NCFisher, I respect you. You've stood toe to toe and continued this discussion in spite of being outnumbered several fold, and that takes a significant measure of fortitude. I salute you for that.
But it comes down to this: Joc Bruce was not killed or seriously injured in that fight. Nor was Jason Croom or whatever team leader actually had that role. What happened was, two high-testosterone, very proud Tennessee football players had a fight over a team tradition. One was upheld by his coaches (and presumably all his teammates) for doing the right thing ... the other decided (or was helped to decide) that perhaps he belongs somewhere else.
That is just about all we think we know. We don't know anything about bullying. We don't know who threw the first punch, or whether it started with pushing and shoving, or whether there were more than two people involved. There's a great deal we don't know.
So our entire conversation about bullying and assault, it's meaningless. It's something we did to amuse ourselves while waiting for football season to get one day closer. Our team is, as far as we know, even healthier today than it was yesterday. Things are getting sorted out.
So I wish you the best for the rest of this evening. Maybe we can argue about baseball versus ballerinas tomorrow.
