There’s been a lot of chatter in the sports world and also in the Greek world about Dez Bryant’s stand against carrying veteran Roy Williams’ shoulder pads. What is very interesting is that the chatter has been anti-Bryant in the sports world, as evidenced by the video that John Shertzer made (bottom of the page), but very pro-Bryant in the Greek world. An excellent post was published on AFLV’s blog about the double standard this represents.
A Greekchat session on Tuesday discussed hazing (see the transcript here), and one thing that seemed clear is that Greeks are ahead of the curve on this issue, or at least the Greeks who participated in the discussion. Because of the incredible scrutiny that fraternities and sororities are under with regard to “risk management” issues and hazing in particular, national offices have taken a strong stand against hazing in all of its forms (and being forced to carry shoulder pads, under threat of bring taped to goalposts, is certainly one form).
Bryant’s stand against juvenile “rites of passage” is laudable, but I think it’s lacking something to make it a benchmark moment. Bryant’s stated reasons for not carrying Roy Williams’ shoulder pads are perfectly logical. The man was drafted to play football, not carry gear. Unfortunately, this rationale, at face value, was misinterpreted as selfish, and allowed the sports punditry to proclaim that he was just being egocentric, that all the other veterans did it and who is he to break tradition…and I think we’ve all heard these justifications for hazing before.
While it may not be Bryant’s place to do so (his job is to play football), he could have made this less about a locker room kafuffle and more about the larger issue of hazing being prevalent in places outside of Greek Row. He could have taken a principled stand against hazing in sports teams, marching bands, the armed forces, and wherever else it occurs. By calling out the NFL and the other bodies that tacitly allow hazing, he would have changed the conversation from “should he have just carried the pads to avoid the hassle?” to “whoa, hazing is all over the place…we’re glad he pointed it out.” After all, it’s a lot easier to call a multi-million dollar athlete selfish than it is to come out as someone who thinks Bryant is wrong because hazing is right.
Unfortunately, Bryant ended up apologizing and carrying the pads. We can only speculate as to why, exactly, but I’d speculate that he did so because the media got on his case pretty badly, and if they had been more supportive of Bryant, then Williams and all the other veterans would be carrying their own pads.
In the end, the Greeks will continue to lead the way against hazing. The tricky bit, as many Greekchat participants talked about, will be stomping it out within the Greek community first.
What do you think about Bryant? Should he have taken a stronger stand? No stand at all? How about the double standard?
Some Hazing Resources:
- Making the Team- Inside the World of Sports Initiations and Hazing
As an OSU student and a great supporter of Dez (Dez for Prez!) and all of his actions I believe he was right. Also the video from John’s blog I was hazed in highschool, then I hazed freshman and was also hazed my freshman year in track at OSU which is nothing compared to what they do for OSU football. But this is just the mentality for sports there are no stellar students past college sports just meatheada for the most part.
I think its important to understand what is tradition and what is hazing, and where those two lines cross to make for negative and harmful exploitation.
[...] and student organizations have all been guilty, and that’s just in the scholastic setting. Hazing in the NFL, for example, was brought to light earlier this year due to an incident with Dallas Cowboys rookie [...]