DA punts discipline to Nick Saban, who must do the right thing
Football is so hard, it will make you sweat.
And as a result, Alabama has its All-SEC left tackle and an experienced body for its increasingly thin secondary back, at least unless Nick Saban decides to administer discipline from within the program.
Hopefully he will. But why is it that, in this day and age, there’s such a strong feeling that he won’t?
In case you haven’t heard, Crimson Tide left tackle Cam Robinson and safety Laurence “Hootie” Jones were arrested in May after they were caught in a park in their hometown of Monroe, La. with marijuana and two handguns — neither registered and one allegedly stolen — inside their vehicle.
But Ouachita Parish district attorney Jerry Jones dropped the charges Monday, citing insufficient evidence. He later publicly expressed a desire not “to ruin the lives of two young men who have spent their adolescence and teenage years, working and sweating, while we were all in the air conditioning.”
So, in effect, they got off because they are football players who sweat at practice. That’s spoken directly from the DA.
He pretty much kicked the can to Alabama’s coach, who will decide whether there’s any consequence to these actions outside of the current public embarrassment from the arrests being out there for all to see.
Surely, they’ll have extra physical work and, according to Monroe TV station KNOE, they’ve already been to counseling and gone on police ride-alongs.
But those aren’t consequences for a couple of men whose futures will be defined by what they do on the football field. The DA had a chance to take away that privilege, at least temporarily. Now that responsibility goes to Saban and the university.
And Saban and the university owe it to college football and, really, the two young men and other kids that could make similarly bad decisions, ensuring that privilege is temporarily lost.
Make no mistake, this is bad behavior. Possessing drugs and weapons at the same time while sitting in a public area in the middle of the night isn’t a recipe to produce good feelings and happy times. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that.
For that message to sink in, temporary inconveniences like having to go to counseling shouldn’t be enough.
How about suspending them for the season opener against USC? That would send all the right messages. It’ll remind the players and others that actions do have consequences that not only affect the individual players — it can’t impress NFL scouts to do something so bad as to miss a big game — but also the entire team.
It’ll send the message that Alabama and Saban put doing the right thing over simply trying to win.
In dropping charges, Jones implied that Robinson and Jones were two good kids that made a mistake. I don’t doubt that.
However, we’re not talking about throwing them in jail or kicking them off the team. Even if Alabama loses that opener, the pair would have a chance to come back and redeem themselves. And everybody would connect the loss to Robinson’s absence.
That’s a consequence that matters. It would be a valuable lesson.
If they play that night, even if they had to run punishment marathons and hours of volunteer work daily outside the public spotlight, the message being sent will be that there is no consequence to reckless behavior.
Because right now, the only lesson we know from this is that if you toil on a football field, you’ll get the benefit of the doubt.
And that’s straight from the DA’s mouth.
I completely agree. Sit them for the first 2 games of the season, put a. Even stricter curfew on them, and make them earn their way back on in to the field.
I vote for a 3 game suspension…
Lol you would
hahaha
He does need to discipline however you obviously did not read all the DA said. There was not enough evidence to convict. There were also 2 non athletes in the car who were arrested but let go because they were not football players
“not enough evidence to convict” does not mean it never happened, even if that may be the way ‘some’ Bama fans want to define it.
has there been a credible source on those two non FB players? so far all I’ve seen is the lawyers comments. The police report makes no mention at all of two other people. If in fact they were there, I find it hard to believe that the reason they were let go is because “they are not foot ball players”.
They’re not in the report because they weren’t arrested.
I believe the report stated he observed two subjects… why not four? I’ll look it up and read again, maybe I’m wrong on this…
True, “not enough evidence to convict” doesn’t mean nothing happened, but in the US legal system, you are innocent until proven guilty, so “not enough evidence to convict” means that they are, in fact (legally speaking), innocent. Got a problem with that, take it up with the legal system and the sections of the US Constitution that sets the precedent for the “innocent until proven guilty” system. Not the DA who acted on that precedent.
I agree with everything said as well as the both of you. That situation could have gone awfully wrong by a simple accident and someone could have been killed… I say give them a season long curfew along with a 1game ban..
The spotlight is on Saban as it should be.. Hopefully he’ll make the right decision.
Da made the wrong decision. You would think that a da in Louisiana would hand down a strict penalty, but I guess the kids are from Monroe. I doubt nick satan will suspend them, although I think they should miss at least a few games. Gary laney, I’m surprised you had the balls to say something that’s not praising Bama and Saban. I agreed with most of what you said but you said you thought there should be a one game suspension. I’m not sure if it was you or not, but a few sds writers were recently bashing Dan Mullen for giving a one game suspension to somebody for an equally bad offense. Why is a one game suspension ok now? Again, not sure if you agree with the other writers, but I’d like to know.
I think it has to do with who Bama plays in that 1 game. Suspending them against USC would be a huge statement that no one is above reproach
Eh I guess but I would still add at least another game.
It shouldn’t matter who the opponent is, but it does.
Perhaps SABAN will let the team vote on it?? Wait a minute, he actually has the ballz to make his own decisions and not hide behind the “team.”
The LSU homer is strong in this one. I also don’t consider this case and the Simmons case to be the same. There is video of Simmons putting his hands on another person. Nobody harmed another person in this case. Even if prosecuted it would have ended up a misdemeanor.
There’s nothing equally bad about a physical assault and a minuscule amount of cannabis and legally-possessed firearms.
And yeah, Cam’s was legally possessed until you can prove he knew it was stolen or stole it himself, and there’s no evidence of that.
There wasn’t enough evidence to convict (keep in mind, evidence obtained through illegal acts, ie unlawful search and seizure, is inadmissible in a court of law). Therefore, by the Constitutional precedent of “innocent until proven guilty”, they were innocent, which would mean the DA made the correct decision in letting them go.
Saban has to dole out some sort of discipline, but it need not be excessive. There is a lot of work and counseling they have already agreed to, and the main thing is . . .
The DA said there is not enough evidence to convict.
Got that? If not, I’ll shout it; plug your ears if you are sensitive.
THE DA SAID THERE IS NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CONVICT.
Now does any poster in this thread know the facts better than the local DA?
the DA could have likely built a case. If neither came clean on the gun, technically both were in possession, so charge them both. A many a case has been prosecuted on circumstantial evidence. He had plenty of time to either build a case or create conditions to bring in a plea deal. The closer to September we get the more anxious the two would be to talk or deal. This case should have ended in a plea to reduce the charges to misdemeanor class. Not dismissed due to hardship of work and sweat. jmo…
Both came clean on their respective guns. Guns aren’t illegal, and the stolen aspect isn’t really as spooky as it seems. So given that, we’re left with a half gram of weed, found during an illegal search. If the DA thought he could have built a case, he would have. He didn’t, so he didn’t, silly post-facto speech aside.
lol, y’all running with that lawyers illegal search angle…
I don’t want to sound cynical…. But enough already….they did what they did…. Nothing is going to happen so let’s all just move on….there is an awesome football season just around the corner ! #Vols4Real
They made mistakes in judgement and deserve to be disciplined. But remember there were two more people in the car, it can almost certainly never be proven Cam knew the gun was stolen, and they’d been out target shooting. This whole thing has been overblown because it’s Alabama football players, one of which is an All-American left tackle. The DA had no case, then poorly worded his reasons for dropping the charges. Coach Saban will do what he needs to do and it’ll be ok folks.
@dplafoll… I couldnt agree with you more.. The uproar is the DA using “I don’t wanna destroy these young men’s lives” as his reason for dropping the case. This could have been disastrous. And to admit one was a football player just isn’t right. We’re not talking a traffic stop, we’re talking a loaded gun…
Do they need to be kicked off the team? No. Do they need a one game suspension? Yes.. What’s gonna happen to the next player? The DA just gave every athelete a free pass.. Not a good look.. But Im not affected by the decision so it’s easy to cast my opinion.
Sorry everyone, but drugs and guns don’t mix..
But we have a football season upcoming..lets talk football
I don’t want non-violent offenders to be in jail. I think most people in Louisiana are upset because we’ve all known people who have gone through a long and expensive legal process over far less, and weren’t given any benefit of the doubt. I had a buddy go to jail who was riding in a coworkers jeep that had sticks and stems in the carpet. Granted, they admitted they had just smoked the rest, but when all they find is sticks and stems, and certainly NO ILLEGAL WEAPONS, it starts to feel like preferential treatment. Also, some of the people defending them now were the same ones making a stink about Laremy Tunsil and Nkemdiche, or Simmons. In summary, I have no problem with Robinson or Hootie (even though this was incredibly stupid). I’m glad they aren’t rotting in a jail cell. The outcry is about a double standard on one hand, and how quick people are to call each other’s football teams “entitled thugs” while defending their own baggage.
Perfectly said.
I agree with you whole heartedly. Im not advocating they receive jail time.. But the DA has just created a problem for the next person(s) they catch under the same circumstance. I guess my point is it isnt a wise thing to have a bunch of 18-20yr olds thinking they have an illegal firearm and drugs in the possession and if they caught, nothing will happen.. That’s where Im speaking from. And Saban needs to address this with a Harsh non-football related consequence…Give them a season long curfew of 9pm. That doesn’t impact the team, that doesn’t impact their academics, it doesn’t impact their eligibility. What it does is impact their free time away from football during football season..This incident could have had horrible outcome..
I hate to see young promising men make silly mistakes, but this kind of goes overboard.
The next caught will point and say..”U let them off!”
I’m glad Im not Coach Saban..
Halftime of the first game. That’ll teach em.
It would be more than what Kelley got for pleading down a bar fight.