It was quite a year for my USF Bulls football team. They rose week after week in the rankings at the beginning of the year with one stunning victory after another, landing them in the most dangerous rank all year: 2nd. Second place switched teams so many times this year, it made casual fans’ heads spin. USF, sadly fell quickly after reaching #2. Along with their ranking, one of their stars fell was well.
He was the hero of many early moments in the season. Ben Moffit married his high school sweetheart, while still in high school, and got a scholarship to play ball at USF. As a senior, he got a lot of attention for his dedication to the team by driving over an hour each way to class and practices, never once being late or missing a team gathering. They interviewed his wife in the stands and on the sidelines a number of times to highlight his personal achievements both on and off the field. The media played up the”Father” “Student” “Husband” “All-star” as much as they could. Even the New York Times jumped on the hefty USF bandwagon in late September.
Shauna Moffitt is filing for a divorce after 5 years and two kids because they separated in November and she claims he stopped paying the mortgage with his scholarship money. He started out with some periodic visits with the kids, but now she alleges that he is pretty much out of their lives, so she is filing for divorce.
Divorce sucks. Yeah, but that’s not what is burning me about this. I was saddened to see a marriage falling apart, but it went further than that when she contacted the local paper, the Tampa Tribune, and provided evidence that both she and her twin sister wrote numerous college papers for Ben and even claims to have taken two online courses for him “because they were a team.” After all, if she did his writing, he did the dishes… seriously. Now she’s going for some personal destruction.
Even that is not what got me so steamed about this story. Alright, sit down for this one, and don’t say I didn’t warn you. Quoting the Tampa Tribune Monday morning:
“I wrote those papers because I love him and I was trying to help our future. I don’t want to do anything that won’t please Christ. I’m tired of him being portrayed as Mr. Wonderful. He’s been awful, awful to me and these kids for two months.”
Shauna initially e-mailed the Tribune on Thursday morning that Ben was being falsely portrayed in the media.
Well, isn’t that wonderful? She wants to please Christ, so she’s going after his education. She is just as guilty in those actions as he was by participating, recruiting her sister, and portraying the Mr. Wonderful image herself… when the going was good.
This is no way to go after the man you love to wake him up to help pay the bills and resume responsible activities. That’s what attorneys are for. At the most, a letter, call, or e-mail to the papers to get an interview about the “new Mr. Wonderful” beats the pants off of tossing in everything about academic dishonesty. Sure, he’s not acting like a man or good husband, but is it really necessary to sink that low?
Wake up Mrs. Moffitt, or he might never come back.
