As student athletes and college students, it is safe to say that most of us know the prodigious impact that some of the decisions we make can be have on our futures after college, both positively and negatively.

This is prior knowledge that many of us had going into Adam Ritz’s presentation a few weeks ago. We all want to think that we would never do something to jeopardize our future careers, reputations, relationships, families and lives and that we will always make the right choices when we are in a bad situation.

Unfortunately, that is not how things work out for some people.

Ritz’s presentation was powerful from the get-go, showing current events of college athletes at other programs that found themselves in the news for either a crime committed or even for sending out a controversial tweet.

It is something those of us who follow sports see occasionally, but it is not something we would ever expect to see our own names in the headlines for.

Ritz, a former college football player at Purdue University, gave multiple examples of this. After graduation, Ritz worked multiple media jobs and was making a great living for himself as well as for his wife and two daughters.

After some of these examples, a new slide came up. It read: “The Indianapolis Star reports that local Disc Jockey Adam Ritz has been accused of misdemeanor sexual battery.”

Many of us in the audience felt that Ritz was trying to make an example with this headline, and he wanted us to replace his name for our own in that slide and imagine the life-changing consequences this could have.

Nope.

This was in fact a true headline that came out in 2004. Ritz showed us the newscast from the television station he had previously worked at reporting on the story.

I know I was shocked. I could not believe this extremely likeable presenter who had made such a powerful presentation had been convicted of a crime such as this.

You could tell the disgust Ritz had in himself for this action. He was embarrassed. He knew that a terrible decision that he made one night at a bar 12 years ago completely altered the life of his family, the victim and himself.

He talked about how he thought he would never be capable of doing such a terrible thing, just as each of us sitting in that auditorium believe we would never be able to such a terrible thing.

Ritz gave eye-opening examples of how this action directly impacted the people in his life. He stressed that he did not want us to feel bad for him in any way but rather wanted us to remember this presentation and how these decisions can completely ruin a person’s life.

There are not a lot of people that would present about something like this from Ritz’s perspective, which is what I think made his message so powerful, particularly for male athletes who will be graduating and pursuing a life and career after college in the next few years.

You could feel the sincerity in his words and emotions about how he wants to do his part to help prevent people from making his own mistakes as well as to protect any potential victims.

I know that Ritz’s message will stick with me in the near future, and I think I speak for the majority of those in Dana Auditorium that afternoon that it will stick with them too.

I personally want to thank Adam Ritz for this presentation. I am glad that despite that decision Ritz made on that life-changing night, he is able to speak to people across the country about the issue.

It is the presentations such as this that can help to prevent a person from altering not only their own lives but also the lives of many others around them.