A day after a brawl that took the entire sports world by storm between rivals Kansas and Kansas State, Dick Vitale publicly called for Silvio De Sousa in particular to be permanently expelled from the NCAA for the rest of his days.
“Well, just absolutely sickening, unbelievable. The 40 years I’m on TV, I haven’t seen anything like that, unless you go to the NBA and the Pistons’ brawl that took place at the Palace. I think there’s no doubt in my mind that De Sousa never, ever should put a uniform on in college basketball again," Vitale said during ESPN's broadcast of Miami at Duke. "He’s holding a chair. I mean, that’s criminal! He’s going to hurt somebody! I mean, I don’t want to hear any excuse that ‘They stole the ball with time running out, they should never have done such a thing.’ Give me a break. That was ugly.”
https://www.si.com/college/2020/01/22/dick-vitale-silvio-de-sousa-ban-kansas-fight
A day after the fight, Silvio De Sousa issued a genuine apology on his twitter feed. He took full responsibility, didn’t place the blame elsewhere, expressed his regret and articulated how thankful he was to always have the love and support from Kansas University and fans. All I can say to that is live and learn young fella, there is a blessing in every lesson.
https://twitter.com/silviodesousa5/status/1220160517496606726?s=21
The expected punishment has been handed out,
“ The Big 12 suspended four players from Kansas and Kansas State a combined 25 games Wednesday for their roles in a melee that spilled off the court and into a section of disabled seating in Allen Fieldhouse near the end of the third-ranked Jayhawks' win over the Wildcats.
Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa, who already was suspended indefinitely by Jayhawks coach Bill Self, was given a 12-game suspension by the league office. His teammate, David McCormack, was suspended two games while Kansas State forward James Love received an eight-game suspension and Antonio Gordon got a three-game suspension.
Both schools also were reprimanded by the Big 12 for violations of its sportsmanship policy.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/kansas-coach-self-school-preparing-punishment-brawl-163631529--ncaab.html
After the punishments had been handed out, Vitale took to Twitter to voice his disapproval of what he called “light penalties”
The @Big12Conference has passed down it’s ruling on the ugly fiasco that took place in Kansas. I am shocked how light the penalties were considering how dangerous that fracas was. In the case of Silvio DeSousa I thought the minimum should have been the entire season.
https://twitter.com/dickiev/status/1220136810036301825?s=21
Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated wrote an article titled “Silvio De Sousa Gets Off Easy With Punishment for Kansas-Kansas State Brawl
https://www.si.com/college/2020/01/23/silvio-de-sousa-gets-off-easy-kansas-kstate-brawl
Which brings me to:
The over-criminalization of Black Boys.
I’m not saying that he shouldn’t have been punished, but the collegiate death penalty is a bit much. Many have made the case of what “could have happened” had De Sousa swung the barstool he picked up. But let’s fully examine what actually occurred. Yes he picked up the barstoool. And yes there was an unnamed photographer who calmly attempted to grab the barstool, and Kansas assistant coach Jerrance Howard was also there to intercede as well if De Sousa hadn’t already had a moment of clarity and dropped the barstool on his own admission. But let’s be honest, De Sousa is 6’9 250, If he wanted to use it, no scrawny reporter (no offense of course) was going to stop him with one hand. The fact is, he dropped it on his own. So those making the case of what could have occurred, aren’t paying attention or concerned with the fact that he wasn’t stopped from using it, he stopped himself.
The reality is, this was a fight. Nothing criminal occurred, it was a fight. It was against NCAA rules, thus the suspensions, but the words “criminal assault” that have been a recklessly thrown around seem to only come from pale lips when describing Black Men.
Again, I’m not making a case for no punishment.
In fact, if I were speaking directly to De Sousa, or any other young Black Men like the AAU team I coach FBCG Dynamic Disciples, my message would be that you cannot put yourself in a position where you will be at the mercy of the courts, the police, in school, or in this case, the NCAA. Why ? Because you are going to have people in Mainstream America who will call for your head on a platter. Who will portray you as a menace to society, a criminal, and someone who needs to be taught a lesson as your actions prove that you are ungrateful to everything they have given you.
I would also explain to them that it doesn’t matter what your white counterparts have done. So it’s pointless to bring up the many infractions of Grayson Allen and him never being called a thug or a menace, or the fact that the same people who are now “outraged” at the “horrific” “sickening” display in front of the children of America , also tune in and attend (with their children) hockey games every night where fights are not only commonplace but encouraged.
I would explain that it doesn’t matter that bench clearing brawls that occur in baseball typically never results in anyone being called a thug or pursuits of criminal charges of any kind. Even when a player charges the pitcher’s mound carrying his bat like Jon Snow ready to slice through the Night Walkers.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-cuban-baseball-brawl-20140218-story.html
Or other mound charging incidents https://bleacherreport.com/articles/808444-10-most-surprising-mound-charging-moments-ever
Or when hockey players have actually used their stick as a weapon
https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/13/barstool-sports-hockey-stick-swing-video/
I would explain that in this society, there are different rules for us. And as seen by the likes of Dick Vitale, Pat Forde, and many of the people outraged at the perceived light sentence handed down by the NCAA, those different rules are not going anywhere anytime soon.
