Over the weekend, Missouri star receiver Dorial Green-Beckham was kicked off the Tigers football team. Green-Beckham was accused of breaking into an 18-year-old Missouri student's apartment while looking for his girlfriend and of pushing the young woman down a flight of stairs.
This is not Green-Beckham's first run-in with the law. He was arrested in January with two other men when police found a pound of marijuana in the car. Before that, he was charged with marijuana possession in October 2012.
On the surface, it doesn't look like major news that a college athlete was kicked off the team for breaking the law. But a look closer shows the need for a frank discussion about Missouri football.
The Kansas City Star reports that Green-Beckham's girlfriend allegedly sent 16 text messages to the break-in victim. Those text messages should be major concerns to the Missouri administration.
In the police report, Green-Beckham's girlfriend was quoted in text messages saying the football player "drug me out by my neck and hurt me" and "I'm not sticking up for him but football is really all he has going for him and pressing charges would ruin it for him completely. ..."
I wonder how much Missouri coaches knew what was going on with Green-Beckham and his girlfriend. The text information alludes this kind of domestic violence is not a one-time incident.
Another text exchange makes you wonder even more. Green-Beckham's girlfriend wrote to the victim, "You can do and say whatever you want about this. We just need to move quickly on this before he's arrested and before his warrant is made public. He will be kicked out of Mizzou and (then) not qualify for the draft next year. The coaches talked to me and explained ... how serious this is and there's no time to waste at this point."
Missouri coaches deny speaking to the girlfriend, and she now says she was just relaying information that the coaches told Green-Beckham. It seems like Tigers coaches are trying to cover up or, at least, do major spin control of this event.
The victim declined to press charges, saying she was afraid of retaliation against her and potential backlash for bringing charges against a star football player. If this is how female victims at the University of Missouri feel, the culture needs to change.
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