Adams: Football flunking criminal justice

Let me be the first to reassure you. Although 13 UT football players have either been arrested or issued citations in the last year and a half, not one of them has perpetrated a crime at Neyland Stadium. You should be as safe there as you would be in your own home.

Since some readers complain that the media only reports bad news, it's also worth noting that no UT player has been arrested since April. Imagine that.

The Vols have gone about four months without committing a crime. So feel free to give them a "way to go, guys," but excuse me for not joining in.

The incidents themselves were bad enough. They were compounded by the response from the UT athletic department and school administration.

Tony McDaniel shouldn't be on the UT football team. Neither should Robert Ayers nor Daniel Brooks.

The 6-foot-7, 295-pound McDaniel sucker-punched Edward Goodrich in the face last January during a pickup basketball game. The damage was horrific: four fractured facial bones, two broken eye-socket bones and a broken sinus cavity.

Seven months later, Goodrich says he has "numbness in his right cheek area and gums" and sometimes experiences pain.

And seven months later, McDaniel is still a free man, still on the UT football team. He was originally charged with aggravated assault, which was later reduced to misdemeanor assault. He was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail but placed on probation.

If you're keeping score, that's 1 hellacious hit, 0 days in jail and 2 games suspended.

McDaniel will be suspended for the season opener against UAB and the second game against Florida. But as UT athletic director Mike Hamilton will remind you, McDaniel also was suspended for spring practice.

A two-game suspension, no spring practice: That's laying down the law, huh?

It's embarrassing.

Ayers' case followed a strikingly similar pattern. He was charged with aggravated assault of another student, Shadiyah Murphy, who was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken jaw. Several weeks ago, Ayers, who was initially charged with aggravated assault, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of misdemeanor assault and was placed on judicial diversion. Coach Phillip Fulmer suspended him for the first two games of the season.

If you're keeping score, that's 1 broken jaw, 0 days in jail and 2 games suspended.

Brooks hasn't broken any bones, just laws and rules. He was accused of punching a student in December and of throwing a punch at a fraternity party in March, but no charges were filed. He was issued a ticket for going the wrong way on a one-way street and failed to appear in court. He later was arrested for driving with a suspended license and issued citations for jaywalking and running a red light.

Can you say "repeat offender?" And can you understand why he shouldn't be allowed to represent UT on the football field?

The coach can't. Fulmer refers to his team as family and the players as his kids. He says he won't give up on them.

Let's take the coach at his word. Let's assume he's not all about wins and losses, that he's a compassionate man with the best interests of his second family at heart. After all, McDaniel, Ayers and Brooks are non-starters. A talent-laden team with championship aspirations certainly could get by without them.

Even if the coach has noble motives, he's guilty of myopic vision and narrow focus. Of course, what coach isn't? By the nature of what they do, by the premium placed on winning, how can you expect them to see beyond their depth chart?

That's why an athletic director or university president needs to intervene. Yet Hamilton signed off on McDaniel's punishment, and I haven't heard a peep from UT president John Petersen.

"I don't think anybody in our program condones the behavior, but there has been punishment," Hamilton told the Tennessean two weeks ago. "Everybody wants to talk about the two games (suspended), but he was suspended for eight months."

Right. He missed all of spring practice.

The problem isn't limited to UT. It's rampant throughout college athletics, where coaches and administrators don't mind playing or even recruiting criminals.

Steven L. Soles, who played high school football at Austin-East last season, will attend Lane College on a football scholarship this fall - now that he's out of jail. Soles pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault last week; having served three months in jail, he was placed on probation and freed.

How lame is Lane? It could have given that scholarship to a deserving student-athlete who could play football and obey the laws of the land.

You think that's bad? Check out the University of Southern Mississippi, who went all the way to California to recruit junior college linebacker Marcus Raines.

The Associated Press ran a story on Raines last week. The story was about him getting a second chance.

Five years ago, Raines was arrested and prosecuted for his involvement in the death of Christopher O'Leary at a high school party in Palmdale, Calif. Another thug knocked O'Leary down; Raines kicked him in the head. O'Leary died three days later.

Raines originally was charged with second-degree murder, but that charge was reduced to manslaughter, according to the AP story. He served two years in a juvenile hall and one year in state prison.

"It's something I'm trying to get over," Raines said in the story. "I was really young. I made a mistake, and I'd like to move forward."

Running a red light is a mistake. Raines helped beat and kick a young man to death. As for being really young, he was 17, not 7.

"Enough has been said about his past," USM coach Jeff Bower said in the same story. "He's here and looking forward to being a Golden Eagle."

Thanks for putting it in perspective, Coach.

Bower went on to say he expected Raines to represent the program in a first-class manner and that "I know I didn't make a mistake with him."

Hopefully, the parents of Christopher O'Leary didn't read that. And hopefully, they won't turn on a television one evening and hear a sportscaster commenting on what a great future Raines could have in football.

But don't blame the coach. He's just looking out for his newfound kid.

Remember when former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne was looking out for former star running back Lawrence Phillips on the way to a national championship? Ten years ago while at Nebraska, Phillips was sentenced to one year's probation for assaulting a former girlfriend.

He's in trouble again after choking his current girlfriend into unconsciousness in San Diego. According to the police, Phillips has indicated he won't surrender peacefully.

I wonder what his old coach thinks about that.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.