One of the most gratifying things I have seen in a long time happened this past sunday.  5-2 with one of the greatest individual performances I have seen in any sporting event the us women's national team won the world cup and an entire generation of great women players got the gold that they had been chasing for the better part of two decades.  arguably the best player on that team received the golden glove award for best goal tending performance through out the entire tournament and that was Hope Solo, one of my favorite athletes of any sport. 

 

One of the big debates before the start of the world cup was if she should be allowed to participate in the world cup.  Why you ask?  because in a nutshell one year ago she got drunk and basically beat up an entire side of her family.  one particular individual if im not mistaken was her nephew who is only a couple years younger than Deandre Johnson and stands about 6-4 300 pounds.  By all reports by the time it was over she was essentially slamming his head into the ground. 

 

Full disclosure, i'm a gator fan and loathe scarlet and gold like the plague.  I also ascribe to the concept of chivalry.  I think that men should always error on the side of caution and go out of their way to ensure the safety of ladies both young and old and should devlop thicker skin and patience in the face of conflict.  At the same time the idea that there are no circumstances under which you should ever hit a women is asinine.  Is it different?  yes.  Do I think there should be a greater burden?  yes and in this case we can have a common sense debate about if this instance met that criteria, but if you simply say well just because she's female he's in the wrong then I can't help you.  Also, as I stated above, if you think just because someone is a women that they can't catch you in a moment of vulnerability and cause you great physical harm then that's just stupid. 

 

When I watch the video this is what I see. 

 

1.) the young lady spoke to Deandre First. There Is no audio so that can't be fully verified but its plain to see that for whatever reason she was the one who became animated first and began chirping at Deandre. 

 

2.) You can plainly see that they young lady for whatever reason starts sliding slightly to the left further obstructing his ability to get to the bar and order his Shirley temple. 

 

3.) You can clearly see that as he tries to make his way to the bar she turns to confront him.  The moment she turns, her right fist is raised and clinched.  It's at this time that Deandre does the chivalrous thing and holds her arms down. 

 

4.) as he is holding her arms down she begins taunting him.  He chirps back. 

 

5.) then she attempts to knee him and then swing on him. 

 

At this point in my mind the kid already went through the ok, she's a drunk idiot I am a football player let's just try to control the chick don't hit a woman thing.  At this point its much less a hard and fast rule and how any man would respond is between him and the God he believes in. 

 

Would I have hit her?  probably not.  But then of course that's because if I was single and in college again i'd be thinking of other forms of corrective behavior for a feisty attractive blond but that's another story.  But can I sit here and call him a woman beater?  no.  He was aggressed upon and attacked.  How he responded is a matter of semantics not legality.  I'm sorry that this kid basically just lost his football career as it would have been. 

 

What really troubles me is the way it's being reported.  one site says that after a period of pushing and shoving the VICTIM tries to push him off her and he responds with a vicious punch.  They don't mention the fact that she threatened him with an open fist, tried to knee him and then swung with an open fist at him.  On the radio today you'd think that the debate was about how to respond to being called a racial slur than how to respond when being attacked.  I think that this movement to paint men in the wrong and completely abolish the idea that a man can at any time justly defend himself is a perversion of political correctness that is contributing to a culture that promotes women to behave as they did in the video.  Just ask Stephen A. Smith. 

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