UK football players possibly involved in Richmond bar fight

[Joneslab]

Yes, I truly understand. Some fans reacted as if those young men had robbed a bank or went to a retirement home and beaten up the elderly. The shock and horror of it all. The civil disobedience has certainly made an impact on my life.

This isn't about you. Has nothing to do with you, or me, or anybody here.

These are real people, not avatars. When people start looking the other way when stuff happens, there are usually consequences down the line for these players. Us? We never feel those consequences. We know these players only through a television screen.

I've told this before but my wife used to teach in a big public school. The school had a very good football team. She stayed after school one day to copy papers and heard a kid--one of the stars of the team, it turned out--yelling at his girlfriend in the hall. Not just yelling--screaming. She told him to stop and the kid absolutely tore into her. Called her horrible names. She told the principal, set up a meeting for the next day with the football coach.

They had the meeting and the coach recommended anger management classes. The kid was on the field that Friday night.

This kind of thing is rampant. And it's why every time you look around you see athletes screwing up. The amount of looking-the-other-way that goes on is heartbreaking.

[boomdaddy]

This isn't about you. Has nothing to do with you, or me, or anybody here.

These are real people, not avatars. When people start looking the other way when stuff happens, there are usually consequences down the line for these players. Us? We never feel those consequences. We know these players only through a television screen.

I've told this before but my wife used to teach in a big public school. The school had a very good football team. She stayed after school one day to copy papers and heard a kid--one of the stars of the team, it turned out--yelling at his girlfriend in the hall. Not just yelling--screaming. She told him to stop and the kid absolutely tore into her. Called her horrible names. She told the principal, set up a meeting for the next day with the football coach.

They had the meeting and the coach recommended anger management classes. The kid was on the field that Friday night.

This kind of thing is rampant. And it's why every time you look around you see athletes screwing up. The amount of looking-the-other-way that goes on is heartbreaking.

Excuse me while I put on spectacles. I see it now. If a kid owns a bb gun, then he must be abusive to his girlfriend. Never made that correlation before, but it is high time that I did. What else do I see, now that I am wearing my spectacles. Hmmmm..if any story comes out in the press or social media, one has to think the worst of whomever the story is about, especially if it is a young male who happens to be playing college ball. I agree this issue was never about me. It is about thinking the worst of young college kids and how they are squandering there God given talents and throwing away the chances of lifetime. If we are lucky, those young men will be brought to justice and face a direct descendent of Judge Roy Bean. I am sure if that would happen, they would get three times the punishment that any ordinary citizen would reap for his actions. Better yet, let's tar and feather those young men like they did in the colonial days. Maybe we could tattoo a scarlet letter on their foreheads? I am sure there are other penalties that we could think up that are far more harsher and would teach those young men a lesson.

[Joneslab]

Excuse me while I put on spectacles. I see it now. If a kid owns a bb gun, then he must be abusive to his girlfriend.

No, but it's a slope that so many of these players do go down, unfortunately.

Most don't. But those that do often get there because of bad decisions on the part of their coaches and the adults who worship them and who have a personal stake in those players being able to play when the game rolls around.

Nobody should feel sorry for a D1 athlete. Faceless, anonymous Internet fans calling for them to be suspended? Sorry, but I'm not going to break out the Kleenex and weep for these delicate little flowers.

If they do the right thing they're god-like figures in a town like Lexington. But as Calipari and so many other coaches have said, you're held to a different standard at a place like UK. You can't be doing ridiculous stuff. And so many times the players who do ridiculous stuff came to UK with a history of doing ridiculous stuff. And all along the way, the adults in charge of leading them looked the other way.

It happens at every stage of the game. In my small town there was an incident not long ago with middle school cheerleaders, and the parents and other adults almost rioted to get suspensions lifted.

[DA#23]

If John Wall had run around with something that looks like a Smith and Wesson M&P, shooting at a target which was never revealed (guess it wasn't a squirrel), then these same people would have made such a big deal out of something so innocent, right? Cal's bringin' in the thugs from Memphis, see!

Thankfully no one ended up getting shot, but that was what could have happened. Now here's the same three embarrassing Stoops just a few months later. I'm sure he's happy about that.

[teamchemistry15]

If John Wall had run around with something that looks like a Smith and Wesson M&P, shooting at a target which was never revealed (guess it wasn't a squirrel), then these same people would have made such a big deal out of something so innocent, right? Cal's bringin' in the thugs from Memphis, see!
Thankfully no one ended up getting shot, but that was what could have happened. Now here's the same three embarrassing Stoops just a few months later. I'm sure he's happy about that.

But he didnt.... No way to correctly judge how people would react to that situation. The kids got off easy the first time. They got suspended for one game even though two of them were RS. Obviously they didnt learn anything because they were in a bar fight, not to mention they are underage. This is strike two. I am not saying kick them off the team, but something more serious needs to happen.

[Lighthouse]

I remember how college students were and it's probably worse now. Regardless, these same football players have no business being involved is something like this, and I hope CS lowers the boom on all of them.

[jimlowe7]

UL fans..."We want a QB who has beat up people in a bar for no good reason..."

UK fans..."We want a QB who will walk into a bar, be verbally abused, see a friend get shoved by a 300 lb man, then run back to his car like a yellow dog coward instead of helping his friend..."

[Lighthouse]

^ I don't think that's funny either way.

[Katmendo]

UL fans..."We want a QB who has beat up people in a bar for no good reason..."

UK fans..."We want a QB who will walk into a bar, be verbally abused, see a friend get shoved by a 300 lb man, then run back to his car like a yellow dog coward instead of helping his friend..."

How about, We want a QB who is willing to take on a leadership role, understanding his is a position that is the face of the program or franchise he represents and, so understanding, not walk himself into a bar in a distant town, when he's not even of legal age to drink?

Cowardice is not a factor when there's no honor to be gained or lost.

Putting yourself in this situation is the failure, not simply the end result.

[Lighthouse]

^ Nailed it. For a winner that is. Thanks Katmendo!!

[DA#23]

Stoops addresses it for the first time:

STOOPS ON THE RICHMOND BAR FIGHT
Stoops also spoke about the Richmond bar fight involving Drew Barker, Dorian Baker, and Tymere Dubose. “Things are gonna happen, but we will continue to work with these men and educate them,” Stoop said. “Those are good kids. I know more about the situation and about them than most people, and it’s easy for people to judge them on what comes out initially in the media and everything else. Whatever the outcome is, were they wrong in certain aspects? Absolutely. We’re not afraid to address players when they’re wrong.”
Does Stoops still believe in Barker, Baker, and Dubose? “Absolutely. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be here.”

LINK

[DA#23]

My read on that is that if there aren't legal repercussions, then this will be handled internally.

[boomdaddy]

My read on that is that if there aren't legal repercussions, then this will be handled internally.

I would prefer all of these types of things to be handled internally and keep the fans noses out of it. We don't need to know and we also need to quit calling for the gas chamber or the firing squad, every time there is a dust up.

[gerntz]

Stoops doesn't sound overly concerned today.

[Matt Dillon]

I would prefer all of these types of things to be handled internally and keep the fans noses out of it. We don't need to know and we also need to quit calling for the gas chamber or the firing squad, every time there is a dust up.

Once something gets out in the open, depending on the seriousness of the situation, it becomes very difficult, if not downright impossible to handle it internally.