While there are still many questions let unanswered after the alleged involvement of Michigan State football players in a seemingly random act of violence committed against students in a university dorm, SB Nation's The Only Colors is readying their reaction, and it is both swift and severe.
If there were, in fact, one or more football players involved in what, if the initial report is at all accurate, was a premeditated act of pure thuggery (and all signs point to yes on players being involved) those players need to be dismissed from both the team and the university with all dispatch.
I don't care if there was only one football player in the group. I don't care if none of the players involved were the individuals wearing the ski masks. I don't care if a player just happened to tag along because he ran into the group as it walked to the dorm. I don't care if dismissing a player is likely to lead that player down a path toward lifelong ruin. And I certainly don't care what impact any player's dismissal will have on the team's fortunes in its bowl game and/or the 2010 season.
Further, a clear message needs to be delivered to the entire Michigan State football team that the level of tolerance for violence and any other form of law-breaking is now exactly zero. No more second chances. You get a first chance. And then you're done.
They go on to say that ultimately, any decisions made will be the responsibility not of head coach Mark Dantonio, but rather university President Lou Anna Simon.