The Lifestyles of Criminal College Athletes

I found a fantastic investigative journal piece, something so rarely found lately, via Deapsin. It is about the magical and downright criminal 2000 University of Washington Football season. Take a few hours to read everything, and I do mean everything. It concerns itself with rapist Jeremy Stevens, robber and attempted murderer Jeremiah Pharms, and wife beater Curtis Williams who you may remember as the player who was paralyzed against Stanford that year.

I am pretty speechless right now over the corruption that transpired at that University, especially that year alone. Judges, prosecutors, coaches, alumni, administration, and teammates all seemed to be a part of this gigantic coverup that puts anything that the Dallas Cowboys or Florida State did to shame. It just solidified my belief that Rick Neuheisel is a worthless piece of shit who should have been run out of coaching a decade ago.

The saddest part of all of this is that it appears that each of these three cases, which there apparently are other players but these are the three that they concentrate on since they're the biggest names, had multiple instances of criminal conduct and only Williams served any real jail time. I hope UCLA enjoys what they just hired, and enjoy that their players will be more like Raider fans then some of the class that they've had in the past.

CityCat and I have had this discussion before, where I tried to explain (if I recall correctly) that this happens and that it is a widespread problem. This absolutely disgusts me, not only as a human being, law abiding citizen but also as a football coach who believes in the value of having your players being upright role models, not criminals who belong behind bars.

I don't know if it is possible, but those prosecutors should be disbarred. Hell, some of those people, prosecutors and judges alike, should face some sort of music for the crimes they committed against the community for letting violent felons be allowed to roam the streets all for the "good of the team". I'm a bit disgusted we drafted Pharms, but then Butch Davis was in charge and he's not exactly known for having saints on his team either. At the very least at least we cut him early on.

There needs to be a giant overhaul in the NCAA to deal with this. I know we're a society of second chances, but you should have to pay your penance before those chances arrive. I would be for a committee to overlook each and every criminal charge made against any scholarship athlete and to determine whether he should be stripped of his scholarship or merely put on probation. It has become quite obvious that colleges and universities can no longer govern themselves in this area and they have lost that right.

Perhaps I'm overreacting, but this sickens me. It sickens me every time I see a Longhorn in the news for getting busted for some crime, but they too should be punished. I worry that even in the proposed system schools would attempt to squash any reports, therefore you'd have to set up a hotline that people can call in to the committee if the locals are not taking the case seriously. Perhaps even the DoJ can get their hands involved since many of the schools take public funds.

I know I'm just ranting at this point, but I am completely and utterly disgusted at something that isn't in this administration for the first time in a long time.