A journalist has published an article giving one side of the story and instantly rabid lynch mobs have formed ready to crucify the former coach on the spot have buried him under an avalanche of horrific adjectives. I think we need to catch our breath and stand back and gain a little perspective here and little bit of reality. Let’s look at the facts:
1) A journalist has published an article. That does not make anything in it automatically factual as many of you are screaming “now the truth is out”. The only “fact” to come out of the article is we now know what he was accused of doing 13 years ago.
2) Even if all the accusations levied about the coach are 100% true, he did not commit a crime. I.e. it was not a crime in Canada in 2006 to have consensual sex with a 17 year old. He has not been accused of “rape”, nor “sexual assault” despite people tossing those terms around, he was accused of consensual sex with an adult woman (i.e. per Canadian Law in 2006 as a 17 year old was classified). This is why the police have stated they are not getting involved in this situation.
3) If what he is accused of doing is in fact true, while not criminal in nature, he should have been fired immediately in 2006 and strongly criticized for the pathetic and reckless behavior and the damage it did to her, his family and himself.
4) In 2006 and still today, there is no hard evidence that he had sex with her. There were no witnesses, he has not admitted to anything, there was no pregnancy. In fact, even after pouring through hundreds of e-mails and talking to 70 people, the journalist couldn’t find a single e-mail in which the coach or the girl talked about a sexual experience that took place, and none of the 70 people ever caught their supposed frequent sex acts occurring, including supposedly in his office. There are no witnesses to her leaving the institution and having sex with him in his car. All we have is the age old “he said, she said”? I personally believe he did it and deserves condemnation, but my opinion means nothing, nor does your opinion mean anything, nor does the 70 people interviewed who “think” sex might have happened, but never once witnessed sex happening.
5) The same lynch mob party on here wanting to tear the coach to shreds, are the same people who just last week were on these very same message boards gushing praise for Kobe Bryant and how wonderful he was and what a great person he was, despite the fact he was accused of sexual assault, battery and rape of a woman in another case with no witnesses and no hard evidence in another classic “he said, she said” situation. Only Kobe and the woman know the truth, no matter how many article journalists wrote about the situation.
6) We have not even heard the “he said” side of the story other than a one sentence denial statement, and as on guy pointed out we never will because this is not a criminal case and the coach will likely quietly disappear from the public eye indefinitely.
7) Over the years, I have read about 100s of coaches, teachers, etc. here in the USA having sex with athletes, students etc. who are actually under rage, and there is actual hard evidence presented in criminal proceedings, including the latest warped craze of female teachers having sex with under age boys. Each weekend 30-70 people are shot, with 5-15 fatalities in Chicago every and no one bats an eyelash, yet we have a lynch mob here on LetsRun calling for stringing up this coach who is not even accused of a crime. While I am typing this message how many actual rapes, robberies, assaults, beatings have taken place in the big cities of Canada and the USA? In now way, am I using bad behavior to justify bad behavior, but all of these people are much worse than than what this coach is accused of and I am trying to levy some perspective.
8) Finally, how many of you holy than thou, self righteous people have never for example, driven drunk or high on pot above the legal limit which could have led to the death of an innocent person or lied or cheated on their spouse of lover, or bullied someone or stole, etc. I think it was JC who said “he who is without sin cast the first stone” and I think it was the old people who put down their stones and walked away first, just as the case here where the most vociferous of the lynch mob are probably the youngest too. Again, my opinion doesn’t matter, and I believe he had sex with that 17 year old woman, and should have been fired and condemned, albeit with some appropriate perspective, but a journalist publishing an article is not automatically the truth or factual as everyone here is proclaiming.