Nihon University Disbands Its American Football Team
In Japan and most everywhere else, "football" means soccer. In the US, "football" means what everywhere else refers to as American football.
Tokyo's Nihon University's American football team, which was founded in 1940, was a pioneering force for American football in Japan. The team scandal began when one student was caught hiding marijuana in his student dorm in August. At that time Nihon University closed the dormitory and suspended team activities indefinitely. At the end of November, the university moved to disband the team after four team members were arrested over possession or purchase of illegal drugs.
Team members presented the university with a petition seeking to reverse the decision and requested the board to allow members not involved in the scandal to continue playing. Former players from the school's historic American football rival, Kwansei Gakuin University, submitted a petition with 30,000 signatures in support of the Nihon University team. This was to no avail. The university's board decided to disband the team, but said it would eventually consider restarting the team.
Possessing or using illegal drugs is a very serious offense in Japan.
6 comments:
Hopefully the culprit has learned a lesson.
That's so wild - they'd have to disband every college team in America if they followed this policy.
Hello Pamela: I stand by the U's decision, the law is the law there should not have been any drugs of any kind that are illegal, the teammates should also police their own team to make sure this does not happen, Bravo to the University.
I hope I do not upset anyone by my comment, if you need to delete it I will be okay.
Catherine
This is very disappointing news. Even more unfortunate and frightening is the current situation in Japan, where the number of people, from students to adults, who possess or use illegal drugs is increasing.
I hope the university seriously considers the future of the students who were not involved the incident.
It is very unfair to the students who have not been involved.
Unfortunately, sometimes there has to be full media attention and debate about a problem like this. Drugs should not be tolerated. It should be made clear that the consequences of these players' behaviour are shameful and a disgrace.
Wow! I get that drug charges are serious, but it seems unfair to punish the whole team (and in some sense, the whole school) for the actions of a couple students.
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