Second Chance
Allyn Hood knew his teenage son, Daniel, would find only trouble in the after-school hours at the juvenile group home where he lived following his 2004 conviction in Sullivan County for aggravated rape and kidnapping.
So the father suggested that his athletic son try football.
Since then, the game has become Daniel Hood’s salvation, and this week it gained him a scholarship to the University of Tennessee. It’s also become a nationally publicized redemption for his sins, in part because among his college admission package was a letter from the victim, a relative.
“To say I’m grateful, to say I’m happy, to say I’m excited, that really doesn’t do my emotions justice,” Daniel Hood said Thursday in a telephone interview.
Today is Daniel Hood’s last day at Knoxville Catholic High School, where he became Tennessee’s Class 3A player of the year as a senior, 6-foot-5, 255-pound defensive end and tight end. He was accepted at Catholic while serving time and undergoing sex offender treatment at a west Knoxville juvenile home for the August 2003 kidnapping and aggravated rape of his 14-year-old cousin. Hood, then 13, helped 17-year-old Robert Sanico duct tape the girl at Allyn Hood’s Kingsport home and watched as Sanico raped her with a toilet plunger.
“It was heinous behavior,” Daniel Hood said. “It was terrible, and what happened should never have happened. There’s no woman in America that deserves something like that.”
UT football coach Lane Kiffin announced this week that he had done what other university programs would not: offer Hood a scholarship.
“We didn’t go about this lightly,” Kiffin said in a written statement. “We spent a lot of time researching the issue and talking to a lot of people who are well respected in the community. Everyone spoke very highly of Daniel.”
The clincher for UT was a recommendation from the victim.
“I know my cousin Daniel on a personal level and I believe that he has been very remorseful towards me,” she wrote in a letter obtained by the Bristol Herald Courier. “We are now working on rebuilding our relationship, hoping to become a family like before.”
Daniel Hood said of his cousin: “I think that shows the type of character she has. ... She could have just as easily come out and opposed my going into college.”
Sanico was tried as an adult and is now serving a 10-year prison sentence at Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tenn. Daniel Hood wound up in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services.
His detention began at a rehabilitation center at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Dandridge, Tenn. From there, he was transferred to the group home in west Knoxville.
The other juvenile offenders were chauffeured by van to a public school each day and after classes would hang around the group home. But Allyn Hood wanted none of that for his son. As a bail bondsman, he knew a life of crime likely awaited his son if he had too much empty time on his hands.
First, Hood enrolled his son at the private Catholic school in an effort to distance him from the group home residents. The same van that shuttled students to the public school shipped Daniel Hood to Catholic.
Then, the father hatched a plan to keep his son busy – football.
“I figured the more he was involved in sports, the more he would be away from the group home,” Allyn Hood said.
Two years ago, Daniel Hood was able to leave the group home but continued attending Catholic.
In a week, he’ll accept his diploma with a 3.8 grade-point average and then start playing football for the Volunteers.
“Not only is it Tennessee, but you’re also playing in the Southeast Conference,” Daniel Hood said.
His father, also a former teacher, knew the UT scholarship would draw intense scrutiny, both by the media and in Internet chat rooms.
“I feel like if he went to UT as a dance student or just to study law there or something, there wouldn’t have been nothing said at all,” Allyn Hood said. “But because it’s football ...”
His son said his crime taught him empathy and how to relate to others with troubled pasts.
“It’s tough to have your picture on the front page of the newspapers,” Daniel Hood said, “but with anything, you can either be angry with it or you can let it go and learn from it.”
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Reader Reactions
dolfan,
Exactly who called for this guy’s execution? It certainly wasn’t me. You’re perhaps reading things into what has been said. You should know better. I simply think that the scholarship he’s been given should go to someone who hasn’t been the type person he has. And as for my calling him an animal??? Well, if the shoe fits….............. Many animals wouldn’t harm other animals they way this person harmed another person.
This one case is bad enough. However, this is just one example, of the many, that UT will take anyone. Just what type of person do you think they’d turn down, IF they had the athletic ability to help their program? I say they’d take anyone, who takes on the appearance of a human being, if they can play. Obviously they’ll take (and get them admitted mysteriously) folks who can barely read. They’ll obviously take criminals. So WHO will they not recruit?
This “win at all costs” attitude hasn’t even worked for them lately. I heard a rumor that UT officials were trying to work out deals with Tusculum, UVA-Wise, and Emory & Henry for future games. I’m sure if those deals work out, UT’s record will be better.
As I stated before….BEWARE UT female students!!!!!! Too bad you have to go to school with these types of so-called people among you. Spend tons of time in the library. There, I doubt you see too many of them. Oh, unless of course they go there to steal something.
This is obviously a horrible thing that was done…but has justice been served?
You righteous sanctimonious people will never be satisfied that satisfactory restitution being done.
Hood has attempted to make the best of his life and move beyond this horrible time for all concerned; but most of you don’t want him to be able to realize the full potential of his life. You would be happier if he let this horrible thing lead him into a life of crime so you can say…“see, the criminal justice system doesn’t work.“
When would you be satisfied that justice had been done…NEVER…I SUSPECT.
Maybe we should just put all criminals to death; because they can never make amends and be a positive contributing members of society.
Ah, rawbleedorange…. you’re still at it I see. You really don’t get it. As for the 3.8 GPA, do you not realize that administrators all over this country encourage (threaten) teachers to “take care of” certain athletes? That 3.8 could very well mean nothing more than some teachers were covering their own butts to keep the principals off of them. You obviously have no clue how it works, do you?
As for your NCAA stats, the NCAA works with numbers that the schools provide. Do you not understand (or won’t you admit?) that schools are left to a great degree to police themselves? Come on, bleed orange all you want, but you have to face reality.
This so-called person, has no business taking the spot of an actual student, and decent person.
UT students BEWARE. There are predatory animals being released on campus. WATCH OUT!!!!!!!
I know these things because I read the trial transcripts. Maybe you should do the same. I know as a woman what this would do to any woman and you have no idea. Watching is not different than doing. You say it all with your bleed orange name - anything to win.
wm: did you read the same article as myself. both boys did not rape her, one did and one watched. it doesn’t make it any better, but don’t add your twist to the story. where did it say they went and watched tv? where does it say she called a friend to go to the hospital? how in HADES do you know if she has and ever will recover from this?
farmer: i do believe this kid has a 3.8 gpa, about 3 points higher than yours. i stick to my guns from awhile back.UT isn’t the only school that has troubled youths on their roster.i showed you ncaa stats on the subject that UT wasn’t in the top 10 of schools with the most questionable recruits.
the boy was 13 when this happened and he and his family has done everything possible to learn and grow from this. he didn’t ptake the poor pitiful me road and end up a career criminal. he learned and matured from it. i believe you would have had a smile on your face if he had chosen the latter.
The people that think this is OK because it has been 5 years and the victim is approving need to look beyond the surface. If you are a normal person think what it would take for you to do such an horrible act and what you would have to be. What kind of person does this and then walks away from the victim to go watch television? This is exactly what both men did. Did you know the victim had to call a friend to get to the hospital?? Is this kind of person healed because he feels remorse and went to counseling. Where are this girl’s parents?? All I can say is UT girls please protect yourself as your role models and leaders who are charged with protecting you have brought you a predator.
I’m looking for any of the folks who blasted me last year for pointing out just what type of player is welcomed by UT. WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?? I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. AM I REALLY CRAZY AFTERALL??
To call this person an animal would be an insult to the animal world. What are the folks at UT thinking? I merely pointed out last year that football players at UT didn’t necessarily have to be able to read and write to remain eligible. Oh wow, was I attacked. Well, I stand by that, and now this article shows the rest of the story.
Those who attacked me last year referrd to NCAA rules, and how UT MUST be operating within them. Well, the reality of it all is the fact that there are ways around rules. Getting people admitted to school who have GPAs in the 1.0 range, or SAT scores of 400 is common. Then, keeping them eligible during their years there is easy too. It’s well known just who the RIGHT professors are to get for classes.
It’s such a joke. Oh well, let’s just see how well this latest scholar does when he arrives on campus. Tell your daughters to be careful. Isn’t it a shame that we have to think like this.
GO VOLS!!!!
I cannot believe this article or the blessing comment. Did anyone bother to research just what a brutal crime this was? This charge was not just an argument over if the victim said “No” it was a brutal rape where the victim had duct tape over her eyes and mouth. Her legs were taped to the bed so the two men involved could rape her with a plunger handle. This sickens me and what sickens me most is the attitute of the author. I don’t care what statement the victim was to have made - she has not recovered from this and never will.
Wow, what a blessing, and I pray that family continues to be blessed…and I thought I had a story!! Im happy for them.
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