UGA fans should curb their enthusiasm over Rogers’ arrest
That rumble you heard earlier today was the sound of laughter rolling across the great state of Georgia. Da’Rick Rogers, the receiver from Calhoun who famously spurned the Bulldogs to sign with Vince Dooley’s son at Tennessee, was arrested in Knoxville at 1:50 a.m. for disorderly conduct after what we old folks used to call a barroom brawl.
(If you haven’t read esteemed colleague Chip Towers’ explanation of the matter, please do. The Chipster is to college recruiting as Target is to shopping — comprehensive and classy.)
It’s human nature to delight in the misfortune of a rival, especially a rival that snatched a recruit who’d committed to you eight months before Signing Day. But we must also note, for the sake of fairness, that the Georgia program isn’t immune to arrests — not of teenage athletes, not even of a 40-year-old athletics director.
I was talking to a Georgia Tech man last weekend, and he was trying — and mostly succeeding, I should report — not to chuckle over Damon Evans’ plight. Because we old folks can tell you young ‘uns that the fan base that laughs today is invariably the next to be embarrassed. (It’s uncanny how that works, but work it does.)
No school holds the patent on good behavior. No school can ever be inoculated against the misjudgments of young athletes, or even 40-year-old ADs. I understand why Georgia fans find Rogers’ arrest amusing, but I’ve also been around long enough to caution against irrational exuberance.
There’s always another arrest waiting to happen in a college town, and that town could well be yours. Bradley’s Rule: Tempt not the football gods by busting a gut laughing, lest tomorrow ye weep bitter tears.
Update: Tennessee coach Derek Dooley announced Friday night he has kicked safety Darren Myles Jr., who’s from Atlanta’s Carver High, off the team and indefinitely suspended Marlon Walls and Greg King for their part in the incident. Da’Rick Rogers has not been suspended.
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409 comments Add your comment
hatfieldgeoff
July 10th, 2010
1:09 pm
Mark, do you really think it is necessary to tell UGA fans that this happens to every team at every school. Most of the post you were referring to were some fans just returning in kind what UGA fans have received from vol fans and others,in recent years after some of our players were in trouble. And please drop the holier than thou act. If you guys were really troubled by the comments posted on here you would drop it from the website. We know it is the only way you have of verifying if anybody is out here. I really wish we still had a real paper in Atlanta. What is the AJC going to do next run you columns as a scroll across the bottom of the screen on the Home and Garden network!
George
July 10th, 2010
1:10 pm
KeithB comments that college kids do college kid stuff. The facts are that for the past year or two schools with the exception of Tennessee and Georgia have controlled this. Is it because they are the two weakest academic schools in the weakest academic conference?
Also it is obvious that Georgia people refer to ‘fans’ and not ‘alumni’ because these people could not have attended a single day of college, even at Georgia.
GTJ
July 10th, 2010
1:11 pm
blahahahahahahahahahahaha
Steve
July 10th, 2010
1:13 pm
Maybe if the NCAA is SERIOUS about underage alchol comsumption by it’s players they should not allow transfers to another school of ANY LEVEL if convicted of undeage alcohol consumtion! NAIA would be their only choice to tranfer to then, OUCH!!! But give the schools something with teeth to back up their policies. Oh, and in return, if the NCAA finds out a school has helped to coverup or get charges dropped on this infraction, they will receive an automatic 3-year ban from bowls, PER PLAYER INVOLVED!!
Robert L.
July 10th, 2010
1:14 pm
Let’s all go wait at the Athens jail next Friday night and see who comes in. It will be an opportunity to meet some football players.
Robert L.
July 10th, 2010
1:15 pm
Let’s all go to the Athens jail next Friday night and wait to see who comes in. It could give us a chance to meet some football players.
jborodawg
July 10th, 2010
1:15 pm
Yes, this coming from of all people DaRick Rogers…is just too funny, or poetic justice or whatever. BUT, I think MB is just saying be careful throwing stones; or implying that UGA is better, etc. There are lots of empty pages in the Athens PD blotter waiting to be filled.
oledawg
July 10th, 2010
1:18 pm
Mark- There is nothing amusing about the entire incident. There is nothing amusing about revenge. Your article was prophetic with the arrest overnight of two UGA players for escalating a minor traffic incident into an arrest for some of the same transgressions that DaRick had.
But the fan base (me included) are riled at DaRick for lack of wisdom for being used by another party to get his son a scholarship at a rival school and using the UGA team and fan base as foils. The anger that evokes comes from a genuine pride of the University sans the athletic teams and with the University’s pride to attract the best, no matter what endeavor. Many of the alums have great pride in other entities of our school such as Business, Jounalism and Science Schools. Professional aspects of those Schools such as Pharmacy, Veterinarian and even the Peabody Awards for your area of endeavor are just a few of those numerous sources of pride. Sports carry our label and source of pride as well to a larger venue. When someone leads this great University on a merry chase while fronting excellence, but have mundane character issues that affect so many alums, fans, and followers with a “put-down” such as what DaRick did callously, we all feel denigrated. That feeling comes from emphasizing with him during his pledge period and feeling protective of him as a future member of our great University that could bestow pride of accomplishment on him as well as his reciprocation. Pride in our present recruits and team members is sullied as well. We feel our teams are family with this student body no matter the endeavor. They have the unique ability to impart honor on the University as well as themselves and distinguish team and individuals from other student body members.
With that honor goes trust and we have found DaRick untrustworthy. Some of us react to this in a vengeful manner ; some of us react out of sorrow for allowing him to include himself in our family only to leave us feeling used ; some of us act sorrowful for him not to see the greatness of this institution and what we can do for his life ; some say “Good Luck” to you in whatever you think or have been convinced you want that you felt we could not provide. I feel all of these emotions as I also think many of the alums and fans feel. Like a jilted bride we will all get over it. But forgiving him his shortcomings of not recognizing this great and rightly prideful school of endeavor after being one of us for so long is difficult for many.
Buzzin Around
July 10th, 2010
1:20 pm
No doubt Derrick was true dawg…he now has the arrest record to prove it. Just saw two UGA players were arrested for underage drinking and quite honestly I am confused…they were just following Damon Evans example.
Can anyone tell me if UGA players get stars on their helmets for arrests like Ohio State players do for doing something good? If not they should start!
Miffed
July 10th, 2010
1:26 pm
Don’t laugh – you must be kidding – I have been laughing for a day and a half.
The half day should be credited to the two fools in Athens that got arrested for a litany of things.
We have to laugh at these total loser jocks least we pull our hair out.
CDAWG
July 10th, 2010
1:35 pm
ALL schools have underage drinking, it just goes with the territory of kids getting out on their own for the first time. I do know that Athens-Clarke County police have a zero tolerance and they don’t play. I am curious if maybe some other schools aren’t quite as strict as UGA.
Greg
July 10th, 2010
1:42 pm
Please don’t even equate an King’s underage drinking with the 7-10 UT football players in the bar. Guess they were all having a soda.
Jackson’s motor vehicle charge much more serious. Still not up to putting one policeman in the hospital and the other to the Emergency room.
Interesting that Derek Dooley expelled his offender that had previous similar charges pending a court date; he knew he’s not going to be free to play football. However, he temporarily suspends 2 lesser players, but doesn’t pass ANY punishment on the other player identified as beating on the officer and arrested (#1 recruit). You think they weren’t drinking? However, when the other charges are aggravated assault, they don’t mention underage drinking as much.
No excuses for any of them; just a little amusing how the coverage and punishments play out.
OleJacket
July 10th, 2010
1:45 pm
OLEDAWG: very, very well written. I have been a GT fan my entire life, but have always respected UGA the institution and its athletics program. It has some of the best academic programs in the nation, and the excellence of the all-around athletics program speaks for itself. I feel the same way about my school, Georgia Tech. Our state is blessed to have two of the premier institutions of higher learning in the country.
With all that said, I admittedly had to chuckle a little when I saw the headline about the arrests of the two Dawg players this morning, more about the timing and all the flak that UGA fans–and others as well–tossed at the Vols. However, no school is immune from such incidents, some just more than others it seems.
As for Coach Mark Richt, I still think he is a fine man and outstanding coach. Should he be more “aggressive” in punishment of his players when laws are broken and extremely poor behavior. I think so. Will the punishments that he hands out be more severe? I think it should, especially after all that has transpired in the last couple of weeks. He needs to do something more punitive than a 1-game suspension in situations like. The point needs to be driven home. And I emphasize that situations like this should be recognized at ALL school. An alcohol/drug awareness program and tough penalties for violations should be in place at ALL schools.
I absolutely love college sports, especially football and basketball, but incidents like this, and even more so the “one-and-done” stuff in basketball bother me greatly. And, Tech, is among the nation’s leaders in recruiting tarnishing the term, “student-athlete” when it comes to is recruitment in basketball.
Sorry to ramble. I love college sports. I am proud of both Georgia Tech and Georgia for many things, but I think both of them need to do a better job of recruiting the student as well as the athlete and the person as well as the star.
Fishawk
July 10th, 2010
1:48 pm
Just read two UGA players involved in leaving, DUI and underage drinking. I’m a VOL fan and I’m not laughing at either of these incidents. Young people make stupid mistakes regardless of the university they attend. Dawg fans need to get a life.
SILLY UGA FANS
July 10th, 2010
1:56 pm
Man Richt has got to get control over his players. I know all schools have problems but this has gotten far from funny and into the sad and disturbing area. I guess the bench will be void for the big bad La. Laff game when Richt should make an example and suspend somebody for more than one game against mediocre opposition. UGA fans wether you want to face it or not there is a real problem when this many players are getting in trouble for alcohol related incidents. Ether they have no respect for Richt and the UGA program, don’t care, or what looks to be the more obvious no fear that anything will happen to them if they do break the rules.
Greg
July 10th, 2010
1:59 pm
Fishawk,
Worry about your own damn house, your own hypocrisy; we don’t need you to tell us what we need.
Tony
July 10th, 2010
1:59 pm
BravesFan79
Maybe Bobby Cox should have been too when he beat hell out of his wife
haa
July 10th, 2010
2:01 pm
SEC SEC SEC AD CHEATING PLAYERS BEATING >>> UGA MORE DUI THIS MORNING SEC SEC SEC !!!!!!!
Greg
July 10th, 2010
2:02 pm
Silly,
Where do these college kids not drink underage? Athens just has a zero tolerance that other places don’t seem to have. What is your school? Not saying?
mason
July 10th, 2010
2:04 pm
(( 30-24 ))
hahahahahahaha
Whether drunk or sober that score STILL hurts sooooo bad.
And in a few months I’ll be able to update the score with a new dawg butt whipping over bugs score.
hahahahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
DAWGS!!
SILLY UGA FANS
July 10th, 2010
2:05 pm
Fishawk,
Putting people in ICU is not a youthfull mistake. I seriously hope you are no looking at these two situations as the same thing. Let’s say 7-10 police officers beat a Tenn football player so bad it put him in ICU. It would be national news and people would be screaming at the top of your lungs. I grant you the drinking and driving from UGA is SERIOUS but not the same. These Tenn players are not looking at poss 30 day charges it could be life sentences depending on the medical outcome.
Steve
July 10th, 2010
2:05 pm
Here’s one that will NEVER happen, coaches start to suspend them for the first CONFERENCE game!
SILLY UGA FANS
July 10th, 2010
2:11 pm
Greg,
I am a huge GT fan and I am not trying to knock UGA on this one I’m just pointing out facts. I agree that these kids are going to drink and party no matter where they go and yes it’s easier to get caught in a small populace like Athens compared to Atlanta, but I have to ask if Richt has called a team meeting and told these kids to knock it off or suffer certain consequences. If you are trying to build a dream team I don’t imagine numerous offseason arrests are the way to go about it and you have to wonder how much public humilation Richt is going to let these kids bring on the school.
Will Bishop
July 10th, 2010
2:16 pm
You were right. Two UGA players got locked up. Thanks idiots.
PDawg
July 10th, 2010
2:27 pm
The SEC may be #1 in national championships and all but it looks like the SEC is also #1 in embarrassing arrests….by a mile.
Poetic Justice
July 10th, 2010
2:30 pm
This article couldn’t have had better timing. King and Jackson say hi, Doggie Fans. Shut your mouths, and tend to your kettles and glass houses.
icedawg
July 10th, 2010
2:33 pm
Two more UGA athletes are arrested for alcohol related offense. These young men should be be suspended for a year, loss of the year, or kicked off of the team. This behaviour has become all to common, stupidity apparently resides on every campus. 0 tolerance and stiff penalty should be the order of the day.
rocky_topper
July 10th, 2010
2:36 pm
What’s that ole saying “people in glass houses shouldn’t… do something”….what was that? MADDOG, you on here man? Or you still on GOVOLS harrassing the VOL fans over their arrests? Karma is a btich they say eh?
Jason
July 10th, 2010
2:37 pm
I love Mark! Lord, you are old my man. Sorry your print media is dead and gone. I live in colorado (yes, better than Atlanta, where I lived my whole life, but you wouldn’t know). I guess you like traffic, people, traffic and concrete. Keep up the good work online, that’s all you have left.
icedawg
July 10th, 2010
2:44 pm
Perhaps there should be uniform discipline at the Conference (SEC) level for student athletes who break the law and the consequences should be tough.
Kirby Smart
July 10th, 2010
2:54 pm
lots of similarities between rogers and lemay.
The rest of the SEC
July 10th, 2010
2:57 pm
Icedawg,
Other programs around the sec don’t seem to have the problems Georgia and UT have. LSU and Bama have each had 1 player arrested in the past year and AU has had 1 or 2 players arrested and that’s it. Florida has had some issues and had one player arrested a couple months ago but even then its been relatively quiet in Gainesville. You guys and UT are simply thug programs. It is what it is.
Rob
July 10th, 2010
3:04 pm
Underage drinking is a serious problem on all college campuses and it extends well beyond athletes. Coaches should impose stiff consequences when players are convicted of alcohol-related offenses, but let’s not pretend this is a problem isolated to just athletes or just to a few schools.
Here are some statistics from MADD and the NIAAA:
http://www.madd.org/docs/college%20statistics.pdf
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statssummaries/snapshot.aspx
The NCAA limits alcohol ads during NCAA telecasts, but they could make a stronger statement by eliminating them altogether.
Greg
July 10th, 2010
3:07 pm
I certainly think icedawg may be on to something. Same penalties across the board for every school (start with the SEC and if it works expand). This penalty for underage drinking, another for DUI, another for beating up a policeman…you get the idea.
Suppose some schools would not arrest their kids as quickly as others; some would lessen the charges while others would not; and as Silly points out, some towns are smaller and kids are more likely to fly under the radar in larger cities which may give them a recruiting advantage. Lots of complexities, but SOMETHING needs to be done across the country. Otherwise, go back to freshman ineligible and make them prove themselves in the classroom and society before they ever play.
Too many of these kids think they are above the law and rules. It is emulating their pro heroes who are paid way, way beyond their contribution to society and are thuggish. Stiffer, zero tolerance should be mandated by our conference. They reflect badly on the majority of student-athletes who will never play beyond college and are out there working their tails off for pride and their beloved university.
oledawg
July 10th, 2010
3:12 pm
OleJacket- Thanks for the words. I was embarrassed by mistyping “empathize”, but we all understand in the heat of communicating and self-editing that some slip by.
Your words were most important for recognizing the emotions of our school pride. I am happy to have corrected some misunderstandings of your University on these pages as well. Guess the old farts are ambivalent in their admiration/hate psyches brought on by great competition through the years. I sometimes even admit that I have a nephew who graduated from your fine institution and is a rabid old gold fan. Our ambivalence is nothing compared to his since his brother-in-law played for UGA and was on the team for 4 yrs. During that period he attended more UGA games than I did.
I go back to the Wally Butts/ Bobby Dodd era and many times found myself siding with Dodd. I always viewed him as a coach of great character. That still didn’t curtail the feelings of “Good Old-Fashioned Hate” expressed by alums of both schools. We understand that expression of admiration/dislike perhaps better than some due to the wisening toll of the years.
Placing into perspective what we are viewing today with our recruits; it hasn’t changed in 50 yrs, it just gets more light shined on it. Using an expression from my vocation:
“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em,
and little fleas have littler fleas and so adinfinitum.”
So it goes with our football players today. Some have fleas and issues that trump those fleas, but all-in-all they are all just human. The large stage and brighter lights are the only differences from the rest of the student body. And we always have our rivals and AJC upon ours and their backs to “bite ‘em”….and so adinfinitum.
Greg
July 10th, 2010
3:13 pm
Rest of the sec,
Are you kidding me??? Quiet in Gainesville. Man, don’t you keep up?
Other venues have the same problems. Perhaps the community isn’t as aggressive or they don’t have the AJC scouring the arrest websites. If you have a brain, you know with the scrutiny these players go through in being recruited by UGA that we get kids at least as well-behaved as any other SEC school.
sleepless in athens
July 10th, 2010
3:15 pm
I am so sick and tired of thug behavior by atheletes everywhere. UGA and Tennessee hsould be ashamed, as so the rest. This is disgusting. This is not “boys will be boys”….
Randy
July 10th, 2010
3:18 pm
Sure didn’t take long……..way to go UGA
http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/2010/07/10/two-uga-football-players-arrested-early-today/?cxntfid=blogs_uga_sports_blog
oledawg
July 10th, 2010
3:18 pm
I agree with Icedawg and The rest of the SEC.
PowerDawg
July 10th, 2010
3:19 pm
No one ever said we were unique.
No one ever said we were immune.
Uga is no different than ANY other university when it comes to students/student-athletes getting into trouble every now and then.
But anyone who says we have more kids arrested than any other school or that our athletes commit more criminal acts than any other group is just plain lying.
All colleges are full of students, away from home and away from mommie and daddy for the first time.
This means they can now party and raise hell without parents looking over their shoulders.
Many feel they have to party to fit in.
Partying usually involves drinking alcohol. Students drink alcohol, usually to excess, and get drunk.
Drunken behaviour leads to poor judgement.
Poor judgement leads to run-ins with law enforcement personnel.
You know the rest.
But UGA doesn’t do this any more than any other school, except maybe BYU:)
And those of us that support them, cheer for them and blog about them, know all these things to be true.
Mark, sometimes you can be a real tool !
What a stooge.
Gt4ever
July 10th, 2010
3:23 pm
Ole jacket
Good grief man, Get some HELP!
Greg
July 10th, 2010
3:26 pm
This problem goes way beyond athletics. Go to your mall today and sit and watch wherever you may be. Many (not all) young people have an “in your face” attitude based on a culture of entitlements. But you bleeding heart liberals make excuses for them. Lawbreakers are given a slap on the wrist and not even punished. They are the same ones that appear in courts over and over until they do something terrible. Then their family is outraged that somebody didn’t do something! They put a Sunday school picture of him in the paper and tell what a devout, law-abiding citizen he is.
Our judicial system won’t let us send a message here. But…with college athletics and as Derek Dooley said “the privilege of playing”, we could do something about these student athletes.
PowerDawg
July 10th, 2010
3:29 pm
Is that black/white prisoner attire I see in those photos?
Priceless.
Chuck Bagley
July 10th, 2010
3:29 pm
Today’s Headlines
Two UGA football players arrested early today (UPDATED WITH DETAILS)
11:05 am July 10, 2010, by Tim Tucker
Mandy
July 10th, 2010
3:32 pm
Sleep late Chuck?
oledawg
July 10th, 2010
3:37 pm
OleJacket- Correction on Richt and his discipline. You may have not noticed the DISMISSAL of three players since May for some of the same incidents that occurred in Knoxville.Most were l descended from Anglo-Saxon immigrants.
What would be wrong with comparable transgressions punishments by category and offense across the board in college athletics? It’s a good idea except it would have to include the rest of the student body and Student Code of Conduct. If it had applied to me in my rambunctious years of undergraduate tomfoolery, I would never have completed a degree.
Wondering
July 10th, 2010
3:39 pm
Why is it that we can comment on UT players being arrested but the comments are closed for UGA players? A little home cooking Mark?
oledawg
July 10th, 2010
3:43 pm
Hey Greg- If you haven’t noticed the same observations go for Conservative politicians. If we used your judgement criterion there would be even less Conservatives remaining in offfice. But not to worry since lately we have observed that they eat their own!
long-time dawg
July 10th, 2010
3:44 pm
The only “pleasure” I take in Da Rick’s problem(s) is that he is having it/them in Knoxville and not in Athens.
PowerDawg
July 10th, 2010
4:02 pm
To all the Tech-sters that are about to turn the inside of their jeans into blue dresses…You don’t really think your little campus is immune to alcohol-related problems involving athletes, do you?
They just probably don’t get as much air time, or as many by-lines or acknowledgment of any sort, really…because when it comes to your local media outlets, well…they just don’t care.
It’s more interesting to write about someone else’s misfortune and poke fun about it than to face the truth about yourself. Boring and inept just isn’t headline worthy, is it?
No problem. We’re big enough to take it.
I mean, seriously, we understand. You have to have some way to feel superior, stroke your egos and throw attention away from the fact that you, that is, your team just…
C’mon, you know the word.
it’s okay, you can say it.
S-U-C-K-S
Oops, I let it slip before you could answer. My bad.