A footnote about Derrick Gragg

[jimmyNU]

A friend of mine who is not on Rivals pointed this out yesterday. Perhaps it has already been mentioned here. While at Vanderbilt, Gragg was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. I realize that Wikipedia is not thoroughly vetted source for information, but a quick search shows multiple references to "beating pledges" and other intense hazing. I believe Kappa Alpha Psi is one of the fraternities that has used a hot iron brand on members. My friend and I both wonder if his KAP experiences may have played in role in how seriously Gragg took these allegations, or even prior rumors about hazing if he heard any.

 

[FeralFelidae]

If only Gragg were a footnote.

And no, I don't think Gragg heard rumors of hazing.

 

[NUCat320]

Gragg was not empowered to take the allegations seriously. He was empowered to not be around when the release came out however.

 

[Sheffielder]

I have no doubt in Gragg's student era, he experienced hazing. That has nothing to do with how this event has all unfolded.

For anyone reading this who is in charge of anything at all: imagine if you were literally responsible for the worst behaviors of ~125 people at any given time, and you swap out 25-30 of those people each year. Or imagine that your work as a manager or business owner in a field that no one takes delight in watching was actually scrutinized by millions of onlookers and the national media.

It's basically a doomsday scenario and just a matter of time before one or two cases you didn't take seriously spiral out of control. 17 years into the gig, it's not hard to see how this all went the way it did.

 

[TheC]

I have no doubt in Gragg's student era, he experienced hazing. That has nothing to do with how this event has all unfolded.

For anyone reading this who is in charge of anything at all: imagine if you were literally responsible for the worst behaviors of ~125 people at any given time, and you swap out 25-30 of those people each year. Or imagine that your work as a manager or business owner in a field that no one takes delight in watching was actually scrutinized by millions of onlookers and the national media.

It's basically a doomsday scenario and just a matter of time before one or two cases you didn't take seriously spiral out of control. 17 years into the gig, it's not hard to see how this all went the way it did.

If it were only one or two recent cases that were just discovered, I think this would be a different conversation. The fact that players from multiple teams are claiming this has been going on for a while changes things... at least for me.