Where Did All The Champions Go?

Cause they sure as hell aren’t in Baton Rouge. LSU players are allegedly involved in a bar fight. Why that pisses me off extra.

            Last Saturday at Tuscaloosa’s only movie theater, Hollywood Cobb 16, there was a shooting where 17-year-old Arthur Bryant Jr. was arrested for allegedly shooting a man in the head after a large group was sighted arguing. The victim, also in his teens, was treated in the hospital and later released. Tuscaloosa police say the argument escalated quickly, could have been gang related and may have even started after words were exchanged on a social media site. I don’t know what words could make someone invincible enough to pull out a gun and shoot someone in the presence of a group larger than 40 in number.

            Five days later- that Thursday in a very different city of Baton Rouge, a group fight broke out where as many as 50 LSU players happened to be. Four in particular, including LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, were summoned to tell police their side of the story but instead chose to hire a defense attorney and postpone cooperation with police.

             These are two very different situations but both have to do with people thinking they’re bigger and better than they actually are. If you think you are a thug, you’re not. If you think you are a gangster- you’re an idiot and if you think you are a college football player- think again because that title can be easily stripped and it means leading an example which no one in college football has done lately. Actually let me rephrase. That title used to be easily stripped and it used to mean leading an example. The definition, at least my definition of an athlete will never be the same.

            If 50 players have to go out to celebrate the end of two-a-days then they aren’t ready for the week in and week out competition of the SEC. Good luck LSU. You’ve got a gaggle of idiots running around in Baton Rouge celebrating the “end” of hard work, already thinking they’re a big deal.

            Sgt. Donald Stone with the Baton Rouge Police told the Associated Press that he could confirm one of the players kicked one of the four victims in the head but could not confirm which one. All four victims were injured. Three with minor injuries, one with a more serious injury that could bring forth a felony charge.

            I don’t know what the victims did to antagonize the attack but I know it wouldn’t be gangster if someone wasn’t kicked in the head.

            It wouldn’t be gangster if a team didn’t celebrate the end of intense practices as a season full of fourth–ranked-in-the-nation-expectation wasn’t on the line in a 13-day future.

            It wouldn’t be gangster if there wasn’t criminal scandal days before an out of conference test against a pugnacious Oregon Duck opponent- ready to pay the SEC back.

Pryor & Tressel Talk it Out

            It wouldn’t be gangster if you didn’t try to get a free car out of the power of a name or a pay for play scam- but those are different stories.

            It might not be gangster, but it is champion caliber, something that should be expected of an athlete and football player given the chance to play on the stage of College Football.

            I am naive but I refuse to stop holding athletes accountable to being good people. For those who defend inexcusable behavior by saying these young adults are just juvenile in the ways of the world and dealing with fame and recognition. I answer by saying I still don’t expect them to be juvenile and reckless when threatening human life.

            There should be no double standard. There should be a zero tolerance policy where morals and dignity are protected in a respectable creed to hold a standard to be better people on and off the field. No, it’s not possible- but its not champion unless we strive for it.

Then again, I never expect champions from Baton Rouge.

ha.