My beef today is with the University of Florida football team as well as its coach, Urban Meyer.
This past week, Florida WR Chris Rainey was arrested and charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony. This took place after Rainey sent a threatening text message to a former girlfriend, which reportedly read "Time to die."
I am usually an SEC supporter and admirer of the talent that SEC football has relative to other conferences. I think the impressiveness of a college football program like Florida winning year in and year out is often overlooked just because that's what they're expected to do. That being said, although it's tough for teams like Florida to live up to on-the-field expectations, it shouldn't be tough to live up to off-the-field ones.
Although it's tough to top that story, what this crime is part of may be even scarier. You see, we all know Florida's coach Urban Meyer is one of the top college coaches in the country. In his short five year tenure (going into his sixth year) at Florida, Meyer has managed to win two national titles, almost unheard of in the college game. Still, those two titles pale in comparison to the 30 players that have been arrested during those five years. Yes that's right, Chris Rainey is the thirtieth Florida football player to be arrested under Urban Meyer. Meyer might as well be recruiting all of his players from juvenile detention centers.
Just think about that number for a second; that's almost six arrests per year. There have been DUIs, burglaries, misdemeanor alcohol charges, battery charges, resisting arrest, marijuana possession and purchase, etc. Sounds like the type of guys all fathers want their daughters to marry.
As fans, we don't usually ask much out of our student-athletes (if that term is even applicable to intercollegiate athletes anymore) especially the ones that participate in popular sports like football and men's basketball. Athletes with high GPAs, who go to class and are involved in their community are usually the exception rather than the norm, not that there's anything wrong with that; athletes are on very time-constricting schedules and mostly got into the school they're attending for their athleticism not as much their brains, to play their respective sport first and study on the side. Most football players are just expected to do well enough in class during the week, so that they can participate on Saturdays. That's the way it is, and no complaints or protests are going to change the system anytime soon. But, when a number of a football team's players are arrested and charged with crimes, even if some of those charges are eventually dropped, it's disappointing and aggravating to say the least.
College coaches aren't paid the big bucks to just coach college football. In addition to their football duties, they have to make sure these kids grow into men. It may sound corny and cliche, but it's true. Like most college athletes, many of Florida's players won't be going on to play in the NFL, instead their times of football glory will come to an end, and they'll have to assimilate into the real world, no longer being the demi-gods they used to be. Urban Meyer isn't helping these kids do that. Many people claim that Meyer is trying, but trying doesn't matter in this case unless you get results, and if he was trying, he wouldn't have a problem of this magnitude; it's not as if players at every other powerhouse college football program in the nation are getting arrested.
There's a lot that needs to be done. Meyer has to start coming down on his kids harder than he already has. Just because Tim Tebow was a do-no-wrong player, doesn't mean all of Florida is, and it doesn't mean that Meyer is a strict coach; it just means that Tebow was a devout Christian. Without Tebow, without one single player, Meyer would probably be getting much more flack (which he deserves) for all of these arrests. If it was just one troublesome, misguided player that would be fine, but 30 arrests show that Meyer has to take a lot of the blame, especially when he recruits those players, and can therefore stop a lot of the crime, by just implementing stricter punishments and making examples out of the criminals on the team to show he means business.
The school also has to take action. If Meyer isn't going to do something about cutting down on crime than they have to. The football team isn't a separate entity and shouldn't be treated like it is, it's part of the school and its athletes are the school's students. They represent the school wherever they go and if UF doesn't start cracking down on this 'I can get away with anything because I'm on the football team' attitude that has apparently been instilled in its players, it just sadly goes to show that they're more worried about winning games and profiting off their players than they are with helping these young men become disciplined.
I'm not going to say that the school should put these players on constant watch; they're not babies anymore, they should know how to at least behave themselves well enough, as to not get arrested. What I'm calling for are stricter punishments for those that do break the rules. The best way to prevent someone from doing something, is to take make sure that the costs of the punishment outweigh the benefits of an action. With football players, that thing they love most is playing football. If team management starts suspending these guys for entire seasons, players will start taking notice. But stupid people will do stupid things, and therefore Florida has to start taking more precautions in the recruiting process. Guys with records of causing trouble should mean a big red light for the Gators from here on out. The best way to stop crime is to stop recruiting criminals.
College athletes have to learn that they can't get away with everything. Some of these guys will probably be celebrities in at least the state of Florida in the future, but many of them will just be average Joes after their four years of college are up. There is life after college football, and what these players need to understand is, in the real world, you can't get away with everything.
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