Yes, we briefly spoke about it earlier this week… but perhaps an event as dramatic as this (drugs, weapons, cops, and tasers) deserves a few paragraphs of commentary, especially because of its potentially significant consequences.
We know that most Texas blogs are defending Brown (and Gatewood) as being guilty of “bad judgment.” I don’t agree. I’m not saying that he’s guilty of a bigger crime – that’s not my point at all. Let the legal system handle that stuff. My opinion is from a college football fan’s point of view.
His biggest (non-judicial) offense was the disdain he displayed for his teammates, and his disrespect for his coaches.
Tarell Brown is a starter on a team that is preparing for the biggest game of its season. All the players and coaches are working hard, practicing hard, preparing schemes, doing drills, etc. His coaches and teammates are depending on him for one of the team’s most important jobs – covering the best WR in college football. No doubt he worked hard to get to that point, to earn that trust, to earn that starting job.
So, just a few days before the game, he decides to violate team rules by breaking curfew to go out in the wee hours of the morning and drive around with people who were doing drugs, while holding a loaded weapon in his lap?
This isn’t “bad judgment.” What it shows was that the team’s best interests were not in his mind at all. Team rules, like curfews, didn’t matter at all to him. And now that he’s not playing on Saturday, he’s let his team down, forced other players to step up to do the job that he was supposed to do, forced his coaches to adjust game plans and schemes, distracted the entire team, and embarrassed his fans.
It’s not about whether he’s a good football player, or if he was using the dope or just selling it, or if he really was just holding a loaded weapon inches from his nads while in a deep sleep. It’s about whether he cares at all about his teammates.
The next question is this: If the starting CB on a defending national championship team feels like he can get away with being this undisciplined, does that say anything about the control Mack Brown has on his team? Just wondering.
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