Well, today the news is not out of Niagara Falls.  It is not one team beating up another team’s players.  It is in Colorado and is teammate against teammate.

A lot of this goes back to what we teach our children when they start playing sports.  Teenagers, those at least high school aged in most organized sports but younger in some, identify their whole being with their athleticism and their sport.  When they move to a university where the player pool is the world, they find they are no longer the star.  They are the small fish in the big pond.  Some have a sense of being that allows them to accept this.  Some do not.  Those that do not have extreme problems.

I think this identity problem is at the heart of wishing teammates ill, hoping they have to sit the bench so someone else can “get in the game,” and no to stabbing.  The Northern Colorado football player stabbed the starter at his position – place kicker – in the leg.  Absolutely unbelieveable.  Right out of headlines from years ago and ones I hoped to never read again.

On the other hand, I applaud the university for not waiting for the judicial system to run its course before taking action.  The alleged attacker is off the team and out of school.  Why is it that Niagara University cannot take action prior to the judicial system running its course?  Why must the student body wonder for a month or more if the university will take any action this time as “they haven’t in the past?”