Second Chance For Wrestler With 'Gay Porn Scandal'
Though straight, college wrestler Paul Donahoe agreed to pose nude for Framentv.com, an online site targeted at a gay audience that offers members candid photos of athletes.
Donahoe was motivated by a need for money, but the photo shoot ended up costing him his place on the team last August, when it turned out to be the case that Donahoe an teammate Kenny Jordan, who also was photographed, had run afoul of NCAA rules prohibiting commercial sale of an athlete’s image.
Donahoe, now in another college and on a new team, spoke with the Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/sports/college...dal/?page=full for a March 17 article that detailed the scandal and Donahoe’s subsequent career.
The athlete has racked up his share of successes, having been a state champ in high school and an All-American twice while in college. But coming from what he described as a "lower middle class" background, with four siblings and divorced parents, Donahoe needed to fend for himself as best he could.
Donahoe told The Globe, "Obviously, I did it for the money," he says. "We kept thinking no one would ever find out because it was a gay website and we really wanted that money."
The young man said that offers to earn money by posing nude found him via MySpace.
"They left me a lot of messages, so I thought, ’What the heck?’ People do worse for money," Donahoe explained.
The young man noted, "I’ve basically been on my own since I was a freshman in high school."
The young athlete remains at the top of his weight class nationally, and has had an unbeaten season, winning all 32 of his matches thus far. But the scandal and its attendant controversy shadows him still, the article said, quoting the young wrestler as saying, "I didn’t do anything illegal.
"I didn’t hurt anyone. I don’t think I did anything wrong.
"Who should I apologize to?"
The article also quoted Jennifer Hall, the wife of Donahoe’s high school coach, Roy Hall, who declared, "He’s a great kid, but complicated.
"He’ll do whatever it takes to survive."
Donahoe found a friend in Bruce Baumgarten, the athletic director at his new school, Edinboro University, located in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Said Baumgarten, "We’ve all made mistakes."
"Not that I condone what he did," continued Baumgarten, "but there are players all across the country on college teams that actually have broken the law or harmed people that are still competing."
Added the athletic director, "We decided we would give him an opportunity to get an education at Edinboro University while competing, hopefully, for another national championship.
"To me the graduation is more important than the title."
Donahoe acknowledged his good fortune, saying, "They obviously gave me a second chance to wrestle again.
"I’m thankful for that. It’s everything to me.
"I think the new coaches and new workout partners really helped me."
Not everyone is as forgiving. Said Donahoe, "I am straight, but on the forums people make a lot of gay jokes about me."
Still, "I’m not too concerned. They can talk about me all they want, it doesn’t matter.
"If a guy wants to be with a guy, who cares?"
Meantime, Donahoe is willing to put himself back in the media spotlight to advocate for his sport.
"I want people to watch the sport.
"It’s not like other sports. It’s not something that you go out and do for fun, because if you go out there and someone’s tougher than you, you’re going to take some whipping.
"But once you become a wrestling fan, I’m pretty sure you’ll always be a wrestling fan."
Donahoe’s new coach, Tim Flynn, called the young athlete "the hardest working kid in the room," and reckoned that, "He needs guidance, which they all do," the article reported.
Meantime, Donahoe, for all the controversy he stirred up with his unabashed appearance at Framentv.com, is unaccountably shy in certain other situations.
Averred the athlete, "My biggest fear is public speaking.
"I get so nervous before I go on. I don’t know why. Isn’t that funny?"
Added Donahoe, "I can wrestle on ESPN and it doesn’t bother me."
the athlete spoke out on how his case was handled, saying, "I believe it was unfair for Nebraska to dismiss me from the team.
"For one, there’s plenty of athletes throughout the University of Nebraska who have had DUIs and who have been in fights and are still playing. But I guess that’s OK.
"Posing nude, I guess, is worse than someone drinking and driving and risking someone’s life, in their eyes."
The guys on his new team don’t seem to hold Donahoe’s notoriety against him. The Globe article quoted teammate Gregor Gillspie, who is another champion at the national level, as saying, "Before the season, a lot of people were talking bad about him. Like, ’We don’t want him at our school.’
"Right now, he’s proving people wrong," said Gillespie.
"He’s had to switch coaches, schools, friends, that had to be a pain. He’s heard people yelling stuff like ’homo,’ but none of that bothers him, he just brushes that all off."
The young man also has his supporters out in the wider world. Said Donahoe, "I’ve had a ton of people Myspace me and say, ’I hope everything works out.’"
"I read them all. I’m thankful for people supporting me."
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?...&sc3=&id=88594
I think this just goes to show that a lot of people end up doing porn without actually thinking about the long-term consequences of their actions.
Its a shame this kid had to go through all that he did with his old college team but im sure it made him a much stronger person because of it.
Regards,
Lee
