THE FACTS?
Miles returns to the team after publicly apologizing for participating in assault of a Seahawks fan after last year’s Superbowl. His team mate, UW receiver Damore’ea Stringfellow, a freshman, was charged for the assault and for an earlier assault on a female Seahawks fan will now pursue the future of his football career at Mississippi.
Based on the account in Tacoma’s News Tribune, Miles involvement in the assault is not contested. The same evening after the Superbowl, Miles and Stringfellow assaulted a female earlier that night, damaging her camera. Later Miles and Stringfellow approached another man and his girlfriend walking in the 2300 block of N.E. 50th Street and asked if they were Seahawks fans. After the man replied yes, Stringfellow and Miles chased him, and Stringfellow began punching the man in the face.
According to charging documents, Miles was “backing Stringfellow and acting aggressively.” But neither the man nor his girlfriend could say for sure if Miles also struck him, so he avoided criminal charges. The King Country prosecutor’s office ultimately declined to file charges against Miles, citing lack of evidence. Stringfellow pleaded guilty to both assaults and was sentenced to five days on a work crew and assessed a $693 fine.
A contrite Miles deemed his suspension from a game “fair,” saying that he’s sorry for what he did and is willing to accept the consequences. “I have no problem with the Seahawks, man. I respect Russell (Wilson) and what he’s done at that program,” Miles said. “Things happen and I take full responsibility for my actions. I messed up big time, and I’m willing to face the consequences and do everything in my power to gain the respect back of Husky fans, my teammates and Coach Pete.”
WHO MADE THIS DECISION
Who makes disciplinary decisions for student athletes, the coach?
Hello Stephen,
I’m writing in from London, England where I’m finishing up my study abroad program.
Needless to say, your question is rhetorical. When I was an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon, I got a middle of the night phone-call from the roommate of a young female student who had been beaten-up by her boy-friend, a student athlete. She was taken to the Sacred Heart Hospital where I witnessewd pictures taken and her treatment for injuries such as an eye that had been swollen shut and knots on her head. Yet, there was no response about this incident came from the campus police or the Eugene Police when I contacted them. My call to the Athletic Department brought: “Don’t worry, coach will take care of it.”
Another case while still at the University of Oregon: A young woman, a non-student and who might described as an athletic groupie, came to my office to report she had been surrounded by a group of student-athletes in front of a night-club just our-side the front entrance of the University a time earlier. She knew most of the student-athletes, but had what might be called a falling out with one of them. He wanted her to do something and she refused. She reported being surrounded by several of them and used in the way of a tackling dummy up against the wall of the club. She reported further that a Eugene Police patrol arrived and broke it up. She came to me, evidently because she thought my reputation of questioning the power of the athletic enterprise meant I could do something about what had happened to her. To get some information, I called the Eugene police but there was no report by the poice on parol of any such incident. The campus police had no eport either. Go figure! Maybe the “coach took care of it.”
On well… as the say here in England, Cheers,
Clarence
A colleague emailed me to correct the name I used in a previous post I made at the AAUP listserv. I referred to the Huskies quarterback as Cyler Hayes.
The Husky quarterback who somehow got off of criminal charges after confessing to a role in assaulting a number of people in the U District is Cyler Miles. My apologies to Cyler Hayes!
It is, however, interesting to compare the mild punishment to young Mr. Miles compared with the massive reaction to Ray Rice after a video proved that he had struck his wife.
A friend of mine with more insight than I do into the Huskies, tells me that Miles is a must have for the Huskies. Certainly the barely eked out victory over Eastern last week supports that hypothesis. Does this justify the lac of any academic punishment for Mr. Miles? Doesn’t a permissive atmosphere at the college level lead to the problems we see in the NFL? What sort of a role model does our Mr. Miles offer to other African American students at the UW?