The Double Standard… falling off a Roof
Fig Jam
There is a tiny article in the Seattle PI today reporting that WSU football player Andy Roof has been arrested and charged with 4th degree assault after Roof reportedly head butted a man who would not let Roof into a party in Pullman. The article states that alcohol was involved.
This little piece would not have caused me much concern were it not for an article published less than a month ago by PI Sports columnist Jim Moore, the “go2guy.” On April 4 Moore wrote a column entitled, “WSU’s Roof gets Serious, Sober.” The article detailed how after 3 alcohol related arrests and being kicked out of WSU for fall semester of 2007, Roof had turned things around and was back at WSU, and back on the football team. The piece was extremely positive and painted Roof as a comeback kid of sorts. A guy who let drinking control his life for a while, but who has seen the error of his ways and was making the most of his second chance.
My question at the time I read the piece on Roof was this: If he had played for UW and been kicked out of school after 3 arrests, would his return to the team been hailed as an inspiration by Moore?
The go2guy loves nothing more than to mock the UW athletic programs. It’s a little passion project of his, one which he attends to with great exuberance. To Moore, a UW athlete who has a run-in with the law is just another example of the University run amock. Take this statement from October 2006: “I’d been sick for a few days and tried everything to shake it, from getting rest to taking fluids, yet nothing seemed to work. So I was completely out of sorts until receiving the news that a Huskies football player had been arrested and, boom, the Go 2 Guy felt a lot better.”
Or this statement from an August 2007 Moore piece entitled “Just in time - a Husky is arrested.” “The clouds parted just north of Mount Vernon. KJR radio was barely audible, but through the static and fuzziness, I clearly heard manna from heaven — a Husky had been arrested and thrown in jail.”
When it comes to UW athletes (aka college kids) and legal entanglements, Moore’s position is clear: It’s funny and amusing.
When it comes to WSU athletes, however, the nature and tenor of the conversation change. The athlete isn’t a criminal, he’s a troubled kid. His mistakes aren’t gleefully mocked, they are painstakingly portrayed from the perspective of the athlete. The second chance isn’t an example of bending the rules for an athete, it’s a shot at redemption. An opportunity to make good.
Ultimately that is what stood out for me so much in Moore’s piece about Roof. I kept saying to myself, ‘If this kid was a UW football player, this story either wouldn’t have been written, or it would be SLAMMING the program for letting him back in.’ 3 arrests? All alcohol related? Getting kicked out of school for a semester? If Roof was a husky, anything written about him by Moore would have been facetious and negative.
But that isn’t the case. Donning his crimson glassess and writing about Roof’s return to WSU, Moore states, “Roof is proud of himself, but he’s mainly ’stoked to be back.’ There’s a greater appreciation for what was once considered a given, playing for the Cougars.” The article is full of quotes from Roof, his father, and even WSU’s head coach concering the lessons learned and the price that was paid. Coach Wulff even goes so far as to state, “I’d take a busload of those guys on the team,” Wulff said. “They’re great examples, and they become great leaders.”
How’s that looking now coach? You want a bus full of guys like that? Who’s going to drive that bus? A fourth arrest. Assault this time. Alcohol allegedly involved again. Presumably Roof will be kicked off the team, but I am anxious to see if Moore has a take on this situation. I wonder if this arrest will be “just in time,” or deemed to be “from heaven.”
April 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
This guy went to my high school. He was in special education, which at my high school was about the equivalent of after-school day care for third graders. I’m sure that Wulff didn’t really mean it when he commented that he would take a bus load of his type - even if it were a short bus.
In any case, I think some people are fit to be doctors, tradesmen, footballers, etc. And in the case of Roof, gettin’ drunk and beatin’ shit up.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Talk about a waste of a second, ur third, ur fourth chance
April 29th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
He coug’d it.
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