WHY WOULD A PARENT, JEWISH OR NOT, SEND A CHILD TO MICHIGAN STATE?
Starting with the Larry Nassar atrocity and worsened by the Mel Tucker firing, a Big Ten school continues in self-disgrace by allowing an image of Adolf Hitler to appear on its pregame video board
We could examine other universities for murders, abductions, gang rapes. But it’s difficult to believe any American campus is more twisted than Michigan State, where I once saw the burning of an apartment carpet. The fact Larry Nassar was stabbed 10 times in federal prison last July, according to a warden at the Florida facility, doesn’t detract from the doctor’s 175-year sentence for sexually abusing women and girls at the school.
But now we have a football season when head coach Mel Tucker was fired. He’s about to lose more than $80 million after sexual harassment allegations were filed against him by Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor who spoke to the team about sexual violence. And as the Spartans crash on the field, an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on a video board at their home stadium Saturday night.
Any athletic program that allows such derangement should be banished with an institutional death penalty. As fans entered Spartan Stadium for a predictable rout against second-ranked Michigan, Hitler’s face and Austrian birthplace were shown in large depictions. At no place in time should such a sight be part of any socially choreographed event, yet to watch it during a war between Israel and Hamas was beyond-the-brain stunning.
Why? Leave it to Michigan State to hire a third-party source — not bothering to monitor its own content — and place likenesses on a board seen by 75,000 people and, in this case, millions on social media. Rather than hire its own contractor, the school used a YouTube device known as “The Quiz Channel.” Sounds cheap to me, despite the money returned from Tucker, and shortly after Hitler was viewed, the creator and producer said the university didn’t ask for his permission and that he wasn’t compensated.
“It’s an absolutely normal trivia question, shown in an inappropriate setting,” Floris van Pallandt wrote on his YouTube page. “Ignoring the dark facets of history is by no means the answer, on the contrary.”
That van Pallandt has Hitler on his “General Knowledge Trivia Quiz (part 18)” involves its own defects. That any school could summon it for pregame mobs — imbibed on pitchers of beer, trying to avoid brawls between bitter rivals in the stadium tunnels — speaks of a school unworthy of Big Ten Conference status. As it is, Northwestern is dealing with counter lawsuits and the aftereffects of hazing, and Iowa has athletes charged in illegal sports wagering. Now Michigan State is acting like it’s run by a frat house.
“Before it was displayed, the video was not viewed in its entirety by anyone in athletics, exposing a failure in our process,” athletic director Alan Haller said. “The video was not part of a sponsorship and had no affiliation with any of our corporate partners or our community. An initial assessment was conducted, and an involved employee has been identified and suspended with pay pending the results of an investigation.”
An involved employee? That would be Haller, the man in charge. “Ultimately, it is my responsibility to make sure all those who interact with Spartan Athletics feel safe, valued and respected,” the sports boss said. “The image was harmful to our communities, especially our Jewish community which is currently experiencing a rise in antisemitism, including acts of violence. I understand our response might be met with skepticism. That skepticism is warranted, and we will do all that is necessary to earn back your trust.”
Said interim university President Teresa Woodruff: “I am deeply sorry for the image displayed at Spartan Stadium, which made many of our community feel alienated and unsafe. It was unacceptable. I asked last evening for a full review of this university event and will take all necessary steps to align our messages and actions to our values.
“I will work with our Jewish community and every member of minoritized populations to ensure Spartans feel that this is a place where everyone can live, work, go to class and attend events that are welcoming.”
In the realigned Big Ten, Michigan State will receive around $75 million a year for its massive troubles. Larry Nassar was a life sentence. Mel Tucker is a contaminate of violence. Adolf Hitler?
Why would any parent, Jewish or otherwise, send a kid to East Lansing?
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.