Bill Plaschke: Mater Dei must make changes after video exposes football program culture of hazing
Plastered across one wall of the Mater Dei High School football locker room are the words, "Pride Poise Courage."
What is happening underneath that sign is shameful, brutal, and cowardly.
Two players preparing to fight. The bigger player is 235 pounds. He is smiling. The smaller player is 175 pounds. He is frowning.
The smaller player clearly doesn't want to be here, but he doesn't have a choice. He is new to the nationally renowned Monarch football team and must prove himself. The smaller player must engage the bigger player in a hazing drill called, "Bodies," in which two players pound each other in the torso until one of them drops.
Their combat from Feb. 4 was captured in two chilling videos viewed by The Los Angeles Times, the disturbing images being the centerpiece of a lawsuit filed by the smaller player's family last week against Mater Dei and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.
"Ready…three, two, one…go!"
