I've known some football players while I was in college and some of them are jerks and try to be bad a$$e$, but they were not criminals.
This is where we see both the brilliance and sneaky cleverness of MLT.
Not wanting to risk prosecution for felony assult or rape, but still wanting their revenge on Lois, the football players take her back to their frat and decide to cut her hair as a means of humilating her.
Being a first year college student Lois probably has long hair and cutting it really short would be a suitable revenge for the footballers, and they wouldn't be on the hook for anything worse than a misdamenor. If caught they could claim it was just a drunken prank and get off with little more than a fine.
Clark would have to stand by and watch it happen. He wouldn't know if this was an event in Lois' past that helped shape her fierce determination and resolve not to be a victim ever again. As long as she was not in any danger of real physical harm he would have to stand by and just watch as the football players exacted their revenge.
But this is where the cleverness of MLT comes in. The haircut becomes the source of the classic Lois Lane look. By the time she interns at the Planet her hair is the prototypical Lois shoulder length bob, which she has embraced as her 'look'.
So I guess we can thank those nasty football players need for revenge for giving us the classic year one and two Lois Lane.
Tank (who really doesn't have any secret knowledge of how this story is supposed to progress but just reasoned it out... logically)
