My long-winded post was intended to illustrate visible and open decline, not say "let's go back to the old days" or endorse or condemn a political party. I think mostly what I was trying to express is, IMHO, there is right and wrong and we all know the difference. If your wife and her friends went to a male strip club, ended up having sex with a stripper, and her friends celebrated -- perhaps even encouraged her, how would you feel about her association with them going forward? How about her friend that didn’t go, but sent encouraging texts?
Our society – our world – is in decline and I feel compelled to specifically express my views that oppose the decline to those I interact with, friends, family, my children, and anyone else who will listen.
Character is the public manifestation of our private thoughts and feelings about issues. Teaching the general population or the student body about values and social interaction isn’t the primary responsibility of a university. But we, as individuals, as a community, and especially our football coaches do bear the responsibility for the development of the culture, character and ethics of the team as a whole.
“We need to change the culture” is a common phrase from coaches taking over an unsuccessful program, including Minnesota a few years ago. Showing up on time, working hard, respecting your coaches, teammates, opponents, fans, administration, going to class – all of those things are connected to “doing the right thing” (character & values). Once established, the veterans help train the new recruits, but certainly the values of our program need to be expressed in the recruiting process. Young men going through the maturing process, who may not have been taught about character before they became Gophers, should be during their time in the program.
While promiscuous, perhaps even questionable, behavior has likely existed, something tells me the leadership of this program has lost touch with the importance of character. That falls on the staff and the veteran players. It shouldn’t be an option. How we treat other humans should be paramount.
