This is so disgusting. The last line says it all for me. I hope there is a public outcry so the University takes action:

Time for Ole Miss to send a message

The scene was this: a college play, “The Laramie Project,” at the University of Mississippi, Tuesday night. It’s a play about a town in Wyoming and its reaction to the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was tortured, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die. This weekend marks the 15th anniversary of his attack.

It’s a play meant to open minds about differences. And now picture this: In the audience Tuesday, allegedly from a group of roughly 20 Ole Miss football players, came heckling, laughing, homophobic slurs.

“Someone learned to hate like that,” Shepard’s mother, Judy, told me Thursday, shortly after hearing what had happened. “We’re still teaching it. Classic case of bullying.

“This is exactly the kind of behavior that goes on and encourages other people to act on it.”

The kind of behavior that led to your son’s murder?

“Absolutely,” she said.
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“I feel great sadness for them,” she said. “The football players. And greater sadness for the folks who were actually doing the play. It breaks my heart they had to go through the diatribe of thoughtless, cruel people.

“They think they are doing a great piece about social justice, and these clowns start harassing and disrespecting their performance.”

What causes people to act so callously toward humanity? Maybe it’s mob mentality. Hatred is easier when you’re in a group.

When Matthew Shepard’s mother talks about this behavior coming more from sports than other places, a mentality in sports that gays still aren’t accepted, it makes you wonder: Is mob mentality a part of football culture?

The school is investigating the specifics, and football coach Hugh Freeze tweeted, “We certainly do not condone any actions that offend or hurt people in any way. We are working with all departments involved to find the facts.”

Come on. Some facts are known by now. Let’s not wait till after Saturday’s game to send a real message. A report in the school paper, The Daily Mississippian, says an athletic department official showed up after the first act and made the football players apologize following the second.

It’s time to act.

Now.

There is something about football, the overimportance placed on it as more than just entertainment, that tells players that they are above social norms. Time to send a different message: The players who were there should be suspended from the team indefinitely as a starting point.
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“Incidents like this remind all educators that our job is to prepare our students to be leaders in life during their years on campus and after they graduate from Ole Miss,” the statement said. “This behavior by some students reflects poorly on all of us, and it reinforces our commitment to teaching inclusivity and civility to young people who still have much to learn.”
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Shepard said the world is a much better place than it was 15 years ago, when her son was killed.

“But this just proves there’s so much work to be done,” she said. “I thought we were making great strides, and then we find this behavior going on. I wonder if someone in the audience did push back. I would hate to think they intimidated the whole audience.”

The next step from the university is a big one. Some things matter more than football.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootbal ... ard-100313

There are no words....


I actually wondered why they were even at the play, and a different article said it was because of a course requirement. These 20 should be suspended for a specific number of games. Community service.

We'll see what they do.

Imo, this is the classic case of fear. The manly football players trying to out manly each other for fear someone might think they are sensitive and actually care about this young gay man.

I would try to get the same audience back with the same football players and explain this phenomenon. Explain that many times the men who have the greatest doubt about their own sexuality will behave the worst towards homosexuals. Men who are sure of their own sexuality have no need prove anything to anyone. Point out how ridiculous it is for the guys in Wyoming to react to a sensitive sweet young man by brutalizing him. How is that manly? Make the homophobes the "queer" ones. Let them be the target of ridicule. So often these same types show violence towards women. It could do a lot of good to show the manly games for what they are.