The problem with the Todd Hoffner story is that there are truly no evil characters. Everyone seems to me to be a good guy.
I want to try to reach those of you who are coaches of any sport and at any level. I want to teach you, that the best way to avoid the consequences of what are perceived to be major ethical and legal issues is to recognize the potential for problems in the first place. This may be more difficult than you imagine, and you may have some serious blind spots in your mirrors because the very things that make you a good guy, may lead to your downfall.
The case I want to talk about today, involves Todd Hoffner, the former head football coach at Minnesota State Mankato, a Div. II school in the Northern Sun Conference. The fact that Coach Hoffner was very successful is not relevant to this story; the fact that he shot a video of his children romping about naked led to an allegation of child pornography and to his reassignment. His coaching career, for now, is over.
What I’d like Every Coach to Know
Ethics require doing the right thing (at the time) based on all the facts and circumstances. Minnesota State Mankato, like so many other institutions, has a strict policy against anything that remotely suggests child abuse. It encourages the reporting of any employee who may be suspected of any inappropriate behavior. This comes out of the tragedy that is the Jerry Sandusky story where so many looked the other way.
As Eli Saslow reported in his piece for ESPN (5/25/13) entitled: Allegations ends coaches’ career, Coach Hoffner was having problems with his cell phone and brought it to the IT department. An IT technician saw the video of the three children, felt it inappropriate, and reported it as the policy encouraged. It did not take long before the school’s authorities came down on Coach Hoffner like a lineman running over a kicker.
We can jump up on our platforms and podiums and cry foul, but in today’s hyper-hyper-sensitive environment you don’t do things like record your naked children doing a dance. Or show them on a bearskin rug or in a bathtub. Yes, I have read and watched Coach Hoffner talking of his innocence and I do realize that in years past, the pictures would not have caused so much as a ripple. But these are different times. These are times when an inappropriate video can go quickly viral. The fact remains that had he not recorded his children we would not be discussing this.
They did indeed haul him into court along with his family. Indeed, a psychologist was assigned to the case. The children were not abused; they were never abused. The psychologist testified that the children were normal, well-adjusted kids. Still, the coach has not been allowed to go back to coaching.
The consequences Coach Hoffner is facing today are a result of an innocent video – yet one that he recorded and should have known not to do. The school did nothing wrong; the IT person did nothing wrong and from every indication, Coach Hoffner did nothing wrong. However, the school did not know that Coach Hoffner was innocent at the beginning, nor did the IT person; but the coach should have thought of all of the consequences. Let’s be honest, that’s hard to do – think of all the consequences, but with technology today more thinking is required!
What Should Be Done
The ethical thing to do once found innocent would be to give Coach Hoffner his job back with an apology – all acknowledging that they were attempting to do the right thing. So far, it has not happened. The play should be dead; the officials should just pick up their flags, the coaches should walk back to the sidelines or the dugouts or benched after everyone shakes hands. I don’t think that will happen.
The question to ask is what is the greater good that can come from this? Certainly, Coach Hoffner has learned a valuable lesson but in a sense, so should any coach or teacher. I would like to believe that the coach may one day have another chance to coach. Whether at his current school, it is hard to say. For now, his school has re-assigned him to a desk job and he watches his old team from afar. The school has made a decision by making no decision. Frankly that strikes me as unethical.
It is so difficult to prove innocence, especially for the innocent. We are living in a time when it doesn’t take much for an ethical misstep to lead to miserable consequences. The problem is in recognizing the misstep before it is taken.
What do you think about this case?
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
Good News: Lately, I have been getting requests to lecture about sports and ethical consequences to coaches, players and those involved in the “sports business” in general. This is partly as a result of the number of ethical issues that have recently exploded in the world of professional and collegiate sports. We have decided to launch a new website and blog: www.sportsethicallyspeaking.com. Kindly stand by for further details!
This man has serious boundary issues even if it didn’t meet child pornographic standards. He was so clueless about the inappropriateness, although not criminal in nature, that he voluntarily turned it over to IT staff. It’s a work issued phone, not his to do as he pleases with. Law Enforcement officials testified to the material making them uncomfortable. They also said they would not feel comfortable with videos of their children as such, nor would they take them. Todd said that his children talked him into it, whose in charge in that home?
F you bitch! What a self righteous snob you are! Why don’t you crawl back into your cave and never grace us with your moronic opinions again!
I worked in the social services field for over 15 years; as a victims advocate, and county social worker/case manager. I have worked with adult and child populations; primarily in the areas of mental health/chemical health. My husband has been an attorney with legal services and is currently a public defender. My opinion is based solely on my experiences. If you’d be interested in having a non profane conversation about this, let me know, however, I would ask that you bring more to the table than “name calling”. Thank you, Jill Kramer
We do live in different times than when these images would not have raised an eyebrow. WE live in hypersensitive times when we now see sex and abuse even in innocent acts. We live in a different world than most of the rest of the world, for example when Vladimir Putin raised the a child’s shirt and gave him a raspberry on the stomach, and the American press freaked out and presented it as “creepy”.
So, who are the weird ones- those who can still distinguish between innocent acts and sexual, or those who can see lurid in anything? We should go back to a time when we realized that fortunately 99.9 percent of men have no sexual interest in children, and stop seeing all adult men as potential perverts. I think people who see sex where it is not are the perverted ones. I fear for our future.
I am not perverted, I just don’t broadcast my life in picture form or in any other social media manner. There also was a time when we remembered things, that couldn’t be captured via phone or videotaped. We told stories of funny things our kids did; to our family and select friends, not 100’s of twitter followers or facebook friends. We followed company policy and used our work phones for work related issues. When IT workers followed protocol, they weren’t questioned or ridiculed/judged. I remember some of those good old days. We used our imaginations and didn’t have to “prove it” with live action video. I never doubted my grandma’s hilarious stories of us kids, in and out of the tub, clothed or not. The art of storytelling is fading quickly. Listeners are too busy checking statuses of 3rd grade teacher’s, landlord’s, cousins. Many are arrogant enough to think that ppl want to know their every move when their attention spans are too short to care about anyone elses. That being said, I’m surprised we’re still discussing this, but I do appreciate your opinions and point of view. Thank you.
You are sick Jill. This man was enjoying his kids. No wonder people are so paranoid to even hug a child. Over zealous people like you scare me.
I have a 22 year old daughter. I have also been issued company owned cell phones. I never even thought about taking naked pictures, of anyone, much the less my child, with ANY phone. That’s just me. I’m the one who’s paranoid and overzealous? I hugged my child often and she’s a beautiful, happy, intelligent, professional woman. It’s fine for us to agree to disagree. You have your opinion and I have mine. I just think that boundaries, in this case, were skewed; to say the least. Whether it met specific criteria or not, is not for me to decide. Time will tell with this guy and his family. Relax and let life play itself out, as it always does. I appreciated your thoughts regardless. Thanks
With all due respect to Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Kramer (if any is owed), it is utterly absurd to suggest that Coach Hoffner brought this situation on himself. Yes, he did indeed take the video in question that ultimately led to an unfounded accusation, but it’s specious to argue that the injustices leveled against him and his family wouldn’t have occurred if he hadn’t taken the video in the first place.
That’s the equivalent of saying an innocent man wouldn’t have been accused of murder if he hadn’t been out drinking at the bar when a murder occurred. No matter how much you may personally disagree with people drinking at bars, you cannot justify indicting an innocent person (even in this day and age of heightened awareness about the effects of alcohol) and then seek to blame the innocent person when it turns out the original charges were unfounded.
To put it another way, Mr. Gallagher’s argument appears to be something along the lines of, if you don’t ever want to be hit by a bus when it loses control and runs up on the sidewalk, stay off the sidewalk. And if a bus does run up on the sidewalk and hit you, you ultimately have only yourself to blame for being on the sidewalk in the first place. The real issue is what happened that caused the bus to be where it shouldn’t have been, not to question why the person who got run over was on the sidewalk!
It’s not Mr. Hoffner’s fault that certain members of his community allowed “child abuse hysteria” to compel them to go on a witch hunt. It’s not Mr. Hoffner’s fault that our culture’s hypersensitive awareness of child sexual abuse makes some people jettison objectivity and common sense. It’s not Mr. Hoffner’s fault that the authorities didn’t have the good sense to know when and where to draw the line between authentic child sexual abuse and playful interaction among children. It’s not Mr. Hoffner’s fault that some people are so uncomfortable or repulsed by the human body that virtually any representation or expression of innocent nakedness (even among siblings) is sufficient cause for them to become hysterical. It’s not Mr. Hoffner’s fault that it took a lengthy and exhaustive investigation by a judge who understands law to painstakingly and objectively parse the evidence before government could make a legal determination that he was wrongfully accused.
Ms. Kramer’s point that “law enforcement officials testified to the material making them uncomfortable” is truly pitiful! In effect, she’s arguing that, legal or not, people shouldn’t do anything that could potentially make the police uncomfortable. Wow! How pathetic that some Americans live in such heightened fear of government that they would gladly give themselves (and their common sense) over to living in a police state in which everyone is expected to tiptoe around the authorities to avoid even the appearance of not conforming to government’s expectations of how we should live.
So I guess I shouldn’t exercise my constitutionally protected right to protest something in the public square if it “might” make the police “uncomfortable”? Or I shouldn’t publicly disagree with a police action I know to be unjust if it “might” make the police “uncomfortable”? The list of completely legal conduct that “might” make the police “uncomfortable” is extraordinarily long and requires one to live in abject fear of possibly behaving in a manner that might result in the disapproval of the police.
And then Ms. Kramer has the audacity to say “relax and let life play itself out”! An innocent man’s family has been unfairly traumatized and his life turned upside down based on little more than irrational fear, and her best advice is to suggest he (and others) “relax”! Too bad the authorities didn’t heed that advice when they allowed hysteria to take them over. It’s easy for strangers (whose lives and actions weren’t analyzed under a microscope and judged by an entire nation) to blithely blurt out those silly words while they’re nestled safely at home and not at immanent risk of losing their livelihood.
People like Ms. Kramer and Mr. Gallagher represent the worst kind of apathetic Americans: those who are so cowed by authority figures that they would happily acquiesce to whatever invisible constraints might apply to their lives as a means of pleasing their government overlords. These are people who cannot appreciate the concept of due process and liberty until it hits them between the eyes. They are the kind of people who are, as Benjamin Franklin said, willing to give up liberty for the illusion of security. That is, until the police knock on their door and accuse them of a crime they didn’t commit. Then, suddenly, they are clamoring for reasonableness and justice. In other words, they can’t cherish freedom until said freedom is suddenly taken away.
The bottom line here is that an innocent man was railroaded because a number of people in law enforcement and the district attorney’s office (as often happens when an innocent person is accused) didn’t have the courage to stand up and acknowledge they made a mistake. It’s really that simple. We’ve all read about it a hundred times, where innocent people are sent to prison for decades because law enforcement and prosecutors become so invested in the original accusation they refuse to consider any interpretation that leads them away that initial conclusion, no matter how ludicrous it may be. The fear of appearing incompetent keeps them from admitting that the real perpetrator(s) were never pursued. Sometimes law enforcement and a district attorney will even suppress exculpatory evidence because they refuse to accept the fact that they have wrongfully accused an innocent person.
And finally, it is unsettling to know that a man like Chuck Gallagher is actually receiving requests to lecture anyone about anything related to ethics! It’s readily apparent from this post that Mr. Gallagher knows virtually nothing about ethics as it relates to sports — or any topic for that matter. Mr. Gallagher is a small thinker who appears to be incapable of comprehending even simplistic theories of ethics, and I suspect we’re all far better off when people like Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Kramer restrict themselves to the world of ignorant blogging (careless opining) and leave common sense and ethics to people with a greater capacity for logic.
Well said Ms.Randle. Your post is refreshingly logical!
Once again, I must say that I am far from “pro” police state. Being married to a criminal defense attorney, former family law lawyer and having been a county social worker counts for something. I know all about unfortunately cases of “corrupt systems”. I have witnessed “nanny state” mentality. I must also say that our system does work, more often than it doesn’t (just based on my experience; you can gladly disagree). As a side note, my daughter works in politics and government and has lived in other countries. She admits the U.S. has lots of room for improvement, but is far superior in so many areas. We are very fortunate. Again, it’s just her rightful opinion. You can question her experience/education or even her character, I guess – since that seems to be the theme in these responses. Bottom line – I’m just personally uncomfortable with what happened. Most everyone I know is also; people in all types of careers and from varied backgrounds. Many, if not most people involved with this case and otherwise would not take this video nor would they be fine allowing their child to be around this man or hang out with his kids. Mind you, these kids weren’t 4 month olds getting a silly Sears portrait in a bathtub. The judge doesn’t investigate the case, law enforcement and child protection do. You’d be surprised to know how many cases may not “meet criteria” but are highly questionable, to put it lightly. I don’t understand the personal jabs and the use of our first names in your last post. Relax, yes, relax. Stop making this so personal. We both get to have opinions, that’s fine. The supposed support of this coach is continually feeling like a personal attack against those who either don’t videotape their kids naked or aren’t neutral toward those who do. I’m not interested in talking about drinking and driving or buses killing pedestrians on sidewalks. It’s OK for people to question others’ boundaries; as I do with Mr. Hoffner. Maybe his team members feel similarly. Life is playing itself out and the players are taking a stance. You can hate all the players too, but they have a right to their opinions as well. Thank goodness our fine country allows for this freedom of speech. They appear to like and respect Mr. Keen and maybe they question their old coach. Who knows? That is their right. Mr. Keen sure seemed to get screwed. An arbitrator forces MSU to take Hoffner back and Keen’s just out of luck. That’s a shame. Time will tell. If Hoffner left his old team high and dry, isn’t welcomed back here with open arms and coach Keen is dropped like a bad habit, which all appear to be happening; then relax and follow the story. There will be a lot more to come I’m sure. People face adversity all the time, Hoffner is no different; aside from the fact that he has resources many others don’t or can’t afford. I guess that would put him at an advantage.
I agree with everything Kramer said. I think it was inappropriate and I myself would not allow my child around or near him.
Thanks to all for your comments. This is a sad story in many ways. Every choice we make has a consequence. In the case of Hoffner the consequences of a seemingly innocent choice has been far reaching. In fact USA Today continues to share the impact – http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/04/16/minnesota-state-mankato-players-refuse-to-practice-amid-coachs-return/7789487/
Emotion seems to run high with many commenting finding relief in attacking others or me. That’s fine and I do understand. However, in the super sensitive world that we live in, one thing that is true, what we might have done or considered in the past as innocent is unacceptable today.
A week ago my wife called to me as she was giving our 2 year old granddaughter a bath. Avery was doing something very cute and my wife wanted to me take a picture or video on my phone. Not knowing what she was asking for when she called to me, I arrived with my phone and quickly saw that while Avery’s actions were just precious, the idea of a pic or video would, today, be deemed inappropriate. I said that to my wife, who instantly said, you’re right.
Sadly, we’ll have to remember the experience and share it with Avery…but no pics.
Hoffner has been cleared of wrong doing…for that I am grateful and would have expected no less. However, it doesn’t clear him of making a choice that provided unintended consequences. Whether we like it or not, we are all on stage all the time and the sooner we think about our choices the better we will be. Do I like that…no, but even a blog that is designed to help others is the stage that is set for criticism of me. At least in my case I am going in with eyes wide open.
I’m sure that your daughter is a doll. She’s two. She’s cute and I would have no problem with a picture or videotape of that, nor would investigators. They wouldn’t even investigate it. Are people understanding the ages of Hoffner’s kids or details of the video? These situations can not be compared to each other. There is a happy medium folks. Thank you for being respectful and personal in your reply. You truly appear to be appropriate, non judging and open eyed. It’s very refreshing, logical and to the point.
I’m sorry, Ms. Kramer, but you are mostly proving just how small-minded and ignorant you really are, and that’s virtually impossible to ignore. However, I will begin by acknowledging that you deserve a modicum of credit for at least admitting that YOU and the people in YOUR life are “uncomfortable” with someone taking a video of their children naked. You know, it’s probably not something I would necessarily do either, but that doesn’t mean my neighbor (who has a different inclination) deserves to be burned at the stake when he does.
Instead of investing so much energy arguing that everyone should conform to your arbitrary version (or some misguiding police department’s version) of appropriateness, how about defending the right of people to be different than you (as long as they aren’t harming others). The very, very worst accusation any intelligent and reasonable person can make against Mr. Hoffner is that he probably should have deleted all personal data from his cellphone before turning it into the university, because you never know how nosey strangers might interpret your life when it’s put under a microscope and viewed out of context.
Part of me wonders what the IT guy was even doing looking at Mr. Hoffner’s videos in the first place. Absent some justifiable reason to investigate Mr. Hoffner’s data, I think it should generally be unacceptable to read or view an employee’s cellphone data. Why do some IT personnel see themselves as being in a position to investigate and judge others? If the IT person in this case had minded his own business all these lives wouldn’t have been turned upside down. Advances in technology shouldn’t automatically translate into disrespecting the privacy of others.
For example, if we could examine all of Ms. Kramer and Mr. Gallagher’s text messages, personal papers and letters, voicemails, home videos, present and past conduct, current and former relationships and associations, one might ascribe some malevolent intent that could potentially be turned over to law enforcement for further investigation. There probably aren’t a lot of people whose lives could withstand the degree of scrutiny leveled at the Hoffner family.
In regard to Mr. Hoffner taking his job back from Coach Keen, and Ms. Kramer’s assertion that it’s not fair to Mr. Keen, you have to step back and recognize that the original action taken by the university to discipline and replace Coach Hoffner was deemed to have been unjust, and that means that whatever steps have to be taken to right that wrong must be pursued. The idea is to do the best they can to put the pieces back together, and if blame is to be directed anywhere it should be pointed at the numskulls who allowed this tragedy to spread like a virus when it first came to light.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that a coach of Mr. Keen’s caliber will lose a job he has performed quite well during Mr. Hoffner’s forced absence, and it’s understandable that the players Mr. Keen recruited and coached might be confused and upset, but that’s far, far less important than ensuring that the awful wrong perpetrated against Mr. Hoffner is righted to the greatest extent possible.
I couldn’t disagree more with Mr. Gallagher’s second post, in which he grovels at the feet of hypothetical accusers because he worries his behavior may not conform to some arbitrary standard of conduct. In other words, he concerns himself with not being sufficiently obedient to invisible masters potentially sitting in judgement of him and his family’s perfectly ordinary and innocent actions. It’s sad to think there are people living in America who worry that the authorities might come knocking on their door at any moment if they cross some invisible boundary of “decency” (whatever that means?). What ever happened to the America in which ordinary Americans didn’t have to live in fear of government intruding into their lives without adequate justification?
Further, I wonder if these comments by Ms. Kramer and Mr. Gallagher are representative of a segment of our population that’s uncomfortable with the human body and their own sexuality. We Americans are a puritanical people scoffed at by Europeans who have a much healthier view of human sexuality. For example, many Americans blush when they see a woman breastfeeding in public, whereas in Europe and many other parts of the world breastfeeding in public isn’t thought of as “sexual,” it’s considered a normal and natural part of raising children.
I hope the events that derailed Mr. Hoffner’s life and the ignorance expressed in this blog post by Mr. Gallagher and the equally ignorant responses by Ms. Kramer are an opportunity for them and others like them to learn a valuable lesson about freedom and to recognize and appreciate the folly of their ways. I hope they can grow and stretch and stop living their lives in abject fear of Big Brother coming to get them for something they didn’t do.
And finally, if Mr. Gallagher wants to take a photo of his granddaughter naked in the bathtub (which hundreds of millions of Americans have done since the invention of cameras) he shouldn’t allow his fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) to dictate his behavior. I would wish for him and Ms. Kramer to dare to be bold and brave and live their lives the way they choose. They know what their intentions are, and if it’s benign then they having nothing to fear but fear itself.
The I.T. person did their job. They have rules and policies that have to be followed. I can’t imagine this person or dept. wanted to get involved at all. I can’t believe the focus is now on a computer specialist. The cell phone was not to be used for any personal use. Hoffner may be “not guilty” but far from innocent. You can be upset with me, but please don’t drag the I.T. specialist into this.
Hind sight is often 20/20. Wonder, if given the opportunity, would Mr. Hoffner do anything different? Take the video? Erase the video or transfer to his computer and erase from his phone? Not share with the IT guy? Erase before giving to the IT guy? Would he today think differently about his past choices?
To be clear…I am not judging his choices. I just ask the question. I, too, made some bad choices that given the chance I would change, but then perhaps there are no mistakes and all that happened – happened for a reason that today we don’t clearly know.
Wondering?