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HS football fake identity scandal and lessons in non-apologies


AmazonGrace

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This story caught my eye because the video of the coach speaking is such a tremendous character study in dishonesty.

Background: A football player got suspended for one game. He was put on the field in the next game anyway, using another player's jersey, pretending to be someone else. He and the coach lied (and who knows how many other people) lied that he had served his suspension. https://www.stltoday.com/sports/high-school/football/cardinal-ritter-suspends-football-program-dismisses-coaching-staff/article_bf18678c-f1fc-11e9-9c21-dff2f9fc7f24.html

https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/american-high-school-has-entire-season-blown-up-over-new-identity-scandal/news-story/f7424188ef5840c6e9a14982092f42cf

Later they were found out because his tattoos were recognizable. The entire team was thrown out of the season because they had had a suspended player on the field in every game, and the coach got fired.
 

Spoiler

 

American High School has entire season blown up over new identity scandal

A high school has had its season blown up and its entire coaching staff terminated after an extraordinary plot to sneak in an illegal player.

An American high school has had its 2019 season blown up and its entire coaching staff terminated on the spot after it was busted executing an extraordinary attempt to field an illegal player this season.

St Louis high school Cardinal Ritter has had its perfect, undefeated 7-0 season thrown in the trash and its football program cancelled for the remainder of the year after a disqualified player was given a new identity to take the field this season.

The school’s board announced on Friday that the team’s season had been cancelled and its first seven victories have been officially overturned as forfeits after star running back Bill Jackson was found to have been snuck onto the team’s roster for the first game of the season, despite being banned from a suspension the previous year.

In an extraordinary plot, the team’s coaching staff are accused of giving Jackson the new identity of a teammate and switching him from his No. 4 jersey to the No. 24 jersey of younger teammate Marvin Burks.

Jackson was automatically suspended for one game after he was ejected in the state championship final game of the 2018 season.

Instead of serving that suspension in the first week of the season, Cardinal Ritter tried to give him a new identity to allow him to play anyway — and then they doubled down on it by telling reporters after the game that they were looking forward to getting Jackson back into their line-up for the second game of the season.

Both Jackson and head coach Brandon Gregory told local news site stltoday.com that Jackson had been stood down for the season-opener. He hadn’t.

“He earned it, he deserved it. It was his time to play ball,” Gregory said.

Jackson said: “Watching last week, it wasn’t fun at all,” Jackson said. “It gave me a spark.”

The operation was reportedly discovered when photos from the opening two games of the season showed Jackson’s unique tattoos in both games — wearing the No. 24 jersey in the first week and the No. 4 jersey in the second week.

The unique tattoos on Jackson’s right bicep and forearm were the key evidence that exposed the Cardinal Ritter plot.

The school immediately launched an investigation and it was concluded last week that the team’s 2019 season was unsalvageable.

Because Jackson had never served his one-week ban, the school accepted that it had fielded an illegal player in all seven games this season.

The school then announced that the entire coaching staff for the football program had been “permanently released from Cardinal Ritter College Prep immediately.”

After losing his job, Gregory has conducted two TV interviews to defend himself, insisting it was simply an innocent mistake to play Jackson in the first round of the season.

He insisted he did not realise Jackson was suspended for the first week of the season and claimed the fact he wore the No. 24 was simply because his players regularly switch jerseys without the knowledge of the coaching staff.

His latest claims are in direct contradiction to his interviews with St Louis Today in September where he said Jackson had been stood down for the first game of the year.

“That’s kinda my wrongdoing of not knowing the rules and that he shouldn’t have not sat out the jamboree, he should have sat out week one so that’s what happened,” Gregory told KMOV4 News.

Gregory added that he is “numb and in shock,” but it shouldn’t “change his character or anything I have done in past.”

 

In the youtube video the coach says he wants to take responsiblity but IMO he's not taking any.  He doesn't admit that he lied or cheated or anything, he just keeps parroting that "mistakes were made", and implies that the fact that he's a cheat doesn't mean that he's a cheat. there's anything wrong with his character. In his opinion, taking responsibility also shouldn't mean that any players or coaches of the team should suffer any consequences.

I have never cared about high school football at all and I guess I still don't but the interview with the coach is fascinating.

Spoiler

 

 

Another video. He apologizes but not for cheating, just for making mistakes, making mistakes, making mistakes, making mistakes, making mistakes... When he's asked if he did it knowingly on purpose he evades the question and answers vaguely that it was a combination of things. (I will take it as a yes)

Edited by AmazonGrace
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Yeah the school was absolutely right to throw his ass so hard out the fucking door that he left skid marks when he finally hit the ground.  Kudos to the school for doing the right thing here and dumpstering its entire season, and firing the coaching staff. 

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Ok how old is the suspended player? Because he should be expelled as well IMHO, or at the very least suspended from school. He knew what was going on was dodgy, and he gave interviews about being glad to be back in week 2. I agree the coach and staff are predominatly to blame here (being, you know, the adults with the power), but that player - and the rest of the team - share some responsibility. There is literally no way they didn't know what was going on, and it's disappointing that apparently not one of them had the guts to bring it up with someone. (If it comes out that some of them tried to then good on them.)

I kind of hope this makes the school rethink the emphasis it apparently puts on football and whether they should redirect some of that to their core business of education.

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