More fallout after rape case against UW football player
More fallout in the rape case against a University of Washington football player.
KIRO 7 learned his roommate has just been suspended. Diesel Gordon is a defensive back and lives with Tylin Rogers, who was just charged with raping two women.
University of Washington officials are telling us the two suspensions are not related. That new head coach Jedd Fisch announced the suspension last night.
But Sports Illustrated broke the news that Diesel Gordon was the roommate of Tylin Rogers.
All of it is placing an unflattering spotlight on this Husky football program.
This was Tylin Rogers playing in the UW/Stanford game on October 28th, the same day a college student reported to police that he had raped her.
And the running back continued to play football every weekend the Huskies played until November, when he was suddenly suspended. The university said because of “challenges he was having off the field.”
“When you are in sports, and you see a case like this, you automatically wonder was this a miscommunication?” asked Stacy Rost. “Was this a cover up?”
KIRO TV guest football analyst Rost says now that the rape allegations have surfaced, the situation raises even more questions.
“There seems to be some of suspension, some kind of rationale that he should not be traveling,” Rost said. “And yet, then he shows up in the two playoff games.”
Indeed, Rogers played in the last two games of the season, including their losing effort for the National Championship.
“Institutions struggle,” said Dr. Sharon Stoll. “And they struggle heartily over this sort of thing.”
But it is no struggle for Stoll, Director of the Center for ETHICS, Recreation, Sport, and Tourism Management at the University of Idaho. She thinks Rogers should have been out, from the start.
“The law is socialized ethics,” she said. “Ethics is greater than the law. So I would argue that the young man should have been on suspension until it was resolved.”
Dr. Stoll says that is protect him as well as the two women accusing him of rape.
Rogers remains free on $300,000 bail.
