Page 75 of Dirty Filthy Boy
"I can and I would. Not only that. You'd find your sorry ass out on the street."
"But I have tenure."
"So? That doesn't prevent the school from firing you for financial mismanagement or sexual misconduct."
"I've never taken a dime or . . . the other thing."
"You sure, Professor? You sure I couldn't find one instance of wrongdoing?"
Dead silence greets him.
"I thought so."
Stephanie stops the tape. "That's it."
"So Coach Gronowski threatened the professor with shutting down the paper and getting him fired in order to protect his players."
"Yeah."
"Did this discussion occur right after the party?"
"About a week later. It was right at the beginning of the investigation. The police didn't even have the DNA results back. They were talking to everyone who attended the party, not just the football players."
"Who was there from the team?"
"Ryan Taylor and Ty Mathews."
My heart plummets. "But Ty had nothing to do with it, did he?"
"He was never charged, that's correct."
"That's not an answer."
"There's another tape you should listen to. It's the one of the victim, Emily Suarez."
This time she'd been told they were recording the information so they ask for her name and age. "Emily Suarez, eighteen."
"So young."
"She was a freshman."
The student interviewing offers a couple of softball questions, mainly to establish rapport. I've done that myself many a time, but then she gets to the hardball questions.
"So Emily, were you invited to the party?"
"No. Not really. I heard about it, and my boyfriend was there."
"Your boyfriend?"
"Well, the guy I've been dating."
"Who's that?"
"No. I can't."
"You don't want to name him."
"No. He wouldn't like it if I did. You see, Coach Gronowski would not approve. He doesn't want his players to have girlfriends. Says it takes away from their focus of the game."
