FLORIDA
It’s been a rough week for the Florida Gators, and it seems like it may get even rougher based on some social media activity on Sunday night.
DB Chris Steele, the Gators’ highest-rated 2019 signee, entered the transfer portal this week. A report surfaced that his decision stemmed (at least in part) from not being able to change roommates. His roommate at Florida was QB Jalon Jones, who also entered the NCAA transfer portal before it emerged that two women had accused him of sexual assault in that same dorm room.
That would be a serious situation and certainly a good reason for Steele to want to switch rooms, and it’s understandable why he would want to leave Florida after that wasn’t granted.
Now, though, several Gators are going after Steele on Twitter, with a few receivers posting pictures of themselves making catches over Steele:
https://twitter.com/Trevongrimes8/status/1127719729320353792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1127719729320353792&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F247sports.com%2Fcollege%2Fflorida%2FLongFormArticle%2FFlorida-Gators-Football-UF-players-going-in-on-Chris-Steele-on-social-media-131984564%2F
Sounds about right ‼️ pic.twitter.com/tUP96vkeGU
— Max (@Rick_Wells3) May 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/kylepitts__/status/1127722627605331968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1127722627605331968&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F247sports.com%2Fcollege%2Fflorida%2FLongFormArticle%2FFlorida-Gators-Football-UF-players-going-in-on-Chris-Steele-on-social-media-131984564%2F
Many other players reacted to Grimes’ initial post, so it’s clear they’re using Steele’s departure as a rallying cry.
If Steele did indeed leave Florida because the Gators wouldn’t let him leave a room with someone accused of sexual assault, these tweets from current Gators aren’t going to age well.
I think the way the current players are reacting to this speaks volumes. At least to the people who haven’t bought into everything the media is feeding them.
Steele didn’t want to be around a guy sexually assaulting him but Mullen didn’t care, these players don’t care, most UF fans don’t care. Truly sad to see this program put their mediocre football team ahead of an individuals wellbeing.
Umm dude are you aware of your own fanbase? Maybe your just 12, need I remind you of the entire stadium chanting “Our students dont get Murdered” in the early 90s?
You clearly haven’t been following this that closely. While the optics looked bad, initially, it’s become pretty obvious that the reasons behind the transfer have been greatly exaggerated.
Wait wait wait. “Steele didn’t want to be around a guy sexually assaulting him”–as in Jones was sexually assaulting Steele? I just assumed the victims were the girls that follow athletes. Jones was assaulting other players?
Jones was never accused of assaulting Steele. No need to address the rest of the post since your first sentence is false.
So when you say that the way current players are reacting to this speak volumes, do you mean the former Ohio State enrollee, who transferred to Florida, is throwing shade at an early enrollee, who should still be in high school, for his decision to transfer from UF? And doing so by posting a video from spring practice where he dominates the should-be high schooler?
No, maybe you should go back and read Steele’s dad’s tweets just a couple of weeks ago praising the schools treatment of his son and how awesome Mullen is. Does that sound like a father that’s truly upset about how his son is being treated? Especially since that tweet was made a month after his son requested to be transferred and a week after the sexual assault occurred. I think it’s pretty obvious by how these players are reacting to the situation, that they’re not very happy about Steele dragging their coach’s name through the mud. Take the hater glasses off and actually do a little research on this situation instead of buying into what you’re being fed by the media.
Requested to be moved out of the dorm, not transferred.
I’ve previously acknowledged that the story involves more than the media is currently reporting and that we will probably never know the true, full story. My above comment was just pushing back on Grimes’ tweet. And while I’m honestly not viewing this through “hater glasses”, I also do not care enough about this whole scenario to do any research, especially if it involves interpreting twitter feeds.
The best player Mullen has recruited to Florida bolts and that isn’t a problem? Trust me. UGA hated it when Richt ran off players for discipline issues that could have been handled internally. It cost us 15 years of “wait til next year”. When good players walk because the coaches aren’t protecting their players, that’s a much bigger problem. I don’t see Dan being there for the long haul. The egg timer started last week.
I love the headline and article… anything to make UF look worse, what you dont see here is Steele’s tweet that started this…
Cuz they pulled it out of left field and it didn’t happen? They weren’t attacking him and belittling him?
Agreed, that is clearly a clickbait headline. I doubt the situation is as ugly as it’s being portrayed. However, while the players tweets would be harmless hazing if kept to the confines of the lockerroom, making those comments publicly signals questionable team culture, player, and coaching leadership to the CFB world. Mixing in his room mates sexual assualt allegations makes it more likely to be construed negatively. The players probably didnt intend that to be part of the message. None the less, it is.
Wow this is well written and unbiased I agree with everything you said and am mildly surprised it’s coming from a UGA fan
Now Sideshow Dan’s players are taking after Sideshow Dan and talking smack when they should be shutting-up. Gaturd super-dunce Joe Marks is all over it, telling us the super secret reasons why Sideshow Dan isn’t a clown and how Chris Steele is a terrible person worried about being away from mommy and daddy, as if those message board smoke screen stories weren’t full of crap.
Chris Steele knew Jones was a dirtbag in JANUARY when he made his request. Sideshow Dan said it didn’t matter, when as the head coach of the football team, he could’ve had him moved immediately, because yes, the head coach of the football team has that kind of power and only idiots think otherwise.
It all comes back to Sideshow Dan having lost control of the Florida Gators. These idiot players are making it worse. Other recruits are seeing this. Do you think these tweets will make them want to go to Florida? Where it seems NO ONE has your back?
Oh Joe… Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe. Every word you say proves you to be a fool. Just like your clown coach, Sideshow Dan.
Why don’t you get out of your BIB Overalls and get a job. You seem more concerned about FL than you are about them DAWGS last pathetic performance. Any year of watching Georgie whine about being left out of the playoffs.#kirbying #1980champs
You opinions stated as fact is tiresome at best. You now know exactly what Steele knew about Jones in JANUARY. If he was so traumatized by the assaults that did happen why did he take so long to enter the portal? The assaults happened on April 6. Steele puts in his name in the portal on May 8. Please explain why it took so long.
Thank you. While I agree this looks bad no doubt about it. After seeing tweets from Steele to jones and from steele’s Dad a week prior to him putting his name in the portal. It appears Steele is home sick and is using this whole situation to get a waiver to play immediately somewhere else. Which if true makes sense why some gator players are tweeting at him. Since he would be dragging his coach and gator name threw the dirt just to play a year early
Look Steele is looking out for himself can’t blame the guy especially when he doesn’t want to be seen in having been associated to jones but they way he’s going probably upset his team and they are lashing out especially with all this stuff about not liking his roommate when Steele and Jalon tweeted at each other often (which Steele has now deleted), they were known to go out together and Steele’s dad tweeted “Man the love my son gets @floridagators is incredible! @CoachDanMullen is awesome!” a full week after the incident but now he’s infuriated and the staff didn’t do enough for his son. It’s a weird situation that we will only here one side of the story and rumors about because Florida can’t speak on it.
These haters don’t want to acknowledge that tweet or hear any of that, they just want to feed off what the media is portraying the situation to be.
Fields left UGA at the worst possible time (right before signing day) to the chagrin of their fans.
Yet his former teammates congratulated him, wished him well, didn’t crap on him at all even if some fans did.
This is another level. Those teammates cut their buddies throat QUICK!
Florida Gators don’t have each other’s backs. They’re all ‘turds. Fans, players, and coaches.
The best thing is, all their recruits are seeing that play-out live over twitter. Meaning a coach who is not a good recruiter (Sideshow Dan) is going to have that much more difficult a time to recruit.
I mean, as a Dawg, I couldn’t have wished for a better situation than this!
To me, seeing the response of his team tells me that there is more to the story than what Steele, his family, and the media would have you believe. The players know waaaaay more than we ever will.
With all that being said, this is not the way to address it. Bad look here.
Doesn’t matter who was right. Airing the dirty laundry like this makes UF look worse than Steele whatever his reasons were. It doesn’t appear the coaching staff got ahead of the fallout with the team. There already should have been a social media policy in place for “events”.
Nobody knows for sure at this point the reason he gave Mullen for wanting to switch rooms back in JANUARY. We have only heard one side of the story. If he didn’t bring up any issues about Jones in JANUARY and just requested a room change, the whole narrative of this story changes.
We already know that isn’t true because the reporting has stated that the coaches talked to both players and thought the issue was resolved. The narrative hasn’t changed. This still looks bad for gator nation.
It doesn’t look good but that doesn’t make the narrative correct. The original media narrative was that the coaches didn’t care about Steele. That is still being pushed. It was also implied that Steele either saw an earlier assault or evidence that one would occur. No evidence to support the implications but that means little in our society. Have you noticed that this site doesn’t point out that Steele didn’t enter the portal until over a month after the assaults. Steele is a media hero now because they made him one. If something comes to light a la Jussie Smolett they will be the first to roast him. How would feel about this young victim if we find out that he is using assaults to get a wavier? The narrative would definitely change then.
Does it really matter? He left. His roommate has been charged. The reason given for both is ample enough not to do something as stupid as this. O agree this will not age well and hurts everyone involved looking to play at next level or intern, or job hunt.
No charges were ever filed.
We now know for sure that there is no chance of him going back to UF. Not the best look for these players.
They would never have posted these things without the coaches approval.
Not true. It’s likely Sideshow Dan and his staff simply aren’t feared by their players enough so this would never happen, or, they don’t pay attention to every detail, so they never told their players not to do this.
Either way, it’s hilarious.
Just like Kirby has lost all control after 7 arrests …come on dude, I know your shtick is to be a dopey troll but sometimes your stuff is just stupid.
Wow sometimes UGA fans amaze me with the stupid bs they post. I can admit this looks bad for UF but to say the coaches are telling the players to post this on Twitter is beyond stupid
Dan and his wife just flew to California in an attempt to get Steele back. Evidently Dan didn’t have the same opinion of Steele as his players. This shows the bigger problem with the Florida culture. Either Dan know his locker room or his locker room doesn’t respect Dan. How do you not respect Steele’s decision? The guy didn’t sign up for a gang, he signed up to play football and go to college.
Perhaps the Gators really are back. I guess we’ll know if the bar fights and shootings escalate. Perhaps the next great Patriot TE is already in Gainesville.
Ha!
Just let him go in peace. Reopening the same wound will cause a worse infection. Advice to Gators put it in the past and focus on whatever good you can do in the future. You shouldn’t mention either player’s name or the situation.
Yeah, good luck with recruits and their families reading this mess.
UF fans should be embarrassed, and recruits WILL notice. UF players should b upset with Jalon Jones and their own administration for leaving Steele in a situation that could have easily been resolved. The kid has NFL aspirations, anyone should understand why he was so upset about his name showing up in a police report.
As a witness. Being a witness doesn’t affect your reputation. Being around it and not reporting it smears your name.
Agreed if Steele came out as a witness against Jones that would have taken real courage and hide name wouldn’t have gotten smeared at all
They say players take on the persona of their coach, here’s proof.As one gentleman said ” Speaks Volumes “.
These players would have never posted these photos and comments without the coaches giving their ok. It’s now open season on Steele so no chance at all he comes back even after Mullet went all the way to California to beg his forgiveness. Now imagine how other recruiters will not only use this refusal to change rooms against Florida but also the players actions on social media? This gets worse by the day for the Gators. Very low rent. And what sayeth the Orlando radio guy these days?
I’m not sure Mullen actually gave his consent for this. It may be that the players know their coach likes to talk a little trash so they figured they could too. Either way, it’s not a good look and won’t play well at most kitchen tables.
Why does the media keep linking a roommate change to the assaults. They are 2 separate issues. He asked for the change long before the assaults happened. This looks like a case of sensational over facts.
This would be utterly unacceptable for a Kirby Smart football team and to be honest; it should be. Treating a fellow player like this in a public space is a bad look for everyone involved. To see players turning on their own like this shows a level of disrespect that simply shouldn’t exist in a program like Florida.
The optimistic take that maybe Dan could talk Steele into coming back? Yeah, that’s not happening . . .