Player Arrests Seem to be Increasing, do Coaches need help?

I just noticed that 3 of the 6 "Top Stories" today on Cnn/college sports section are about players being arrested. Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen, 2 West Virginia Players and Bama's Simeon Castille.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/specials/preview/2007/

In this morning's Nashville Tennessean there's an article about one thing UT's Coach Fullmer is doing to improve the situation. They had 15 arrests over a two year period. Coach Fullmer now posts all college football player arrests on a bulletin board outside the locker room and discusses them with his team often. It seems to be working.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/SPORTS0601/708200383/1345/SPORTS

I've come to the conclusion that some college players are just not smart enough to stay out of trouble. I think Fullmer's approach is a good one. Of course it took 15 player arrests during 2005 and 2006 to come up with this program.

It seems that this is not going to go away. Should the NCAA with all it's millions put some high profile programs in place to help get problem athlete's on the right track and away from jail? Gosh, I can't believe I'm saying we need this at the University level of Education.

Here's a detailed list of the 15 arrests at Tennessee and what each plater was arrested for:

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/SPORTS0601/708200379/1345/SPORTS

 

With the "Information Hwy", and other media coverage, my guess would be that we have more access and hear about it more, though that's just a guess.

 

Good, logical point. I think the 15 arrests at Tennessee is a high for them in a 2 year span. That's a lot of arrests for one team. Anyone know what the high total for Miami has been over a one or two year period?

 

There was a time when everyone would say, boys will be boys and swept it away. Espesially if the boy knew how to play football.

 

I'm no fan of the irish but JC is far from "not smart". He's a very smart individual and his arrest was lame anyway. He was sitting in the car waiting for someone of age to buy his booze. He didn't try to buy it himself and he didn't have fake ID. Smart people do dumb things all the time, including getting in trouble.

 

That's so true. Speaking of the "Times", seems like kids today have more access to situations that could land them in trouble too. More spending money, a vehicle, etc.

 

I agree, didn't mean to blanket everyone as "not smart". However, arrests for college players is Very High Profile, so I have to question most of the players being arrested as preventable. Maybe I'm wrong...

 

:rofl: So true, I didn't know that was illegal. I guess I could have been arrested about 350 times/year for a couple years in college.

 

I suspect that not many of us here can throw stones at the Clausen kid.

 

Well, admittedly I've done some stupid things in my time so I'm no better than he is in that respect.


It was stated in an earlier post that smart people do stupid things all the time. This thing was totally preventable and stupid... If I'm the #1 QB prospect in the country that ended up at ND (not exactly starving for media attention at any time...) then I'm not even gonna be in the same car with the person buying the booze. I'd have sent them to the store with a list and stayed wherever he was... Easy to say now that I'm 35 and not 19 anymore I guess.. lol

These types of infractions aren't as big of concern to me as ones that involve firearms, burglaries, robberies, etc. For a lot of young people, it's a part of growing up. If they learn from their mistakes and don't do it again and again, then no harm no foul. But if they show a pattern of this behavior repeatedly then yeah, they may very well just be stupid.

I have noticed what seems to be an upward trend of occurrences though. As someone said earlier, I'm not sure if it's more infractions happening, or just the age of reporting every little speck of news as it happens...