Take the lede: "The most damning character assassination of Ben Roethlisberger in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him, an incident that earned him a four to six game NFL suspension Wednesday, didn’t come in that salacious 527-page Georgia police report."
"Character assassination" is a phrase usually reserved a person whose character is being unjustly maligned. That's not the case here. And you know what? The 527 page report isn't salacious--the actions of the person being described in that report are what is salacious (and that's being kind, frankly).
Here's how I would have edited that lede, if I were in charge over there:
"The most damning character assessment of Ben Roethlisberger in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him, an incident that earned him a four to six game NFL suspension Wednesday, didn't come from his actions as detailed in an exhaustive 527-page Georgia police report."
Change two words, and you get a much clearer image of what is being talked about here. Why Dan is dancing around the issue, I don't know.
That tone continues, continually making a rape charge that didn't quite have enough evidence sound like just a Boy Who Won't Settle Down.
Consider: "[The Steelers management is] so concerned Roethlisberger isn’t going to suddenly settle down with a nice girl and live a quiet life that they are willing to cut bait with a franchise quarterback – the most prized possession in the NFL."
Let's be clear--The Steelers don't care if Ben has crazy sex out of wedlock--threesomes, glory holes, who gives a fuck. They don't care if he gets married. They care about whether he might get accused of RAPE again. There's a clear difference there, yeah?
But Wetzel suggests that some of Ben's decisions that night were good ones: "He had a designated driver and security team in tow. He got pictures of him drinking erased. Those are actually mature decisions."
Indisputably, having a designated driver is not immature. Calling that mature might be strong, but we'll take what we can get. Having a security team in tow might be mature--unless you are using that security team to isolate one drunk girl from her friends, which is what Ben did. Someone will have to explain to me how having photographs of you being immature erased counts as maturity. It certainly sounds pragmatic, but it doesn't wow me with The Maturity. Ben doesn't want to be drunk on Deadspin again--huzzah, mature Ben.
The tone continues throughout. Even at the end, here's how Wetzel wraps up: "And their actions are saying they have doubts this is the last we hear of Ben Roethlisberger getting in trouble, that this is a bad dude, not a good guy, who got jammed up one night in Georgia."
Jammed up? That's an overly nice way of describing a narrowly escaped rape beef.
"Character assassination" is a phrase usually reserved a person whose character is being unjustly maligned. That's not the case here. And you know what? The 527 page report isn't salacious--the actions of the person being described in that report are what is salacious (and that's being kind, frankly).
Here's how I would have edited that lede, if I were in charge over there:
"The most damning character assessment of Ben Roethlisberger in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him, an incident that earned him a four to six game NFL suspension Wednesday, didn't come from his actions as detailed in an exhaustive 527-page Georgia police report."
Change two words, and you get a much clearer image of what is being talked about here. Why Dan is dancing around the issue, I don't know.
That tone continues, continually making a rape charge that didn't quite have enough evidence sound like just a Boy Who Won't Settle Down.
Consider: "[The Steelers management is] so concerned Roethlisberger isn’t going to suddenly settle down with a nice girl and live a quiet life that they are willing to cut bait with a franchise quarterback – the most prized possession in the NFL."
Let's be clear--The Steelers don't care if Ben has crazy sex out of wedlock--threesomes, glory holes, who gives a fuck. They don't care if he gets married. They care about whether he might get accused of RAPE again. There's a clear difference there, yeah?
But Wetzel suggests that some of Ben's decisions that night were good ones: "He had a designated driver and security team in tow. He got pictures of him drinking erased. Those are actually mature decisions."
Indisputably, having a designated driver is not immature. Calling that mature might be strong, but we'll take what we can get. Having a security team in tow might be mature--unless you are using that security team to isolate one drunk girl from her friends, which is what Ben did. Someone will have to explain to me how having photographs of you being immature erased counts as maturity. It certainly sounds pragmatic, but it doesn't wow me with The Maturity. Ben doesn't want to be drunk on Deadspin again--huzzah, mature Ben.
The tone continues throughout. Even at the end, here's how Wetzel wraps up: "And their actions are saying they have doubts this is the last we hear of Ben Roethlisberger getting in trouble, that this is a bad dude, not a good guy, who got jammed up one night in Georgia."
Jammed up? That's an overly nice way of describing a narrowly escaped rape beef.
1 comment:
I thought the issue was that Rapistberger was "jamming up" drunk girls.
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