Duke Lacrosse Sings Redemption Song

May 10, 2007 — -- Hooligans. Elitists. Chauvinists. Bigots.

Rapists.

With brush strokes that broad, it would be easy for members of the Duke men's lacrosse team to carry a chip on their jerseys when post-season play begins Saturday — a national championship tournament they enter as the No. 1 seed, a first-time achievement in the nearly 70-year history of the school's lacrosse program.

But the 41 members of the 2007 Duke lacrosse team aren't focused on revenge. Instead, they're eager to establish a new reputation as Division I national champions.

Duke enters the 16-team playoff with a 13-2 record — falling to Loyola and Cornell in March — and as champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference, a prize it claimed with a 12-9 win over Virginia at the end of April.

The team benefits from a cadre of 13 seniors, with star performers on the offense, defense and in the goal. Duke's No. 1 seed is not without controversy, given Cornell's undefeated season, but the seeding doesn't matter much to Duke. Besides, this is a team that, in the last 14 months, has grown accustomed to controversy.

"Last spring was completely unfair in the way lacrosse got labeled, in the way we got labeled as a collective group," said Matt Danowski, a senior attackman, captain and one of the players who submitted his DNA to police in March 2006 to clear his name of rape allegations.

"It was a rush to judgment and a rush to generalize," Danowski told ABC News. "Nobody was listening to us."

In retrospect, Danowski and his peers had a point. Last March, what they said was largely drowned out.

First came the allegations: Several players had gang-raped one of two black strippers hired by team captains to perform at an off-campus lacrosse party.

Before formal charges were filed, a tasteless e-mail — sent by a single player and released by authorities — helped convince Duke president Richard Brodhead that the team's 2006 campaign needed to end prematurely.

Longtime coach Mike Pressler, credited with building Duke into a national-caliber program, was forced to resign. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong brought forward indictments, charging senior Dave Evans and sophomores Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann with a slew of offenses, including rape.

The university announced the creation of an independent panel to investigate the lacrosse team's behavior.

In the 14 months since the lacrosse party went wrong, so much has changed.

The mental capacity of the accuser came into question. The tactics used by Nifong were increasingly scrutinized. The rape charges were dismissed. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper took over the case. Cooper cleared Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann on all charges — and their Duke teammates were there to share in the relief.