Crime in College Football

[NCHuskerfan2001]

I coworker brought this to my attention today I thought it was interesting that Nebraska had 4 players with criminal record. I guess that isn't very many but I always thought we ran a pretty clean program. I’m interested to know who the guys are and what they got in trouble for.

 

 

My link

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

Well there a few with dui.

[mitch7]

I coworker brought this to my attention today I thought it was interesting that Nebraska had 4 players with criminal record. I guess that isn't very many but I always thought we ran a pretty clean program. I’m interested to know who the guys are and what they got in trouble for.

 

 

My link

Just because we have players with a criminal record doesn't mean we do not run a clean program (that goes for every program). I am a strong believer that through structure and good coaches it partly the programs job to reform these athletes. The whole idea is to turn these boys into men by giving them the tools to succeed. Every program is going to have "bad" kids and i would agree that having to many "bad" kids is a bad thing for the program, but hopefully the program turns them into success stories.

 

And yeah we have had DUI's, and drug and assault problems in the past. IMO nothing that isn't to be expected sadly.

[NCHuskerfan2001]

I coworker brought this to my attention today I thought it was interesting that Nebraska had 4 players with criminal record. I guess that isn't very many but I always thought we ran a pretty clean program. I’m interested to know who the guys are and what they got in trouble for.

 

 

My link

Just because we have players with a criminal record doesn't mean we do not run a clean program (that goes for every program). I am a strong believer that through structure and good coaches it partly the programs job to reform these athletes. The whole idea is to turn these boys into men by giving them the tools to succeed. Every program is going to have "bad" kids and i would agree that having to many "bad" kids is a bad thing for the program, but hopefully the program turns them into success stories.

 

And yeah we have had DUI's, and drug and assault problems in the past. IMO nothing that isn't to be expected sadly.

 

I guess I worded that wrong. I didn't think we would be above texas and LSU on the list.

[macroboy]

Did I miss it in the article (scan reading)? 4 with records before coming to N or after they got here?

I know we have some DUI's, probably some other drink related cases as well. Weren't there a couple of assaults as well?

I think we do run a pretty clean program,. I think our fan base gets a little delusional about how clean but its pretty clean. I mean, we aren't the SEC but we aren't a bunch of church kids either.

Young people do dumb things and sometimes get caught.

 

Article brings up some interesting things. Can young people who do really bad things change if given a chance and brought to a new environment? Some. Hard to tell which ones. I'd hate to see any kid that gets in trouble get prevented from getting a D1 scholly but there has always been a faction of programs that win with bad people. You could certainly argue we had some during the glory days.

[74Hunter]

It looks like they only checked the preseason top 25 teams. Good to see DONU so low on the list. Looks like Bo and Dr. Tom are running a pretty straight program at this time.

 

With over 120 guys on the roster, 4 is a low number.

[knapplc]

Just because we have players with a criminal record doesn't mean we do not run a clean program (that goes for every program). I am a strong believer that through structure and good coaches it partly the programs job to reform these athletes. The whole idea is to turn these boys into men by giving them the tools to succeed. Every program is going to have "bad" kids and i would agree that having to many "bad" kids is a bad thing for the program, but hopefully the program turns them into success stories.

 

And yeah we have had DUI's, and drug and assault problems in the past. IMO nothing that isn't to be expected sadly.

 

Agreed. Plus it's appropriate to mention that we have 100+ guys on the team counting walk-ons, so four guys with criminal "issues" is pretty low - at or less than 4%. About 6.5% of Americans have a criminal record (the UK and Canada are at about 10%), so Nebraska Football is below the national average.

 

Further, this article does a poor job of differentiating between crimes. All crimes are not the same, and four guys with misdemeanors are far different than four guys with felonies. If they really want to show me "striking revelations," they need to tell me what those crimes are.

 

They launch the article with four tales of pretty sordid behavior by Pitt players, then they lump DUI with "intent to distribute cocaine." Those are two VERY different crimes.

 

The article seems to be an attempt to blow the lid off of something - but they didn't find much of much, so they tossed out some anecdotes about some of the more serious offenders, lumping all "police records" into one category, then ended with some vague worry about "where this is all going."

 

I think this article had far less impact than they intended. But whatever.

[mitch7]

I coworker brought this to my attention today I thought it was interesting that Nebraska had 4 players with criminal record. I guess that isn't very many but I always thought we ran a pretty clean program. I’m interested to know who the guys are and what they got in trouble for.

 

 

My link

Just because we have players with a criminal record doesn't mean we do not run a clean program (that goes for every program). I am a strong believer that through structure and good coaches it partly the programs job to reform these athletes. The whole idea is to turn these boys into men by giving them the tools to succeed. Every program is going to have "bad" kids and i would agree that having to many "bad" kids is a bad thing for the program, but hopefully the program turns them into success stories.

 

And yeah we have had DUI's, and drug and assault problems in the past. IMO nothing that isn't to be expected sadly.

 

I guess I worded that wrong. I didn't think we would be above texas and LSU on the list.

Yeah I would agree. I thought for sure Texas would be up there. I am surprised Stanford would even let a person with a criminal record on campus unless it happened after he enrolled.

[billdozer15]

Who cares...... Thats less than 4% of the team. Its gonna happen. If you stopped 100 people on the street, I would bet more than 4 of them would have some sort of criminal record and likely alot worse than that of the players on our team.

[kchusker_chris]

Agreed. Plus it's appropriate to mention that we have 100+ guys on the team counting walk-ons, so four guys with criminal "issues" is pretty low - at or less than 4%. About 6.5% of Americans have a criminal record (the UK and Canada are at about 10%), so Nebraska Football is below the national average.

 

Further, this article does a poor job of differentiating between crimes. All crimes are not the same, and four guys with misdemeanors are far different than four guys with felonies. If they really want to show me "striking revelations," they need to tell me what those crimes are.

 

They launch the article with four tales of pretty sordid behavior by Pitt players, then they lump DUI with "intent to distribute cocaine." Those are two VERY different crimes.

 

The article seems to be an attempt to blow the lid off of something - but they didn't find much of much, so they tossed out some anecdotes about some of the more serious offenders, lumping all "police records" into one category, then ended with some vague worry about "where this is all going."

 

I think this article had far less impact than they intended. But whatever.

Some of the follow up articles go into a little more detail on the percentages of violent crimes versus misdemenors. Also remember that these background checks generally did not include juvi records, so the numbers could be higher.

 

And, not get into a social debate with you, but lumping DUI with distribution of cocaine is not that different in my opinion. The fact that we as a society see DUI as a "minor" offense and "distributing cocaine" as a VERY different crime (which I am assuming you mean it's much worse) is why driving under the influence is such a problem on campuses today. If it had the same stigma attached to it, with the same pentalties it wouldn't be happening every night. But for some reason, getting into a car drunk and drastically increasing your chance of killing an innocent person (and/or yourself) is VERY different than selling drugs to someone that is far from innocent of the affects.

 

(this is coming from a borderline alcoholic)

 

Note: I don't group together a social drinker that blows .08 with a cocaine dealer...but I do group together a college kid that blows .20 with that cocaine dealer. Both need some time behind bars.

[NUance]

Who cares...... Thats less than 4% of the team. Its gonna happen. If you stopped 100 people on the street, I would bet more than 4 of them would have some sort of criminal record and likely alot worse than that of the players on our team.

 

Yeah, no kidding. If you stopped 100 people on the street, I bet more than 4 of them would pull a gun and shoot you.

 

 

This is a pretty good article from SI. But I don't think there's a problem. And we certainly don't need yet more ncaa regulations to mandate background checks.

[Joe_5700]

The article was obviously written by a TCU alum.

[NUance]

The article was obviously written by a TCU alum.

Ha ha! This assumes TCU alums can write.

 

 

The more likely scenario is that the TCU players misspelled their own names on their college applications. And so the background checks didn’t turn up anything.

[suh_fan93]

Iowa Hawkeyes representin'!

[mmmtodd]

VERY dramatic SI.com homepage...and I was sucked in...

 

after reading the article, I want my ten minutes back.