MSU's Dantonio has no use for Trump's locker room talk
East Lansing – Mark Dantonio has no use for “locker room talk,” at least not the kind used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Tapes recently revealed Trump in a 2005 conversation that was vulgar and sexually charged to say the least. In Trump's response to the release of the recordings, he called the banter just “locker room talk.”
That, of course, has put all those who spend time in locker rooms – athletes and coaches – in the position of reacting to the generalization, something Dantonio doesn’t appreciate.
“I don't think it's fair to paint all these athletes with a broad brush,” Dantonio said. “I think there's obviously different people and everything else. You look at society right now. Which way are we going, up or down?
“But I think it's just like anything. When you start going down, sometimes you don't recognize how low you are until you look around.”
Dantonio said it’s hard to know everything that is said in a locker room, but he’s doing his best to keep that kind of talk out of the Michigan State locker room.
“Yeah, it would bother me. It would bother me,” Dantonio said. “But I can't control what everybody is saying and those types of things. You look at society right now. I mean, it's tough out there in that regard, I think. Yeah, of course it would bother me. I have two daughters. But I can't control everything.”
While he can’t control it, Dantonio did say he does his best to lead his players.
“If I hear language coming out of our locker room, I'm going to correct that language in a positive way. I'm not going to accept it,” he said.
"You come out to our football field, you guys have been out there before, I don't think you hear our coaching going off in that regard. Not to say that happens in other places or not, but we're going to try to handle ourself in that regard, try and be, I don't want to use the word 'role model,’ but example, an example for our players, especially in difficult times.”
mcharboneau@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/mattcharboneau