I just hate it when these players make these absolutely stupid decisions. They have opportunities that thousands of high school football players would love to have. Then they blow it all.
Tidefans - need your opinions on Arkansas OT charged with felony
- Thread starter Little Piggie
- Start date
I think treat him however they would another student. If he is allowed to stay in school and not serve jail time, he still needs to be suspended but kept on the team. Maybe if be is kept on the team and held accountable to Petrino, it could POSSIBLY scare the crap out of him and keep him from throwing his life away.
Hmmm..... how good/important a player is he?
senior starter, may be the largest lineman, but had a tendency to be sloppy (offsides, etc.)
LOL! You Bama folks just salivating, huh? Love it! At least, if it had to happen, it was at the start of Spring practice so someone else can get the prep time for the position. We'll just suffer through.
That's a very positive way they could approach it. Petrino doesn't put up with nonsense.
My thought exactly when I started to read. JJ was allowed to plead down from felony kicking in the head to misdemeanor kicking in the head and reinstated. I think that came back to bite them in the butt, eventually. Now, LSU is apparently going to start another QB with an extremely questionable and troubled legal background. In the end, character counts - on the field as well as in life...
CNS would sit him down eye to eye and find out what exactly happened. Coach Petrino will prolly do the same and then go from there. No use speculating.
I see little to no salivating, actually. I'm just thinking his worth to the team is going to figure into his punishment.
Me too. The legal side should be satisfied first and then if Arkansas wants to keep him around that is their choice.
Kid should have gone to the barn. 'Cause if he didn't know stealing was wrong there'd be no problem. 
You can't ignore a felony. Even if, as Earle references, it's pled down to a misdemeanor, even if it's only $40, even if, even if, even if iffity if. A felony is bad news all around.
For the team, the issue is not this one guy, valuable though he may be. It's the message it sends to everybody else....that you can do whatever you want, and daddy (the coach) will bail you out. That leads to breakdowns when it matters most. Just ask LSU how that one ends.
If this is a first offense -- and I'm talking about violation of team rules, not just a first run-in with the law of the land -- I'm not sure if Saban would kick him off entirely. In the case of Jimmy Johns, he had been in Saban's doghouse before and was caught on film, selling hard drugs out of the football complex parking lot. Forget that he was a football player, I'm not sure the University would allow a student to remain enrolled under those circumstances. In any event, the gravity of the charges and the evidence against him made it a no-brainer. He was gone.
In the case of Elder, he robbed a student at gunpoint and chased him into University housing. Plus, if I remember right, he hadn't even started classes before his freshman year. Regardless, you had the gravity of charges, solid evidence, UA student policy totally aside from football, and no good will built up. Easy call -- gone.
The closest thing I remember to what Arkansas is facing was about 20 years ago with Robert Stewart. Stewart was a starter at three positions during his career -- Fullback, Linebacker and Nose Guard. During the summer before his senior (junior?) year, he smashed a car window and stole some stuff out of the car. Don't remember what the goods were, but I do remember that they were essentially worthless. I don't think Stewart had been in trouble with the law at that point, though information on violation of team rules was much scarcer then than now. Anyway, Curry suspended him for the year. He came back and finished his eligibility the following year.
For the team, the issue is not this one guy, valuable though he may be. It's the message it sends to everybody else....that you can do whatever you want, and daddy (the coach) will bail you out. That leads to breakdowns when it matters most. Just ask LSU how that one ends.
If this is a first offense -- and I'm talking about violation of team rules, not just a first run-in with the law of the land -- I'm not sure if Saban would kick him off entirely. In the case of Jimmy Johns, he had been in Saban's doghouse before and was caught on film, selling hard drugs out of the football complex parking lot. Forget that he was a football player, I'm not sure the University would allow a student to remain enrolled under those circumstances. In any event, the gravity of the charges and the evidence against him made it a no-brainer. He was gone.
In the case of Elder, he robbed a student at gunpoint and chased him into University housing. Plus, if I remember right, he hadn't even started classes before his freshman year. Regardless, you had the gravity of charges, solid evidence, UA student policy totally aside from football, and no good will built up. Easy call -- gone.
The closest thing I remember to what Arkansas is facing was about 20 years ago with Robert Stewart. Stewart was a starter at three positions during his career -- Fullback, Linebacker and Nose Guard. During the summer before his senior (junior?) year, he smashed a car window and stole some stuff out of the car. Don't remember what the goods were, but I do remember that they were essentially worthless. I don't think Stewart had been in trouble with the law at that point, though information on violation of team rules was much scarcer then than now. Anyway, Curry suspended him for the year. He came back and finished his eligibility the following year.
piggie, as an Alabama fan I'm definitely in no position cast stones but.... wouldn't Florida fans have better insight on managing police blotter behavior?
Kid should have gone to the barn. 'Cause if he didn't know stealing was wrong there'd be no problem.
I know that's right! :cheers2:
I shoulda just called the main man on this issue, sCam. He could give us both the Gator and Barn ethical and moral code.
_lol:
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There is nothing funny about a young man making what could be a devastating error in judgment which may affect him the rest of his life. The amount of money he spent is immaterial. Hopefully, he can overcome his error, however, playing football for your school is a privilege and he should lose that right. Suspend him (but let him stay with the team) until the case is adjudicated and if found guilty, throw him off the team.
Simply I don't think you can really consider a 23 year old man a kid. Were he anyone else in society its very likely he wouldn't get the chances to plea this down and get out of it as easily as he is likely to. That said being an athlete he will probably get that second chance you speak of. I'm all for second chances, I just get tired of it always being the athlete or celebrity that gets it.
Allow me an opposing view here.
I'm sick & tired of the "he's just a kid" excuse. He's 23, which is old enough to vote, see a dirty movie, and drink as well as drive. If this guy had hit and killed a member of your family nobody would be telling us how this was not that big a deal. Whether he had a bad upbringing or whatever makes no difference. When I was 17 I went to college. Never did it ever dawn on me that stealing money was ok. And this is common sense - stealing is not done right in front of you, they wait until you're out of the room or they sneak it.
I ran into this with one of my good friends, a black preacher. He tried to justify the Cam Newton payment by saying that inner city kids didn't know right from wrong and had never seen that kind of money & would find it ok. I noted to him that any payment of any college player is NOT done in public. You don't call a press conference & give a kid $200K. Doesn't the sneaky aspect of it tell anyone with a brain it's wrong?
Yes it does.
And you know something - if this kid was anyone other than an athlete in a money sport he would be gone. Remember the Duke lacrosse case? They cancelled the season without any due process.
Do you think for even a second Duke would have done that to the basketball team? Of course not.
I'm sick & tired of the "he's just a kid" excuse. He's 23, which is old enough to vote, see a dirty movie, and drink as well as drive. If this guy had hit and killed a member of your family nobody would be telling us how this was not that big a deal. Whether he had a bad upbringing or whatever makes no difference. When I was 17 I went to college. Never did it ever dawn on me that stealing money was ok. And this is common sense - stealing is not done right in front of you, they wait until you're out of the room or they sneak it.
I ran into this with one of my good friends, a black preacher. He tried to justify the Cam Newton payment by saying that inner city kids didn't know right from wrong and had never seen that kind of money & would find it ok. I noted to him that any payment of any college player is NOT done in public. You don't call a press conference & give a kid $200K. Doesn't the sneaky aspect of it tell anyone with a brain it's wrong?
Yes it does.
And you know something - if this kid was anyone other than an athlete in a money sport he would be gone. Remember the Duke lacrosse case? They cancelled the season without any due process.
Do you think for even a second Duke would have done that to the basketball team? Of course not.
Almost this exact same thing happened with a george mason basketball player earlier this season. The only reason I know it happened is because I was in fairfax when it happened, and it didnt really hit the big news. The kid found a card on campus, used it to buy gas then dumped it (or something along those lines). He was suspended for a short while until things were taken care of legally
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/11/07/Andre.Cornelius.ap/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/11/07/Andre.Cornelius.ap/index.html
You can call it a bad decision, a lapse in judgment, or sugar coat it any way you want, he still knew exactly what he was doing and it's still a felony. Here's a 23 year old man, starting on the OL of a very well respected SEC football team, with aspirations of playing in the NFL and he decides to P*** it all away for a tank of gas on a stolen credit/debit card. I think he should be held responsible by the school and to the letter of the law. And would I feel the same way with a Bama players? Yes, I would!! These athletes have the world on a string and some of them don't even know it. How can you make a decision to screw up your future for an $40 tank of gas?
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