Since the beginning of the Dominic Jones trial, the story has repeatedly turned up as one of the most e-mailed and most viewed at StarTribune.com. It's probably safe to assume that prurient interest, coupled with the popularity of big-time college athletics, has driven much of the traffic.
But surely some who have followed the drama are parents of high school and college students who view the lurid details from a very different perspective. A jury decides guilt or innocence. In the end, though, none of the participants appears completely blameless, and none will emerge unharmed.
Not Jones, whose athletic career has been derailed. Not the bit players, whose names and reputations will forever be linked to the events of April 4, 2007. And certainly not the woman who alleged that she was raped while passed out after a night of heavy drinking.
You may wonder if the trial deserved full-tilt media attention or if local TV producers and newspaper editors tossed aside traditional news values in their competition for viewers and readers. Jones was a promising Gophers defensive back but certainly not a household name or Heisman Trophy candidate. Did the trial really deserve gavel-to-gavel coverage? Unfortunately, yes.
The Jones trial once again revealed the dark side of college sports, where some athletes see themselves as gods who can reject societal norms and common decency. The case also is an indictment of a campus culture that condones binge drinking and casual sex with multiple partners, all conveniently captured on cell-phone videos that can be shared with friends.
Before we can make any progress in dealing with these issues, before we can talk to our kids about their own decisions, we have to see the damage that's done when individuals fail to take responsibility for their actions. The Jones trial has been a very sad, regrettable case study in real consequences, much like the recent binge-drinking deaths of Minnesota college students.
If we pretend that all is well on the campuses, we'll continue to pay the price in damaged and lost lives. One cell-phone video can ruin reputations and forever alter lives; a night of binge drinking to celebrate a 21st birthday can end one.
Administrators, coaches, faculty, parents and students should all be talking about the Jones case and what it says about campus life and values in 2008. It would be much more comfortable to write it off as an isolated incident, but that would be a missed opportunity.
