The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

I Say Screw Football by. Bednarz

By [email protected]

Dear Editor,”Screw Football?” I say screw “Mr.” Bednarz! His article “I Say Screw Football” was laced with remarks that should anger students, both for and against the game of football. Why? Why not start with the host of inaccurate statements that choked the margins of his – logic? Why not start with his “factual” claims, which have, in fact, not been factually supported? Where do I begin?

Mr. Bednarz, your “factual” report about recruiting violations by the University of Colorado, in fact, consisted of claims that were never proven. In fact, the university released its audit resolving the matter on Nov. 12 of this year, six days before your article appeared. The audit found “no evidence that escorts or strippers had been hired, arranged, or paid for to attract athletes.” In fact, the only violation found was that of a player using a school cell phone to call a dating chat line. Oh, Hell on Earth, what is this world coming to? Students calling dating chat lines! Yes, Mr. Bednarz, in fact, the truth behind these allegations is in an entirely different category than “strippers & escort services.” I wonder, Mr. Bednarz, if, in fact, you knew about these final findings, but chose to focus on the early reports because they supported your argument?

Your reference to the Team Down South is also full of spurious claims. The victim who made the first accusation early this year later told police that the sex was consensual, but reported it as rape because she was ashamed. The players were still expelled from school. The investigation into the recent accusations of players committing rape have only begun. No formal charges have been filed. Are athletes not granted the same protection as the rest of this country’s population? Maybe because they are athletes they are guilty until proven innocent? I’ll leave that up to you, Mr. Bednarz.

Here is a lesson in Football 101. Your teacher could have been Jeremy Bigelow. He wrote an excellent article, “You Have Been Warned,” that shared the page with you. His article described the side of football you don’t comprehend. Football’s forge requires a player to work hard with his equal, to persevere through adversity, to share triumph in victory, and to console in defeat. That is what this game is really about. That is what a team is and that is why men, and sometimes women, play this game. As for our privileged role as students; you yourself provided this answer, Mr. Bednarz. After last year’s victory, your enthusiasm for the game and for your school overflowed into a room of friends until those “friends” brought you back to reality. Hello? Remember the feeling of that moment, Mr. Bednarz. The game transported you! You forgot about the prejudices apparently so rampant in your world; you forgot about the terrible crimes happening just outside your door, Mr. Bednarz, every day apparently! You forgot about them, even if it was only for a few hours. What an awful thing!

Well, you were right about one thing, Mr. Bednarz; the students do have a unique opportunity before them, though it is not the one you suggested. The opportunity before us is an opportunity to come together, to forget our differences, and to help elevate a group of our peers to accomplish a goal many of them have dreamt of since they were boys. What else on this campus can unit the student body in such a way? This unity has elevated not only the football program, but our school as well. Mr. Bednarz, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” and sadly you never will.

Andrew WestonSenior, Economics

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