Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Florida gets Another Shot at Getting it Right


Carlos Dunlap of the #1 Florida Gators was arrested early Tuesday just days before the Gators are to play the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. Dunlap was found asleep at his car and performed poorly in a field sobriety test and was taken in when he refused to take a Breathalyzer test. This is a fascinating story beyond just the usual will he or won’t he play on Saturday, this provides an interesting story on how Urban Meyer will handle this situation. If you remember, Meyer suspended linebacker Brandon Spikes for only the first half in a game against Vanderbilt due to the eye-gouging incident in the Georgia game. This incident gives Florida the opportunity to save face and suspend Dunlap for the SEC Title game. Failure to do this further shows that winning football games is more important to Meyer and the Gators than teaching these student-athletes lessons.

Look at the Iowa Hawkeyes, just two years ago Kirk Ferentz was suspending players left and right due to players breaking the law. Ferentz realized that teaching these students that if you break the law you have to face the consequences that everyone else faces is more important than winning games. Just because you happen to be a football player at a major university doesn’t put you above the law. Now obviously the Hawkeyes’ record paid the price with all the suspensions but with a school like Florida where they probably have high school all-Americans as backups it won’t be as big of a problem. Meyer really needs to wake up and do what is right and that may involve losing the SEC title game.

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