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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
SEC crime wave subsides — slightly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Two days after Georgia’s final football game last season, a player was arrested for drunk driving, stealing a car and speaking Pinocchio in his statement to police — your basic triple crown for an SEC football player.
For a school and a conference giving lip service to purification, it wasn’t the way to start an off-season. In Birmingham, the commissioner of the SEC slapped his forehead and asked obvious question.
“You just say, ‘Why?’” Mike Slive said Wednesday. “But I think we’ve all stepped up. We decided just asking why isn’t good enough anymore.”
It’s only late May. Still plenty of time for bar fights and borderline recruits submitting suddenly mutant SAT scores inflated to Mensa levels. But there is a relative calm these days. At least by SEC standards.
Mark Richt and Georgia have acted swiftly to suspend four players — and the fact there have been only four actually is good news. Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer has kicked off one player and suspended another. An Alabama player was arrested for possessing a stolen hand gun. Six Mississippi State players were involved in a bar fight.
But this docket is nothing like a year ago, when Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina exhausted the supply of public defenders and the conference from top to bottom looked like an episode of “Cops.”
“I would say things have been much less chaotic,” said Slive.
If this trend holds up, some credit should go to the conference’s partnership a year ago with the “Mentors in Violence Prevention” (MVP) program, which educates athletes in character development and conflict resolution. Over 2,600 athletes and coaches were exposed to 90-minute programs between September and April.
But here’s another key: Somebody finally woke up.
Georgia hardly is pristine. Four suspensions are four floors south of pristine. But the thumb-twirling and soft-on-crime attitude that permeated the football program in the past seems to have diminished. In each case, Georgia or Richt has handed down punishment within 48 hours of learning of an arrest. And the punishment wasn’t running steps.
“I do feel like we’ve been more proactive in dealing with things,” athletic director Damon Evans said.
“Mark understands the magnitude of things when football players put the university in the spotlight. When things have happened, he and the administration have stepped up and moved quickly.”
Similarly, Fulmer, whose team’s lack of discipline no doubt contributed to Tennessee’s unraveling last season, has snapped out of it. Job security could have something to do with that. But three weeks ago, Fulmer reportedly blasted his team immediately after two were arrested (one for making “inappropriate” comments to a mother and daughter).
Are SEC coaches actually taking things more seriously now?
“I don’t have actual data in front of me, but my sense is that’s the case,” Slive said. “We’re educating the athletes now [with the MVP program]. But there is an accountability, and holding a student-athlete accountable for their behavior is a lesson.”
Didn’t take long at Georgia. Dannell Ellerbe was suspended after his DUI, driving a teammate’s car into a tree and giving police false information. He’ll miss three games. Antonio Sims, who had a DUI last November and multiple school violations, was suspended from school, effectively wiping out his season.
Two offensive linemen will sit for the first two games: Ian Smith (public intoxication) and Daniel Inman (for “violating team policy,” and it’s never good when left undefined.)
At this time a year ago, Georgia had five arrests. Not a big difference. But one included Darrius Swain, who was jailed for 22 days. So far, only one recruit has failed to qualify. Last year, several failed to make it past admissions, including Jamar Chaney, because of a suspicious SAT score.
Another recruit, Tavares Kearney, was charged with using his camera phone to take a picture of the answer key for a summer school test. He denied it, claimed the picture was taken accidentally and twisted a teacher’s wrist to get the phone back.
At one point, the Bulldogs had 12 arrests in a span of 14 months. Tennessee and South Carolina also had double-digit arrests in a similar time frame.
Why did the SEC partner with the “MVP” program? Because it needed it.
It’s the summer. Evans admitted, “I feel more comfortable during the season when players don’t have as much free time on their hands.”
Imagine. When the season starts, that’s when he feels at ease.
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
A Bush-league request
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Well, it didn’t hurt to ask. So Reggie Bush did, even though it was ridiculous to think that the NFL would give into his request to change its entire numbering system for running backs.
You know, just for him.
The thing is, stranger things have happened in sports (designated hitters, Dennis Rodman, the expansion of frequently barren Bobby Dodd Stadium). That’s why you couldn’t take it for granted that the NFL’s competition would do the right thing and tell Bush to get lost or something.
According to Falcons general manager Rich McKay, co-chairman of the committee, nobody on his committee wanted to grant Bush’s request to wear his college number (5) in the pros.
Good. Under NFL rules, running backs must wear numbers between 20-49. And, yes, receivers were allowed last season to wear numbers in the teens, but teams were running out of 80s due to the slew of receivers and tight ends on rosters.
For somebody to expect the NFL to change a rule, just because a hotshot rookie in waiting wants you to do so …
That’s just Bush.
Permalink | Comments (43) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
