Emotional Abuse in College Sports

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4.6 • 59K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

March Madness is here. The high-stakes, sudden-death college basketball tournament is a beloved tradition in American sports. For the players, it’s a chance to showcase the skills they’ve developed through years of hard training of the body and mind. In many cases, that push produces incredible feats of athletic performance. But an investigation by reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos has found instances in which athletes allege that the push from coaches goes too far. Emotional abuse by coaches, some athletes maintain, can cause lasting, even irreparable damage. On this episode of The Sunday Story, we hear from athletes who fought back.
*A warning that today’s story includes mentions of sexual and emotional abuse, suicide, bullying and includes explicit language.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story from Up First, where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.
0:08.4	And just a heads up, today's story includes mentions of sexual and emotional abuse, suicide, and bullying, and includes explicit language.
0:20.1	We know all too well the stories of the sexual abuse of college athletes.
0:27.0	A former U.S. Olympic gymnastics team doctor pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in Michigan
0:32.5	State Court today. Child sex abuse charges have now stained a legendary story of college football,
0:38.3	the long-running success story of Penn State.
0:41.2	In some cases, the violation of athletes by people who were supposed to care for them went on for years.
0:48.5	Sometimes those with power to stop the abuse did little or nothing.
0:54.1	How could this have happened to so many athletes and for so long?
0:59.3	Today's story asked that same question, but we're talking about a different kind of abuse
1:05.8	of power.
1:07.1	I've seen her call us useless, stupid, incompetent.
1:12.7	When we couldn't complete a drill at her level, I've seen my teammates crying.
1:18.9	When we come back, a look at the complicated issue of emotional abuse in college sports.
1:30.9	We're back with the Sunday story, and joining us now are reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth
1:36.5	Santos. They've been investigating the issue of emotional abuse in college sports for the
1:41.9	past year. Julia and Elizabeth, welcome to the podcast.
1:46.4	It's great to be here. Thanks for having us. So Julia and Elizabeth, I think many of us are
1:52.7	familiar with the stories of coaches who are really tough and demanding of their players.
1:59.6	But your reporting is about something different. You've been
2:03.2	looking into the issue of emotional abuse in college sports. That's right, Ayesha. We found that
2:09.8	emotional abuse can look different from coach to coach. But there are specific patterns,
	...

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