by Michael Rosenberg
So what do you think of Daniel Hood? Have you heard his story? I'll tell it here quickly, and I promise: you will have a strong gut reaction.

Hood is a highly regarded defensive end/tight end prospect who just signed with Lane Kiffin and Tennessee. When Hood was 13, a juvenile court found that he helped rape his 14-year-old cousin.

There you go. Two sentences, summing him up. Enough for you to draw a conclusion.

But wait. We should probably mention that he was 13 then and is 19 now. And that former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer — no prude when it came to off-field misconduct by his players — stopped recruiting him. And that the victim wrote a letter of support for Hood.

According to court records obtained by The Associated Press, Hood and another teenager were charged in 2003 with assaulting a 14-year-old girl. According to the AP, the victim's legs and wrists were tied and her eyes and mouth were covered with duct tape before she was raped at the home of Hood's father.

Court records also said the other teen, Robert Sanico, then 17, took a toilet plunger and penetrated the victim with the handle, which had been covered with cellophane.

Sanico pleaded guilty in adult court to charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

In juvenile court, Hood was found delinquent and ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was in state custody when he enrolled at Knoxville Catholic High School.

Now 19 years old and not yet in college, Hood is about to become a running, weightlifting referendum on what we expect from college sports. And he will become a symbol, right or wrong, of the Lane Kiffin era at Tennessee. Six months and zero games old, it is already one of the most controversial reigns in recent Southeastern Conference history.

You can reasonably argue that Daniel Hood symbolizes everything that is wrong with college sports — a criminal who does not deserve a scholarship to represent a state university. Or you can reasonably argue that he symbolizes everything that is right with college sports — a kid who made the mistake of anybody's lifetime at age 13, and doesn't want that mistake to define his life.

How you view Daniel Hood is directly related to how you view college sports. There are those who think contemporary college sports are corporate entertainment, an affront to higher education. And there are those who believe sports still play a positive role in college life bringing people together, giving them a sense of community, providing memories for a lifetime. There are those who think a good, principled college coach can be a wonderful ambassador for a university. And there are those who are appalled by the multimillion-dollar salaries for coaches while players are herded through the system like cattle. And then there are people like me, who harbor all of those feelings.

"We didn't go about this lightly," Kiffin said in a statement. "We spent a lot of time researching the issue and talking to a lot of people who are well respected in the community. Everyone spoke very highly of Daniel. He's a very bright young man who wants to move past this incident and be a good representative for the team, the university and the community."

Kiffin had better be right, for his own sake. This is a coach who already has alienated himself from the rest of his conference. He seems to thrive on controversy and sees trash talk as part of his job. If Daniel Hood gets in trouble at Tennessee — any kind of trouble — it can and will be held against Kiffin. Everybody will say: You should have known.

Kiffin takes pride in raising stakes, and he has certainly done that: he has the highest-paid coaching staff in the country and makes anything less than national title contention seem like an affront to his very existence. In the process, he has given himself no margin for error.

But Lane Kiffin will get his chance to prove he is worthy of his self-generated hype. Daniel Hood will get his chance to prove he is worthy of Lane Kiffin's trust. And the rest of us will sit back, watch and wonder if we can believe in the whole enterprise.

Since this was posted in Prince Music & More, I'd like to just add that I don't think Prince could physically rape anybody, nor do I think he would ever do such a thing.

That being said, even if he were capable of such a thing, he certainly couldn't play football. Well, at least not Line backer.

Thank God this has NOTHING to do with Prince. Wrong forum.

"I just don't want you here, I just don't want you near me, baby.."

Why is this post here??

Belongs in General Discussion.

YES! I posted in the wrong forum! I've notified the mods and in due time it should be fixed. This is a serious story and if you must comment on my mistake then there are always orgnotes.

jockeyb4u said:

[Flame snipped -Mars23]

This situation is a shame. The sports industry continually rewards bad behavior all for the sake of $$$. The young man who assisted in the rape should not get a free ride to college, he is only being used by the University anyway because it does't stop there -- they'll give him lots of $$ while he's playing ball, help him bypass studying, try covering up any other bad thing he does, etc. It is one thing to redeem himself, but it should be via his own initiative; that way he'll turn out to be a better person for it.

If anyone should get the scholarship it should be the cousin who undoubtedly was scared for life.


P.S. the community should demand the Coach's resignation...he obviously has no regard for young women.



[Edited 5/14/09 10:29am]

But more importantly: What does Prince think about all this, that's what I want to know.

kikitwitme said:

Imago said:

I have some mixed feelings on this. I don't feel I know enough about the case to make a call one way or another. But I will say this: Being able to get into college or university for an academic program on a sports scholarship is bullshit, and the practice should be discontinued. More scholarly types have to work hard to prove they have the ability to work through schooling, and some meathead can get into a program because he can throw a ball around? I'm calling shenanigans on that.

I feel the same way about giving scholarships to football players as meow85 does.

I love college football. UT is my favorite team.

When I first heard the headline days ago, I was disgusted. Before I formed an opinion I read more into the story and became a little less disgusted.

The victim wrote a letter of recommendation for him. She wants him to have this opportunity. That holds some serious weight when the victim, the one who matters the most, is confident in his reformation. Honestly, regardless of it being right or wrong, her opinion would be the only one I would care about. The other facts.. he was 13, he's been spotless since and will be watched closely with a zero tolerance policy helped make me feel a lot better about the situation.

MotoPsycho said:

That's where my mixed feelings are coming from. I have no problem with convicts and others who've committed crimes being allowed to go through post-secondary education if they have the ability, but I'm not so sure about allowing them to play for their school's sporting teams. But then, the victim in this case did right a letter of recommendation, so...

I am not sure where I stand on this, but either we as a society believe in rehabilitation or we don't!

"In juvenile court, Hood was found delinquent and ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was in state custody when he enrolled at Knoxville Catholic High School. "