Mack Brown is one of the best coaches in College Football, he is a class act above reproach. Only the distinguished Senator from Ohio in the Scarlet sweater vest is anywhere near the genuine nice guy from Austin. That being said, there sure are a lot of arrests of Longhorn players of late. With the latest arrest of James Henry the Longhorn total has reached six arrests since June.
A Brief Summation of Texas Legal Issues
James Henry – Alleged involvement in a home invasion in July, did not participate but tampered with evidence
Robert Joseph – Alleged involvement in a home invasion in July, left the team
Andre Jones – Alleged involvement in a home invasion in July
Sergio Kindle – Arrested and suspended for a DUI arrest, recently reinstated
Henry Milton – Arrested and suspended for a DUI arrest, recently reinstated
Tyrell Gatewood – Arrested for possession of a controlled substance
Now this is not an attempt to take a shot at Texas. But given the idea for this was struck by reading about Henry’s arrest today. Football players getting in trouble, in and of itself is not a big deal, and entirely expected given the prominent role they are granted on their respective campuses just by being a Football player for whatever institution they represent. Because of the position they enjoy, they inevitably develop a sense of Hubris. It is certainly an issue, not just in Austin, but anywhere College Football is played at the highest level, and even at the lowest levels of Division 1A. My favorite story is of the player from Ohio University of Ohio who was arrested for punching a horse, a police horse, while the officer was sitting on said police horse. (back story, mounted police in Athens Ohio patrol the streets on the weekends for what I presume to be crowd control purposes) Its not a Texas issue to say the least, it is one that effects every school. Some non Texas examples:
Penn State – Keg fight 2007
Notre Dame – Hooker Gate
Arkansas – Spatial Issues
That is a mere sampling of the issues that have hit College Campuses around the country. The sampling of shenanigans really is wide reaching. It can not be confined to a single school or program, nor can it be confined to a single conference, as much as some conferences and their fans (read as Big 10) want to believe that they, and their fellow institutional brethren are inherently better, and by that virtue less inclined to engage in such frivolities, they are delusional. Every program has these issues, regardless of class, conference or other affiliation. Everyone is caught up in it, and no one is immune.
What I find to be, if not interesting, but worth noting is the rash of outright stupidity that seems to follow in the wake of schools who have reached the mountain top of College Football. Most of the time the team that reaches said mountain top is embedded in a community in which the players on that team are granted status as instant legends. That status I can assume gets into their heads, and combine that with the fact that pretty much every man of College age already thinks that they are bulletproof to begin with. Add in the legend quota and the problems stemming from the that is entirely predictable.
Now, looking back at the programs who have won a national title in the past 5 years. You can go through step by step to each school and you can run off the legal incidents and controversies that have transpired after the face. Though there is an short comming in regards to my knowledge about any controversy that may, or may not have, swirled around the LSU program in the wake of the 2003 championship, due to the fact that at the time, I was stilled wrapped up in the insular world of an Ohio State, meaning I had no knowledge of the outside world, any wrongdoing I knew of outside of Ohio State was used to point out the glory of senator Tressell, and his inherent “betterness” than all his peers. So yeah, I imagine that plenty of shenanigans transpired in the wake of LSU’s national championship, especially reading Clay Travis’s account of his adventure on the Bayou for a Tiger game. I assume shit went down, after googling various phrases pertaining to that time period I came up with no scandals, other than the on going one about the BCS in 2003. Historically there are examples that have lived in infamy so to speak. Peter Warrick and his 95% discount, Lawrence Phillips being Lawrence Phillips and so on and so forth. Moving on…
In 2002 Ohio State wins the national title. That is followed promptly by the many incidents involving Maurice Clarrett. That was the start of the long, slow downward spiral in which Clarrett found himself. There was the falsifying of a Police report, his suspension from the team and expulsion of the university. That saga carried on for the majority of 2003 until ties were completely severed between Clarrett and Ohio State. Shots were fired at the university from Clarrett, through ESPN the magazine. A rash of arrests for everything ranging from sex with minors, the ever present herb, and battery charges that were leveled on two former players. Tressell called a meeting with his players about all of their legal troubles. The ever popular zero tolerance policy was instituted and the flow of incidents subsided.
USC’s troubles are well noted, mainly by conspiracy theorist who believe that USC is in cahoots with the NCAA for one reason or another. There was the Dwayne Jarrett Matt Leinart rent agreement. Which basically involved Bob Leinart making up the difference in what Jarrett couldn’t pay from his housing stipend for his scholarship. Then there was the Reggie Bush situation which everyone loves to point out as an example of the dreaded “lack of institutional control. Winston Justice has his own hooker gate and so on and so forth.
Even Florida, national champs for only 9 months have had more than their fair share of legal issues. There is the now legendary actions of Ronnie Wilson who thought that a great way to settle disputes is to fire your AK 47 into the air, in a parking lot in Gainesville. Great tactic in Afghanistan, slightly frowned upon in the United States. Brandon James and his love of the sticky icky. Which surprisingly doesn’t prevent him from being able to run very fast in many directions. There is also the tragic story of Avery Atkins, who was found dead in his car on July 5th.
The principal thing to take away from this is that while Hubris strikes at all levels of the College Football spectrum it, seems to have the most profound effect on those schools who are either at the top of the mountain, or have recently spent time on the top. So a bit of fair warning to the eventual champion of the sport this year, enjoy the win and the bragging rights, but the smart bet is that which ever coach comes out on top is going to be rewarded with 8 solid months of headaches, a product of his own success.
