What's more manly than merely playing college football? How about also playing for Army, the football squad for the United States Military Academy at West Point?
But let's up the ante a little bit — let's say you could play college football, for the Army AND also be recruited to the school with a booze-fueled underage drinking session while being wooed by female cadets and cheerleaders?
That's the manly mother load of stereotypes that was fulfilled this week when the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that West Point's football team was recruiting high school athletes with alcohol and women.
Booze cruise boosters
The Gazette reported that money from Army boosters was used to buy alcohol for the underage recruits at a local bowling alley. The celebrations included cadets ordering "beer towers" which contained quarts that all the athletes, including the high schoolers, could drink freely from.
A charter bus was hired to take the kids home afterward — though not to put an end to the debauchery. The driver allowed them to play loud music, dance in the aisles and use strobe lights from their iPhones, according to the report.
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Apparently, two female cheerleaders also began to make out with each other, and with a football player and recruit. Which, in many cases, would seemingly secure a commitment from most recruits right then and there.
Cover-up exposed
Once this came to the attention of Army higher-ups, there was an immediate punishment plan — and an unfortunate plan to try and pretend it didn't happen.
A month after the incident, West Point officials discovered that head coach Jeff Monken and other football staff knew about the booze-fueled recruiting trip, but didn't tell the NCAA or the necessary school staff.
Players were suspended from a spring practice game, along with two football staff members who were suspended for a week. But the school didn't publicly announce the event, choosing to self-report the violations to the NCAA so that they didn't risk greater punishment.
The news first broke due to the Gazette's work, and would likely have remained unreported otherwise. As a result, the university picked up an NCAA warning and promised that if its coach hid something like this again, he would be looking for a new job.