BadJocks.com was a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

that covered sports-related misconduct and crime at all levels, from

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

to children's, by not only the athletes themselves but

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and spectators as well. Starting in 2000, creator and content provider Bob Reno wrote daily items on not only well-covered events such as the rape charges against three Duke lacrosse players and the Minnesota Vikings "love boat" scandal but less-reported local events as well, with

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

clips sometimes included. While the site's news and audience are primarily U.S.-based, foreign news, particularly soccer-related, has been covered as well. He billed the site as "Where '' COPS'' Meets '' SportsCenter''". In 2008 ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' chose the site as one of 25 in its first annual blog index, and in 2009 ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' named the site one of the decade's five most influential blogs. Generally, the site's tone was light-hearted, featuring Reno's acerbic commentary on the various occurrences culled from other media. Reno keeps an annual tally of several types of stories that occur on frequent basis each year, with three (" drunken outbursts", "naughty

cheerleaders Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

" and " streakers and naked people" at the moment) typifying much of the content. However, the fourth,

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

coach sex scandals, have been treated more and more seriously by Reno as many involve relations between adults and students, and he was taken aback when these numbers regularly approached 200 each year, so much that he stopped keeping count in 2007. He has sometimes posted commentary and analysis of the phenomenon, with input from readers.

College hazing pictures

In 2005, Reno began searching on Webshots using the search strings " initiation" or, less frequently, " hazing". These eventually yielded albums of members of various colleges' sports teams putting freshman members through hazing rituals. Many of these involved women's teams, and Reno posted the pictures on his website in case the originals were taken down. Most featured the players wearing

lingerie Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fash ...

outside their clothes and with various things, some obscene, written on their bodies with marker as they performed some humiliating task.

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

was seriously embarrassed by photos showing their school's

women's lacrosse Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a sport with twelve players on the field at a time (including the goalkeeper). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduce ...

team cavorting with a

thong The thong is a garment generally used as either underwear or in some countries, as a swimsuit. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions. Viewed from the front, the thong typically resembles a bikini bottom, but at the ...

-clad male stripper, and later suspended the entire team for three game

Since some showed alcohol (drug), alcohol consumption by students who were

underage In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. ''Minor'' may also ...

, in violation of liquor laws and school policies, investigations were started by the respective colleges. Most stopped short of finding any serious wrongdoing and gave the students involved the benefit of the doubt. However, in May 2006 a reader of the site found pictures of the

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national ...

team putting its freshmen through hazing more serious than other colleges, and Reno posted them. The young women were shown drinking

tequila Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ('' Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican s ...

and other

hard liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard l ...

and going through similar rituals as their counterparts elsewhere, with

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...

es drawn on them in marker. In some shots, though, they were

blindfold A blindfold (from Middle English ') is a garment, usually of cloth, tied to one's head to cover the eyes to disable the wearer's sight. While a properly fitted blindfold prevents sight even if the eyes are open, a poorly tied or trick blindf ...

ed had their hands tied behind their backs with

duct tape Duct tape (also called duck tape, from the cotton duck cloth it was originally made of) is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure-sensitive tape, often coated with polyethylene. There are a variety of constructions using different backings and adhesi ...

and were apparently performing simulated sex acts and giving fully clothed lap dances to players on the men's soccer team. Other sites started making similar searches and posting the results. Reno merely linked to those, but the media often mistakenly credited BadJocks anyway. The publication of the photos led to the coach's resignation. Northwestern suspended the team. Reno and the site earned national attention. Many commentators said they were profoundly shocked to see women engaging in such degrading conduct. BadJocks became so closely associated with the hazing pictures and the ensuing scandals that, in April 2007, the University of Minnesota at Duluth's athletic director specifically referred to it when explaining a new request that student-athletes not use

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

or MySpace

Reno responded that he did not troll either site and usually found the pictures, if he had been the one to do so, on Webshots.

References

External links

BadJocks.com
* Deford, Frank; May 23, 2006
Women behaving badly: Sadly, the ladies have followed men's lead in sports
''

''. *Nelson, Libby; May 25, 2006
Hazing scandal raises debate on web ethics
''Daily Northwestern''. *Robertson, Linda; May 27, 2006
Athlete abuse no longer lost in the haze
{Dead link, date=October 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes ; Knight-Ridder Newspapers. *Sandomir, Richard; May 18, 2006

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' (registration required) American sport websites