When "For Christ and His Kingdom" Goes Wrong

Those of you who are regular readers of Confessions of a Sportscaster know this, but I want to open with full disclosure: I'm a North Central alum (and guy who yells "THREEEEEEEEE!" a couple hundred times every winter), and I have no love for Wheaton. But stories like these transcend rivalries. I respect Wheaton College as an institution, and the college will be treated with the utmost respect that it deserves in this post.

That last sentence is hard to follow through on when you consider that the accusations facing five football players at the school could be true.

Yesterday I saw a news story pop up on my Facebook feed that felony charges were being filed against five Wheaton football players for a hazing incident back in March of 2016. The Tribune article I linked to there includes some details from the accuser about what exactly happened. As I understand the timeline to be, police got involved pretty much immediately and began an investigation. The college did too, and considering that got a third party involved, the allegations have some degree of merit.

Photo collage by Lou Foglia (Chicago Tribune)

D3 Football picked up the story as well, and the college issued a full statement last night, but something about this whole situation stinks. I don't think Mike Swider engaged in a coverup, and any parallels to the whole Penn State fiasco don't fit because the bar is way too high. It's clearly a bad situation though, even though we're still at a stage of "innocent until proven guilty." But if after 18 months DuPage County thinks it has a strong case for felony charges, I would imagine there's got to be something there.

The response so far from Wheaton is a little troubling though, and maybe that's why I feel like the situation stinks. Of the five accused players, three of them just played in Wheaton's win over Carthage this past Saturday. At this point, even with my advocation for due process, I'd argue that there's enough here that these players should not see the field this weekend or for the foreseeable future. I'm also an advocate that the welfare of students should not take priority over wins and losses, and keeping these players on the field given their status does the opposite.

I'm hopeful that through all of this, justice is served, the alleged victim finds closure, and that Wheaton College does the right thing.