Opinion: Football Schools Forced to Teach Decency

Star Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, last seen in action trying to expose an unsuspecting woman's breasts as she watched a St. Patrick's Day parade, remains a societal menace who doesn't know right from wrong despite his full scholarship enrollment as a student-athlete at Ohio State.

Ohio State has a habit of recruiting dubious student-athletes. As former OSU quarterback Cardale Jones tweeted in 2012: "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come here to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS."

That brings to mind Rutgers football coach Chris Ash's Q&A with The Post's Steve Serby last August.

Ash: "We have what we call a code of conduct, and it's something I took from my time at Ohio State with Urban Meyer. It's how we have to behave away from football; it's about honesty, treat women with respect, no drugs, no stealing, no weapons."

Save it, Coach. Meyer ran an arrested-development, pre-penal colony at Florida, and was paid a fortune to do so. And he is doing the same at Ohio State, being paid even more - well over $6 million per year, plus perks - to be allowed to do so.

So let's review: Between Ohio State and Rutgers, we have two taxpayer and student-funded state university Big 10 football programs - Rutgers, despite its many uniforms, is losing its games while the school is losing its shirt throwing millions at football - that dangle full scholarships to recruit to their campuses players who need to be reminded, or taught for the first time, that criminal conduct should be avoided. Fascinating.

That's right, while enrolled in state-funded institutions of higher learning - and no matter from which state you're recruited - there is a need to be told: "Treat women with respect, no drugs, no stealing, no weapons."

Does that mean recruits should wait until they've finished college - perhaps advancing to the NFL - before resuming or beginning such activities?

So where is the published warning to parents and academics-only students that schools such as Florida, Ohio State and Rutgers recruit and enroll players who need to be told - or reminded - that they shouldn't tote guns, beat women and just say no to committing robberies?

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