amazed that the kid was mentally able to return to the jv team.

 

[Football_Bat]

Remember the story where go-go boots stopped a bullet?

http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2007/m09/d13/c2206055.jsp

One good thing about hazing, I suppose.

Good grief. Since when did MLB turn into the Pan-Hellenic Council? : When I pledged a fraternity eons ago, we did stuff that was fun that today would get the Exorbitant Potentate (secret frat word for our chapter prez, right, Ryan_S?) arrested.

I do agree that hazing in some high schools (and certainly moreso in junior highs) is worse in many cases.

 

[StaggerLee]

As I think about it, I thought the Saints had a pretty major hazing incident involving a gauntlet of sorts in which rookies were hit with numerous things, such as socks filled with coins. Some guys were injured there, and some veterans were cut in part due to their involvement.

Because it can escalate (which it often does with younger groups of athletes), I guess it just surprises me that it is still largely laughed off. Maybe I am naive.

Yeah, that was Cam Cleeland. He had his head busted open because some of the players put coins in the socks they were using to hit him as he ran through "the gauntlet."

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Baseball teams have been stealing rookies' clothes out of their lockers and substituting either women's clothing or ridiculous costumes. It always happens on getaway day.

Then they make them get off the bus a few blocks from the hotel and walk through the streets and the hotel lobby in the get-ups.

It usually gets mentioned in the papers and I can remember an instance where some video of it got on the team's TV broadcast.

People act like it's some sort of tradition, but I can't remember anything like that in the '70s or '80s. In fact, there was a time when veterans went out of their way to show rookies the ropes as far as tipping and all the off-field stuff that goes into being a player (like don't bring your wife/girlfriend to the bar where the players hang out).

It's all pretty stupid, but that's sports.

 

[mike311gd]

I'm probably late on this, but: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilsonhigh

High school hazing incident that turned sexually abusive.

That's a scary tale. I went to high school with a kid who was involved in hazing on a college lacrosse team that included sodomy. He, I believed, was charged with some form of that. A proud day, I'm sure.

 

[StaggerLee]

I'm probably late on this, but: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilsonhigh


High school hazing incident that turned sexually abusive.

Ugh I hated reading that story.

I was hazed my freshman year at football camp, nothing near as serious as that. But I did have a teammate who had a broomstick shoved up his anus, then some ****ing idiot decides to jerk the broom sideways, causing it to break. That guy had to be rushed to the hospital and spent a week there with serious internal injuries. He quit football, never to play again. The senior who did it had to run up-downs. Big whoop.

That was the last summer our football team did camp. That was also the last year hazing was allowed, thank God.

Hazing is still very much a big part of high school and college athletics. I think a lot of coaches turn a blind eye to it until something serious happens at their school.

 

[mike311gd]

That's an interesting visual, Stagger. Were there any lawsuits to follow?

 

[Football_Bat]

As I think about it, I thought the Saints had a pretty major hazing incident involving a gauntlet of sorts in which rookies were hit with numerous things, such as socks filled with coins. Some guys were injured there, and some veterans were cut in part due to their involvement.

Because it can escalate (which it often does with younger groups of athletes), I guess it just surprises me that it is still largely laughed off. Maybe I am naive.

Yeah, that was Cam Cleeland. He had his head busted open because some of the players put coins in the socks they were using to hit him as he ran through "the gauntlet."

No doubt somebody threw down the gantlet.

 

[StaggerLee]

That's an interesting visual, Stagger. Were there any lawsuits to follow?

Oddly enough, I don't think so. It's a very small town, and football is the most important thing there. I'm sure someone "paid off" the family to keep them quiet. It was never mentioned in the local fishwrap, nor was it spoken about publicly.

The sad thing was that the guy was a senior coming out for football for the first time, so he was treated like a freshman at camp.

 

[schiezainc]

I had a friend over in Connecticut who recently wrote a story on a boys tennis team that was accused of subjecting their newbies to "Atomic sit-ups."

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing because she was shocked these things went on and was even more shocked when I told her what happened in my HS football locker room. Man, atomic sit-ups were routine.

Try explaining why one day after practice every sophomore, junior and senior banded together to throw you and each and every other freshman over a ten foot wall to someone who has never been in that locker room situation. Then explain why you relished the opportunity to recreate it for the poor freshman on the team the next three years.

 

[RossLT]

Hazing is terrible, that being said, you pay me what an NFL rookie makes and you can haze me all you want.

 

[Seahawk]

Hazing is terrible, that being said, you pay me what an NFL rookie makes and you can haze me all you want.

That's just it. Many of the guys are back end of the roster guys who are going to get cut before any kind of big pay day. It's not like every rookie who goes to camp makes a ton of money. Quite the opposite.

In camp, I believe most rookies get a stipend, and if they make the team, the contract starts with the regular season. Those contracts also are not guaranteed, so a team cuts them and the money just stops.

 

[Rhody31]

I really don't see what the big deal is about taping a guy to field goal posts. It's harmless fun ... or was, until the PC police go involved.
There is a line in hazing. Seahawk, why do you make a big deal about this but not about the vets making the rookies sing their school's fight song?

 

[Seahawk]

I really don't see what the big deal is about taping a guy to field goal posts. It's harmless fun ... or was, until the PC police go involved.
There is a line in hazing. Seahawk, why do you make a big deal about this but not about the vets making the rookies sing their school's fight song?

Not sure I ever made any comments one way or the other about anyone singing fight songs. I personally happen to think any form of hazing is wrong, because it tends to start silly, but it builds up to where one group feels it has to top what happened previous years, and then it starts getting out of control.

As far as taping guys to goal posts and what was pictured, I am against putting people in situations where they are pretty much defenseless. To me, that is not exactly a harmless situation, because you simply can't control everything in any environment.

Doing something strictly for the sake of trying to embarrass someone isn't my cup of tea. I fail to see how that is what proves acceptance in a group.