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Welcome To The Town Where Two Teen Football Stars Thought They Could Get Away With Rape

Rebecca Baird-Remba,Gus Lubin   

Welcome To The Town Where Two Teen Football Stars Thought They Could Get Away With Rape

Steubenville high school Harding Stadium

Reuters/Jason Cohn

Harding Stadium, home of the Steubenville High School Big Red football team.

Steubenville, Ohio may finally slink out of the spotlight, after two of the town's high school football players were convicted of raping a 16-year-old with their fingers.

Trenton Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, were adjudicated delinquent and could be in a juvenile detention facility until they turn 21.

The rape case drew national attention after the accused and their friends joked about the incident and showed a galling sense of impunity over social media. In January Steubenville was forced to launch a website to combat the perception that "the football team runs this city."

At one point Mays told a friend that coach Reno Saccoccia would make the charges go away: "I got Reno ... He took care of it and s--- ain't gonna happen, even if they did take it to court."

That's the kind of mindset that develops in a depressed Appalachian town where Big Red Football is the hottest thing around.

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