Kodos
05-18-2005, 03:49 PM
I'm finding myself already disappointed in the new Dolphins coach, Nick Saban. He seems to subscribe to the Jimmy Johnson theory that if a player has any chance to help your team on the field, you should utterly disregard anything he may have done off the field, no matter how distasteful his actions may have been. Would you rather your team try to avoid players who have been involved in off-the-field issues like this Elam guy, or would you rather disregard off-field behavior entirely in order to get the best athletes possible?
From the Miami Sentinel. (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-abram051805,0,3064348.story?coll=sfla-dolphins-front)
Chicago woman outraged at Dolphins for signing player who assaulted her
By David Haugh
Chicago Tribune
Posted May 18 2005, 10:22 AM EDT
She feared the Bears might draft or sign Abram Elam and make her afraid to walk around the corner outside the Chicago apartment building where she lives, not knowing if Elam might be on the other side.
It probably sounds unfair or irrational to people who never have experienced the feeling they were raped, she said matter-of-factly.
But that was the mind-set she had scanning the sports pages daily since the NFL draft to see if any team had signed Elam, a man convicted of committing sexual battery against her three years ago.
She waited, and worried every day until Tuesday, when the woman who alleged four former Notre Dame football players assaulted her sexually in March 2002 seethed upon learning Elam, the only man convicted in the incident, had signed a contract with the Miami Dolphins.
"Abram Elam is living his dream, while I continue to have nightmares of the attack I endured at his hands over three years ago," said the woman, currently living and working in Chicago. "I can only hope that every football fan who has a mother, daughter, wife, sister, girlfriend or female friend, will express their outrage at this injustice."
Elam, an undrafted safety who finished his career at Kent State after being expelled from Notre Dame because of the off-campus incident, participated in this week's rookie mini-camp with the Dolphins. He has declined all interview requests.
Dolphins coach Nick Saban, a friend and former colleague of ex-Kent State coach Dean Pees, saw enough in Elam's skills during a tryout last month to consider him worth any public-relations risk.
Still a long shot to make the 53-man roster, the 6-foot, 205-pound Elam figures to be a candidate for the practice squad.
"Everyone can fully understand and appreciate that we do our diligence and background checks in finding out as much as possible about any player we bring to this organization, especially when someone has as significant a background issue as this young man," Saban told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Saban initially balked at signing Elam for fear of the fallout but changed his mind.
"I didn't think that was really fair to him, based on our research, in what he has done to show he has learned from his lesson and having done a very positive job in trying to get himself moving in the right direction," he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Dolphins Senior Vice President Harvey Greene said the team had not received any phone calls or e-mails in protest of Elam's signing.
But Kathy Redmond, president of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, criticized the win-at-all-costs attitude she perceives in the NFL and NCAA and hoped the backlash would be so great the Dolphins would reconsider the move and cut Elam.
"It is sad that the Miami Dolphins are so desperate for a winning record that they have to bring yet another sex offender into the state of Florida," Redmond said. "This is a man who … was convicted."
After the first of four separate scheduled trials in the incident in August 2003, a jury found Elam guilty of felony sexual battery and he received an 18-month suspended sentence, 2 years' probation and 200 hours of community service. He was acquitted on charges of conspiracy to commit rape and criminal deviate conduct.
The charges against former Notre Dame players Lorenzo Crawford and Justin Smith were dropped in 2003 after ex-teammate Donald Dykes was acquitted.
Elam returned to his hometown of Riviera Beach, Fla., before enrolling at Kent State last season. He started 11 games and made 64 tackles. More important, he behaved well enough to earn the respect of Pees—who worked under Saban at Michigan State.
Cleveland, New England and Green Bay also researched Elam's past after he went undrafted, but Saban and the Dolphins made the first offer. The NFL does not have a policy forbidding teams from signing convicted felons, although lawmakers such as Wisconsin Rep. Dave Travis have introduced legislation in the past that would make it illegal.
"The problem of athlete violence will continue as long as society in general, and the NFL in particular, keeps rewarding these criminals," the victim in Chicago said.
Dykes, a defensive back who finished his career at Tuskegee University in Alabama, worked out for the Jacksonville Jaguars but has not landed with an NFL team, according to a Tuskegee athletic department spokesman. Not yet anyway.
From the Miami Sentinel. (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-abram051805,0,3064348.story?coll=sfla-dolphins-front)
Chicago woman outraged at Dolphins for signing player who assaulted her
By David Haugh
Chicago Tribune
Posted May 18 2005, 10:22 AM EDT
She feared the Bears might draft or sign Abram Elam and make her afraid to walk around the corner outside the Chicago apartment building where she lives, not knowing if Elam might be on the other side.
It probably sounds unfair or irrational to people who never have experienced the feeling they were raped, she said matter-of-factly.
But that was the mind-set she had scanning the sports pages daily since the NFL draft to see if any team had signed Elam, a man convicted of committing sexual battery against her three years ago.
She waited, and worried every day until Tuesday, when the woman who alleged four former Notre Dame football players assaulted her sexually in March 2002 seethed upon learning Elam, the only man convicted in the incident, had signed a contract with the Miami Dolphins.
"Abram Elam is living his dream, while I continue to have nightmares of the attack I endured at his hands over three years ago," said the woman, currently living and working in Chicago. "I can only hope that every football fan who has a mother, daughter, wife, sister, girlfriend or female friend, will express their outrage at this injustice."
Elam, an undrafted safety who finished his career at Kent State after being expelled from Notre Dame because of the off-campus incident, participated in this week's rookie mini-camp with the Dolphins. He has declined all interview requests.
Dolphins coach Nick Saban, a friend and former colleague of ex-Kent State coach Dean Pees, saw enough in Elam's skills during a tryout last month to consider him worth any public-relations risk.
Still a long shot to make the 53-man roster, the 6-foot, 205-pound Elam figures to be a candidate for the practice squad.
"Everyone can fully understand and appreciate that we do our diligence and background checks in finding out as much as possible about any player we bring to this organization, especially when someone has as significant a background issue as this young man," Saban told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Saban initially balked at signing Elam for fear of the fallout but changed his mind.
"I didn't think that was really fair to him, based on our research, in what he has done to show he has learned from his lesson and having done a very positive job in trying to get himself moving in the right direction," he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Dolphins Senior Vice President Harvey Greene said the team had not received any phone calls or e-mails in protest of Elam's signing.
But Kathy Redmond, president of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, criticized the win-at-all-costs attitude she perceives in the NFL and NCAA and hoped the backlash would be so great the Dolphins would reconsider the move and cut Elam.
"It is sad that the Miami Dolphins are so desperate for a winning record that they have to bring yet another sex offender into the state of Florida," Redmond said. "This is a man who … was convicted."
After the first of four separate scheduled trials in the incident in August 2003, a jury found Elam guilty of felony sexual battery and he received an 18-month suspended sentence, 2 years' probation and 200 hours of community service. He was acquitted on charges of conspiracy to commit rape and criminal deviate conduct.
The charges against former Notre Dame players Lorenzo Crawford and Justin Smith were dropped in 2003 after ex-teammate Donald Dykes was acquitted.
Elam returned to his hometown of Riviera Beach, Fla., before enrolling at Kent State last season. He started 11 games and made 64 tackles. More important, he behaved well enough to earn the respect of Pees—who worked under Saban at Michigan State.
Cleveland, New England and Green Bay also researched Elam's past after he went undrafted, but Saban and the Dolphins made the first offer. The NFL does not have a policy forbidding teams from signing convicted felons, although lawmakers such as Wisconsin Rep. Dave Travis have introduced legislation in the past that would make it illegal.
"The problem of athlete violence will continue as long as society in general, and the NFL in particular, keeps rewarding these criminals," the victim in Chicago said.
Dykes, a defensive back who finished his career at Tuskegee University in Alabama, worked out for the Jacksonville Jaguars but has not landed with an NFL team, according to a Tuskegee athletic department spokesman. Not yet anyway.