Navy?s 2006 football season gets underway Wednesday with its media day, exactly a month before the Midshipmen play their first game against East Carolina.
The mood in Annapolis should be a positive one as Navy, the reigning holder of the Commander-in-Chief Trophy, has qualified for a bowl game the last three years while winning two of them.
However, the discussion between the media and the Naval Academy players, coaches and staff will eventually turn to the recently concluded rape trial of former quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr. Owens, who led Navy to a win in last season?s Poinsettia Bowl, was acquitted of raping a fellow midshipman, but convicted of two lesser charges.
No one except Owens and his accuser will ever know exactly what went on in her room at Bancroft Hall. According to articles published in The Examiner, both testified that sexual intercourse occurred, but the accuser said it was not consensual while the jury believed Owens? version that it was consensual with him stopping after he realized the woman was unconscious.
What is indisputable is that alcohol played a major factor in this life-altering event for Owens and the woman. Both Owens and his accuser testified that they had several drinks over the course of that night leading to the events in question. Some reports said the woman had eight drinks that night, including two shots of tequila.
The men and women who are accepted into this nation?s service academies are supposed to be the best of the best. Whether they enter the Naval Academy the U.S. Military Academy or the Air Force Academy, incoming officers-to-be are supposed to be highly intelligent, in top physical condition and have a set of values and morals that are above reproach.
However, one thing that is often overlooked is that these men and women are also 18- to 22-year-old college students. Unfortunately all too often a big part of college life for many is consuming alcohol. College represents the first taste of independent living for many of these students and the chance to consume alcohol without worrying about parental supervision can be very tempting.
According to researcher Ralph Hingson at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, each year 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 have unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex.
Owens and his accuser fall right into this category. Now, Owens? reputation has gone from that of football Most Valuable Player to someone who, despite the acquittal, will always be considered a rapist in some people?s minds. At the same time, the woman, now a senior, has had her reputation soiled as well.
Unlike on the football field, there are no winners, only losers, in this case at the Naval Academy.
Ron Snyder is a staff writer at The Examiner.
