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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2007 > July > 20
Friday, July 20, 2007
Dawg days of summer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re definitely in college football’s silly season.
Normally, a college student getting arrested for a traffic infraction wouldn’t warrant a report even in his hometown weekly, much less coverage on the sports front and Web site home page of the state’s largest newspaper (and he’s lucky the Michael Vick story broke or he might have made the front page!). But Caleb King is a college football player, so apparently that makes it “news.”
Even an unknown second-string walk-on offensive lineman hits the headlines these days when he gets in trouble, so you know that a high-profile signee like King is going to be under a microscope.
Of course, coming after a string of mostly minor arrests for the program over the past few months, it’s likely just about anything short of perfect behavior is going to hit the Web and papers. (It’s only news, you know, if they screw up.) I half expect a report soon on which football players were late paying their credit card bills last month.
It’s not that I’m giving the UGA players a pass on breaking the rules. Serious stuff like assaults and rapes should not only be prosecuted in the courts but should get players kicked off the team, as happened this week at Minnesota.
Thankfully, the UGA problems mostly have been lesser violations, usually to do with alcohol. And let’s face it, some alcohol-related incidents (like DUI) are of more concern than others. (The cop who arrested a couple of UGA players for walking along a street with an open can of beer gets the Barney Fife Stamp Out Crime Award.)
Drinking is certainly a problem with college students these days, but not just football players. However, most of the 10 to 12 UGA students cited by police every weekend won’t see their conduct written up in more than the Red & Black’s weekly summary of weekend arrests. A football player, however, gets one of those “Another Dog Arrested” headlines and the subject of tiresome what-should-be-done-with-him Internet discussions.
This is just part of the tabloidy, celebrity-obsessed “instant news” culture that the rise of the Internet has spawned, and it’s not going away, so football players and other high-profile athletes at UGA and elsewhere might as well get used to it. And think twice before even running a red light.
As for the no-doubt-soon-to-come thumbsucker on off-season arrests, I don’t wanna read it. We’ve heard it all before. I’m more than ready to get back to some football!
DAWG BITES: So Georgia only cracked the special teams of the first-team SEC pre-season picks. Big deal. The only thing more worthless than media pre-season all-conference picks is the rankings of recruiting classes. It’s the rankings after the season I’m interested in. … UGA’s athletic association sent out basketball ticket order forms this week. This could be a make-or-break season for Dennis Felton so here’s hoping that some of the folks who usually buy up the best seats and then don’t go to the games will either give ’em away this season or actually take the time to make the trip to the Steg.
