NEWS » consent in the eyes of many, while an

ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Falcons signed veteran free-agent safety Dashon Goldson on Sunday.The Falcons will be without rookie starting strong safety Keanu Neal, the first-round pick, for at least the first two regular-season games with a right knee injury. He will have arthroscopic surgery on Monday.Coach Dan Quinn has said that backup Kemal Ishmael would fill in for Neal as the starting strong safety.Goldson, a 2012 All-Pro with the 49ers, had 110 tackles in 15 starts with the Redskins in 2015. He spent his first six seasons with San Francisco and played with Tampa Bay in 2013-14.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL NMD Herr Rea . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Adidas NMD XR1 Sverige . Thousands of Southern California fans enveloped the Trojans to celebrate an improbable win secured by an interim coach, an inconsistent kicker and a thin defence that wouldnt break. http://www.nmdsverige.com/ .C. -- Rodney Hood connected from all over the court while freshman Jabari Parker was busy swatting shots and scoring in transition. Adidas Continental 80 Dam . -- Adam Snyder returned to the San Francisco 49ers this season because the offensive lineman thought it was his best opportunity to win a championship. NMD Bape Sverige . Vokoun departed practice on Saturday morning after discovering swelling in his thigh. He was taken to a local hospital where the clot was revealed. The club announced the surgery following a 5-3 exhibition loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The?New York Knicks?open their season Tuesday night, and all eyes will be on point guard?Derrick Rose. Less than a week after a jury in a civil suit found him and his friends not liable for gang rape, fans and media can now look upon the unfamiliar sight of Rose in a Knicks?jersey?free of guilt.That seems to be the biggest takeaway from the publics reaction to the verdict: relief that we can all go back to talking about basketball -- that we can go back to worrying about Roses health instead of his legal status.And as a lifelong Knicks fan, that just doesnt sit well with me.The first thing that always happens when an athlete is cleared of these types of accusations is for people to take a verdict as a definite statement on guilt or innocence. To be clear: The jurys decision simply means that its members found Rose to be more credible than his accuser. As rape cases tend to go, the truth of what happened on the night in question is likely murkier.Legal experts doubt that criminal charges will be brought against Rose. But without assigning him guilt -- or proclaiming him completely innocent -- the sheer glee with which many reacted to the decision is rather disturbing. The burden of a long rape case -- in which we learned some unsavory things about the accused -- has been lifted from Rose and many fans, but it still rests on his accuser and some of the more conflicted among the Knicks faithful.We dont know for sure what exactly happened on the night in question. But heres what we do know: This case played out as a textbook example of athlete privilege in the court of public opinion. Everyone seemed to forget about the charges when Rose was traded to the Knicks from the Chicago Bulls. Knicks president Phil Jackson insists he was aware of the case, but last month, he refused to answer questions about just how much the team investigated Rose. He said that he was not concerned with the then-pending trial and stated with erroneous optimism that he didnt anticipate Rose would miss any preseason games.As details of the case trickled out, so too did the proven strategy of discrediting an accuser by dredging up her sexual history. Fans came out in full support of Rose. They didnt want to believe a star player could commit such acts, but they were all too willing to believe the exaggerated notion that women are automatically out to get famous men, and that going to a civil trial -- which carries a lower burden of proof than a criminal one -- signaled a desire for money, not justice. That somehow a seven-figure payout can lift the burden of a rape accusation.Heres another thing we know: Derrick Rose does not understand the concept of consent. That seems to be particularly relevant in a case in which the judge deemed consent to be the central issue. It should be noted that Roses?accuser said?she was unconscious at the time, which would settle the consent question. According to Roses toxicology expert, she had a blood alcohol content level of 0.2, which is 2 1/2 times the legal driving limit. A motion filed by the accuser in August states that she was asleep, evidenced by her repeated failure to respond to texts and calls from Rose and another defendant.As ThinkProgress Lindsay Gibbs reported in September, depositions also show that Rose didnt seem particularly concerned with consent on the night in question. When asked whether he and the two other defendants had discussed sex as the purpose for going to the accusers home, Rose said, No, but we men. You can assume.He went on to clarify: I said we men. You can assume. Like we leaving to go over to someones house at 1:00 [a.m.], theres nothing to talk about.And while Roses attorneys used transcripts of text messages in which the accuser invited Rose to her home that evening as evidennce that she ultimately consented to sex, the plain fact is that any inkling of consent is wholly absent from their conversation that night.ddddddddddddFrom the deposition:Q: All right. Is there ?--? within what you just reviewed in those text messages, is there anything within them that would lead you to believe that plaintiff wanted to have sex with you and the other two defendants on August 26th, 2013? ...Rose: No.?Furthermore, the accusers attorney read a portion of the deposition to reporters on a teleconference call in September in which Rose clearly states he does not understand consent:Q: Do you have an understanding as to the word consent? Rose: No but can you tell me? Q: I just wanted to know if you had any understanding. Rose: No.Its extremely telling that, despite heightened awareness on sexual violence in the past couple of years, especially in sports, a star athlete still has no idea what consent is -- nor does he seem particularly concerned with needing to know more. Like his fans, Rose just wants to get back to the basketball court.Roses case highlights the need to continue to have these conversations, to make sure men and women alike understand when it is and is not OK to have sex with someone. This isnt just to protect accusers: If athletes see themselves as such targets for gold-diggers and cleat chasers, you would think theyd want to learn more about consent in order to make sure they always have it.It also underscores the importance of continued educational programs for athletes at the high school, college and pro levels.?Detroit Lions?linebacker?DeAndre Levy, maybe the most socially aware athlete out there when it comes to gender issues, credits the NFLs often-mocked awareness program with helping him understand consent and assault. In an essay for the Players Tribune in April, Levy said he has learned so much after having been ignorant of such issues for so many of his formative years.My understanding is that most women have heard the talk about how to avoid becoming a victim, but growing up, I was never involved in a conversation about what consent is. I was never even flat-out told not to rape or sexually assault anyone, he wrote. An athletes sense of entitlement to a womans body is exacerbated because he has been idolized and put on a pedestal in a hyper-masculine culture. Not only am I a man, but I am also a strong and successful man. Why would someone say no? You should all want me.Unfortunately, its not just athletes who have absorbed this mentality -- its the fans, too, as weve seen in the reaction to Roses case. A womans sexuality seems to discredit her right to consent in the eyes of many, while an athletes status only raises his credibility, assigning him the automatic benefit of the doubt. But that collective sigh of relief breathed by Knicks fans after the jury cleared Rose wasnt just about the desire to get back to basketball. It was taken as an implicit affirmation that all these beliefs about athlete targets and women who lie must be true.Its fine to be excited about the NBAs return -- Im looking forward to this season myself. But if you celebrated the Rose decision, youre celebrating a system that you seem to think works in favor of accusers, which is contrary to all the evidence on reporting, prosecution and verdicts. Its also contrary to all the psycho-social implications of sympathy toward famous defendants versus Jane Doe plaintiffs. Thats how we get the utterly bizarre images of jurors posing with Rose and his attorneys after delivering their verdict. Though the trial played out in Los Angeles, they look just as excited as Knicks fans to move on. ' ' '