4. The Blue Devil lacrosse team was ranked No. 2 in the nation when Duke President Richard Brodhead cancelled the season and pushed Coach Mike Pressler into resignation.

A lot of people discount this particular injustice of the Duke lacrosse case, but these guys had a very decent shot at a Division I NCAA lacrosse championship last year. Their season was cancelled before any charges were even brought. Even if the three guys eventually charged were guilty, which it appears almost entirely certain they are not, the whole team lost its chance at a season because Brodhead couldn’t stand up to the P.C. bum rush that convicted the whole team when an investigation had barely started.

All 47 men on the team—many of whom weren’t even at the party where the alleged attack occurred—had worked their entire lives to earn a spot in a national championship contending program. It is no small thing to play on a team like that. That’s years of fall ball seasons, three-hour practices, backyard training sessions, weight-lifting, parental support and money spent, all gone in a fizzle at the whim of a spineless college president.

Luckily, the Ad Hoc Review Committee decided the program didn’t have to go for good, but that was only after the team had lost its season, its coach, and most of its recruits in the wake of the rape case.

5. Duke lacrosse players become things—good things, even—after college.

From the Committee Report:

Alumni of the program apparently contribute to the community after college. 13 We received letters of support for the team from two recently graduated former players who are presently serving in Iraq. A remarkable number of alumni are volunteer coaches for their local lacrosse teams. Many are employed in prestigious positions in business, law, and medicine. 14 As evidenced by their support of the current team, alumni of the lacrosse program and their families are fiercely loyal to each other, to the lacrosse program, and to Duke.

Lacrosse players volunteer in schools around Durham during their tenures at Duke, and coach local teams after college. The “clannish” camaraderie of the Duke team, which mainstream media reports so bemoaned when this story broke, means they’re often inclined to give back to the sport and the communities that gave to them.

Many of them are privileged kids from well-to-do families, but they’re also hard-working, good kids from good families.

By all accounts, the lacrosse players are a cohesive, hard working, disciplined, and respectful athletic team. Their behavior on trips is described as exemplary. Players clean the team bus before disembarking. Airline personnel have complimented them for their behavior. They observe curfews. They obey the team's no alcohol rule before games. 11 They are respectful of people who serve the team, including bus drivers, airline personnel, trainers, the equipment manager, the team manager, and the groundskeeper.

So, there are just a few things you probably didn’t know about the Duke lacrosse team. They’re not a perfect bunch of guys, but they’re a very, very far cry from the monsters they’ve been made out to be. And, since the mainstream media has had little interest in telling you any of the good things about them for balance, I thought I’d tell you.