We’ve had three athletes cited or arrested for illicit behavior in the past two weeks.
Two weeks ago the freshmen men’s basketball players Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald were cited for attempted shoplifting at Dillard’s in Sooner Fashion Mall.
Saturday, Austin Box, sophomore linebacker, was arrested for disorderly conduct. In March, he was cited for public indecency. In both cases, he urinated in public.
These students have been given substantial opportunities and seem to be pissing them away.
OU is known for athletics; we hold our athletes in Olympian awe. When they don’t live up to the mythic celebrity status heaped upon them, the rest of the country will take notice.
And the penalty, at least for our basketball players? They sit out one game.
Our heroes who fail to live up to our deified expectations are suspended for a single game for shaming the university. Perhaps some stricter punishments should be placed upon them for their apparent disregard for the law.
But that places the coaches in a precarious circumstance. If they punish the players to make an example, they could lose games, which could let down the student body and their fans. If coaches don’t punish their players, they are letting them get away with criminal behavior and letting down OU in the process.
OU’s reputation and athletes’ responsibilities as role models should take precedent over our sports victories.
The honor of the university should be held higher than sports victories. It would be better to be known for legitimate behavior than to have a winning team, and stricter punishments could probably reign in some of this illicit behavior.
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saxman 2 years, 3 months ago
Too true.
leimapapa 2 years, 3 months ago
Another generic, alarmist column about all that's wrong with OU athletics? Really? Snore.
The general public remembers past winning seasons of a public university in in a passing way. In all honesty, does anybody remember arrests of past student athletes? I'm a student here and I sure don't.
The indefinable and ethereal quality of "being known" as a university is obviously tied to more than our athletes. We could argue all day about the extent to which they affect what we're "known for", but that would be as pointless as this article.
If one single national merit scholar in the future decides not to come to OU based solely on the stuff these 3 delinquents did, I'll take it all back and hang my head in shame.
OUSooners 2 years, 3 months ago
leimpapa, I'm a big fan of OU athletics and could give you a long list of arrests and citations over the past four years since me coming hear. Just because you don't remember doesn't mean all of us don't. I care about our university's image and hate nothing more than recruiting bad apples. I love winning but would rather recruit good kids than bad ones.
WalkingMan 2 years, 3 months ago
There are programs out there with much worse reputations based on their athletes behavior. OU is now known for getting to the big game and losing. I'm not sure which I would prefer.