Hawaii quarterback convicted felon

[White Shogun]

Thought it was pretty interesting that the author of this article headlined it as "Ex-con turns island hero," and then without hesitation discusses the criminal record of Cole Brennan.

Aren't the criminal histories of athletes supposed to be a taboo topic these days? Or does that only apply to dead ones?

Cole Brennan article

 

[Guest]

He talks about his conviction all the time. The story's been out there for a while. He was just on Jim Rome a couple weeks ago discussing what happened that night. He said the girl invited him to her room, and he left when she asked him to. She filed charges anyway, and the jury just didn't believe him.


I'd venture to guess there mighthave been a financial settlement to have the sexual assault charges dropped.

 

[White Shogun]

It isn't his criminal history I'm posting about per se, it's the non-chalant way the media discusses his criminal history compared to the way a black player's would be - i.e. it wouldn't.

Do you think Yahoo would have ever headlined an article about Sean Taylor this way - 'NFL player and convicted felon found slain?'

 

[Guest]

It's because of who he is.He was a Heisman hopeful on a undefeated team, and thebiggest star of the Sugar Bowl.It's a story about perseverence and overcoming a huge obstacle that almost sidetracked his career.Hisfreely talkingabout his situation has allowed themedia's being so comfortable in picking up on it. When Peter Warrick was arrested during his Heisman hopeful season, his incident was the talked about to death during hype tohis bowl game too.. as was theLawrence Phillps incidentduring the Cornhuskers run to theirchampionship in '96.


I'd like to believe Yahoo wouldn't use that title out of sensitivity to a man's brutal unprovoked murder. Comparing the two situations islike comparing apples to ping pong balls.

 

[Bart]

It's a story about perseverence and overcoming a huge obstacle that almost sidetracked his career.

Oh sure, it was a great story. If that truly was the motive, sportswriters would have written about 100,000 great stories about black felons overcoming obstacles.

 

[Guest]

It's a story about perseverence and overcoming a huge obstacle that almost sidetracked his career.

Oh sure, it was a great story. If that truly was the motive, sportswriters would have written about 100,000 great stories about black felons overcoming obstacles.

Huh? Are you suggesting they don't? Aren't the puff pieces regarding black athletes afrequent topic of conversation on this board?


During the build-up to tonight's game I read more stories about Brennan's teammate Davone Bess spending a year in juvenile detention than I read stories about Brennan.


[url]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/30/ SP9QU5VCP.DTL[/url]


The commentators even discussed it during the game, and about how's he's rebounded from it to become one of the nation's top receivers.

 

[Lance Alworth]

This is what I posted in the other Colt Brennan thread

'm not trying to justify this, but here is the reason why they're making such a big deal out of a white guy being an ex-convict.

Many in the media have higher expectations for whites than they do for blacks so they make excuses for indiscretions by black affletes while whites are held to a higher standard...basically trying to treat black affletes like cute little puppy dogs rather than men.