Mr. Donaldson is a product of the football culture. Kids even in middle schools are labeled as jocks by their classmates, both in admiration and derision. Even more important, their athleticism is noticed & nurtured by their parents, coaches, schools, the community, etc. Nothing wrong w/ that. It's just who we are as Americans.
But, the football culture focuses on people (players, coaches, community) who LOVE hitting and being hit. They understand it and promote it. Getting not only hurt, but injured, is a badge of football manhood. Having surgery & coming back to play is the ultimate badge of honor. I don't understand this mentality, but I do enjoy watching (WATCHING, mind you) football games. BTW, do you remember that Green Bay Packers player (40 years ago, I think) displaying the nine or so surgeries he had on ONE knee? Jerry Kramer (G), I think, out of U of Idaho.
They love and promote on-field violence. It's some kind of katharsis for everybody, except for a larger number of people in a community (not just the women) who reject this kind of conduct, legit, or not. It's not unusual for the larger community to come down hard on football players who carry that violence off the field. Hockey is a violent sport, perhaps more so than football, yet I'm not aware hockey players are cited for off-ice violations as much as football players are.
So, I'll keep my focus on football. Maybe the nature of the sport of football is not at issue, here. It certainly is part of a tradition of most American colleges, and I'll throw in the bands and cheerleaders, here that make college football so different from pro football, focusing on the game as a PART of something than a thing in itself.
So, what am I getting at re: Beau? Maybe, just maybe, his being a Griz football player has nothing to do w/ his conduct for which he was arrested. It MAY be that even if he were an average student, he would still be up for these charges. Still, when 90% + of Griz football players DO NOT violate the law, something has to be asked why some do, to the extent of embarrassing the university and the program.
I don't know if the football culture is responsible for Beau's, or any other player's, conduct. It seems the media certainly thinks so. Yet, there's another aspect of the football culture that may be more telling re: players like Beau: the attitude toward women. This board reveals the complete denigration of women, in countless posts and threads. "Oh, we love and respect women. Our Hotties threads are entirely respectful." Ok, I'll give you that, but no one on this board can deny that the football culture is sexist in nature. It's just a fact. You all use references to females in insulting each other: "douchbag," "cunt," etc. To put down another guy, you refer to him as some kind of female. IOW, females are a second-class human species. The football culture emphasizes, EMPHASIZES, male domination of females.
In some ways, that's ok. You can't help it.
But, there's a few too many football players, like Beau, who're unable to disassociate themselves from this culture when they're out in society. It really gets back to the kind of person you are, fundamentally.
90% + of Griz football players would not rape a girl, even if they had a chance. It's the kind of persons they are. They party, they drink, they drive, like anyone else in society, BUT THEY NEVER FORGET WHO THEY ARE and who a young woman, another person, is.
Maybe I'm defeating my own thesis, here: The football culture demeans women. I'm not exonerating Beau in saying that it's not Beau, but the culture. But, still, the football culture does demean women, as evidenced on this board. It's too bad Beau, if guilty, didn't know where the line is. As far as that goes, it's too bad more men in our larger society don't realize that.