Yes, that nails it. The courts have always been very, very reluctant to remove the protection for both the state and the individual officer. It has to be really egregious to make the officer personally liable...
News Article: USA Today on FSU's handling of Winston and his problems off field...
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Palmer got busted for DUI twice, a few months apart. And yes, there was a great uproar at the time. But in the cold light of reason after the emotion died out, Stallings' quote that, "David needed the team even more than the team needed David," won out.
That was due to the combination of several reasons:
-- While undeniably dangerous, and equally undeniably lucky for both Palmer and the driving public, he didn't actually hurt anybody. Without the outrage of the moment, I think a lot of people looked back on their own youth and said, "There but for the grace of God go I."
-- As bad a decision as DUI is, nobody thought for an instant that Palmer's intent was to hurt anyone.
-- A cold examination of Palmer's personal environment growing up figured in.
-- Stallings had a huge storehouse of personal credibility on issues like this.
-- Palmer didn't get in trouble again, at least not that received public scrutiny.
That last point was where I think Stallings took the greatest risk for the program, and for his own personal reputation. If Palmer had messed up a third time, especially if anybody had gotten hurt, there would have been ten dozen hells to pay.
Which brings me to our current glass house....DJ Pettway.
He participated in two separate brutal physical assaults on two separate innocent and defenseless students. Even if you buy the idea that he didn't know what the other three thugs intended on the first one, there's no way he didn't know on the second.
Further, even if you believe that he was only the lookout and never attempted a punch or kick, that's exactly analogous to the getaway driver in a bank robbery where someone gets hurt badly.
He's dang lucky he's not an accessory to murder, because I guarantee you the other participants weren't holding back in their blows.
The University of Alabama as an institution, and Judy Bonner and Nick Saban as individuals and professionals, have a lot riding on the impulse control of a man who has shown an inability to do just that.
I repeat a question I posed to the board in an earlier thread some months back: Your son or daughter is walking home on the Quad late one night after closing down the library studying. DJ Pettway is coming down the walkway headed the opposite direction.
How are you feeling as you picture the distance between them growing smaller with each step?
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I don't know enough about the DJ Pettway situation to agree or disagree with the decision to allow him back. However, while he may be a potentially good player, he's not a game changer by any means so that makes me think that something other than his talent or usefulness to the program was involved. At least I hope that's the case.
Are you talking about Brennan, whom I find to be pretty level headed, or Selena Roberts, who piled on awfully early on Duke lacrosse?
Yes, but (and I'll be fair because it was a long time ago) you left out the reasons why it was an uproar:
1) Palmer was "privately" suspended for the Vandy game (the opener in 1992), which brought up the same sort of question Nutbag Brennan brings up with Winston - Palmer was the star, and would Stallings have acted exactly the same with a guy who only played on kickoff coverage?
2) Palmer's SECOND DUI was the night he had sat out the Vandy game, which really begged the question of what exactly he had learned from his suspension. In short, he had been punished and the moment he was set free went right back out and did it again.
3) Stallings then suspended Palmer "indefinitely," which roughly translated means, "as long as we keep playing teams we can beat without him."
Stallings said he was told that by an outside psychologist, and I have no reason to disbelieve Stallings even to this day.
Actually, he did. He got caught on the first DUI when he rear-ended a pickup driven by a minor league baseball player - a man who successfully sued Palmer and won $168,000 after Palmer turned pro.
Now all of those are true and you get no argument from me.
All true. And fwiw here's a responsible treatment of the episode from the Orlando Sentinel in 1992.
Those are twin daughters of different mothers. Brennan has some serious psychiatric issues any time it involves a woman.
She jumped all over the Duke lacrosse case, going so far as to say they did the right thing when those guys were suspended and their seasons ended for something they didn't even do. She then stopped just short of saying Erin Andrews "asked for it," has whined about why the President didn't fill out a women's b-ball bracket, only a man's (answer: because nobody outside of the states of CT and TN gives a rip about women's b-ball), demanded Penn St end football and then whined when the NCAA dialed back the sanctions after admitting they overreacted; she turned Tiger Woods' penalty at the Master's into something (get this) that will "follow him throughout his career" - sort of like that home run Hank Aaron hit but stepped out of the batter's box (which most folks don't even know about).
She's shrill and dumber than dirt. The fact she occasionally makes a good point is hardly impressive since a broken clock is still right twice a day. In my view, she and Roberts are twins.
(Brennan on Andrews: "If you trade off your sex appeal, if you trade off your looks, eventually you're going to lose those. She doesn't deserve what happened to her, but part of the shtick, seems to me, is being a little bit out there in a way that then are you encouraging the complete nutcase to drill a hole in your room.")
Do not for one second even dare suggest a man could keep his job if he'd have said something like that.
Bingo! I'm sure he will win some more games so his hometown can have another Jameis Winston day and hold him up as a hero for all to adore.
Well, the article did say it was a required investigation, so no need to worry. At least if you are Cap'n Crablegs.
Folks the Title IX aspect could cause some serious issues for Crabbie. Sure the University Athletic program is very powerful, but they may have met their equal here.
Herby interviewed him a few days ago and asked him directly if he considered himself a "role model." He answered in the affirmative and said that he wanted kids to "look up to me."
Title Nine has gained momentum during the summer. I have seen the Title Nine director no less than 3 times in the last month (and we are clean).
I am sure he believes that. The really sad thing is there are some kids who do look up to him.
Wasn't it Charles Barkley who argued he wasn't a role model?
But anytime you are famous, especially a sports star you are a role model whether you choose to be or not. Of course, that doesn't mean you are a "good" role model.
ADs and boosters aren't more powerful than a federal government agency try to prove they can do their job.
I have wondered if the DoJ and Title IX investigation is the reason behind no visit to to the White House for FSU. UConn's men's and women's basketball teams had no issue getting to the WH and the President finding time to meet with them. But, FSU and all of these scheduling conflicts?
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