Longhorns need Chaffeurs

I think now we can safely say that AlcoholEdu is not working for the Texas football team. According to this handy website, 72% of UT students consumed alcohol in the past 30 days; 69% had at least one sexual partner in the past year, and 19% regularly skip breakfast. I have no idea why the last stat is in there? I think those 19% don't need food in their stomachs to absorb alcohol? Do they skip breakfast because they're trying to get back to their place and get their textbooks for today's classes? And at least 2% of the Longhorn football players are stupid enough to drink and drive.

The Texas Longhorn football team is going through yet another bout of driving under the influence charges. Today, it's Marcus Davis, a couple of weeks ago, it was D.J. Munroe. Looks like we're back to 2007, when there was seemingly a weekly arrest of Longhorn footballers.

OU Tickets Seized

I read this weekend that federal authorities seized season tickets on the 45 yard line and four OU-Texas tickets from David Ray Gaddis, who owes the feds $309,000. The tickets were then sold through a ticket broker for an undisclosed sum.

My question is, for how much? According to stubhub.com, one could sell those tickets easily for north of $750/seat, and probably closer to $1k per seat. The OU-Texas tickets (which would be really nice seats, assuming same priority as the 45 yard line seats) are worth at least $400 each.

We know that the government has exhibited great business acumen in the past. The Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel in Nevada and the largest of its kind, was seized by the feds initially in 1990. It was put up for auction - and sold for $1.49 million to the man they seized it from. In 1999, the feds seized the property again, while seeking restitution for a $16 million tax lien. The property sat padlocked for four years, then the Bureau of Land Management sold the property for $145,000. So, they got about 1% of their money back.

So, my question is, can we find out via the FOIA how much the feds got for the tickets? They should have easily recovered $4,000 from these tickets, which probably have a face value around half of that. With the feds long demonstrated business acumen, they probably swapped the tickets out for a Jason White autograph and tickets to the OSU / Grambling State contest.

Another interesting element here is that for the ticket holder to have secured four season tickets on the 45 yard line, the gent would have had to make a sizable donation to the Sooner Club. Clearly Mr. Gaddis hasn't bee focused on paying the federales back.

And some of you want the government to fix the banking, automobile and healthcare industries. Good luck with that.

Eric Thunander Arrested

Saw today where former Sooner LB Eric Thunander was arrested for lewd acts with a child. It's a sad day. I'm terribly saddened for the girl and her family, and I pray that she can somehow overcome the emotional and physical scars.

Thunander wrote a book last year, Silent Thunder, that made me cry several times. Thunander is deaf, battles depression, was sexually abused as a child himself, and just grew up in an absolutely horribe environment.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that he was able to stop the cycle. At least not yet.

Eric, our prayers are with you as well.

Why The Newspapers are Losing

Yesterday's column by Berry Trammel should have been titled, "Holy Crap, can you believe they pay me to write?"

Last summer, Trammel was on the "get rid of Jarboe" bandwagon, as was I.

Chaisson copped a plea to four "gross misdemeanors" that are in lie with the code of conduct for an OU student. Reading that sentence just seems weird. Chaisson is labeled as a sociopath by Trammel, in the same piece that Adarius Bowman's marijuana arrest is inexplicably brought up.

I'll agree that Chaisson is a risk, but the column just doesn't make sense.

"...That’s not delinquent behavior. That’s sociopath behavior, and that moves out of even Father Flanagan’s domain, much less a football coach’s. Take Chaisson to sack quarterbacks, fine. But don’t take him thinking you’re going to fix him."

So, we're okay with taking a player for his football ability, but Stoops shouldn't consider planning to set the individual up for success with more accountability, more structure, perhaps expanding his horizons a bit and guiding him in making better life choices. Let's just treat him like a rented mule and turn him loose on society in four years.

Seemed Berry is taking writing tips from David Feherty, and working on offending everyone reading. Feherty is known for his irreverent humor. Perhaps Trammel can move his writing to the Comics section. Except it's not funny.

Sooner Recruit Chaisson arrested

DE Justin Chaisson, a recruit from Las Vegas, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadlyh weapon, coercion with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and three counts of battery with domestic violence.

Holy cow. Here's the article from the Daily Oklahoman.

First of all, if this is all true, I pray the girl is okay and that Chaisson is appropriately disciplined and seeks help. Second, I would imagine part of that discipline is going to be at least a suspension, if not even revocation of scholarship. We'll see what the Sooners do.

Police thwart Bosworth's fire prevention

The Boz was arrested last night for DUI - on a Harley. Sources familiar with the situation say he was "going to Norman to help Austin Box put a fire out."

Fire Safety with Austin Box

Austin Box put out a small brush fire near a Norman night spot earlier this week. While I believe he should be lauded for his achievements in fire safety and water conservation, the Norman Police were not as amused, and cited him for 'outraging public decency'. I'm not even sure what that means. I think it relates to the raging fire he extinguished.

Stolen Thoughts 02-14-09

Baylor is recruiting athletes with weed - I mean speed - to burn

Texas Tech and Texas will play Sat night on Sep 19. This game will be in the middle of a murderer's row of games for the Horns, Louisiana-Monroe, then Wyoming (on the road!), then the Dust Pirates, and they close out the month with the UTEP Miners in Austin. Texas had done a good job of avoiding a repeat of last year's Oklahoma-Missouri-Oklahoma State-Texas Tech gauntlet. Looks like they flipped Central Florida and Texas Tech. This is taking a tip from the SEC, where most teams sneak in a Sun Belt or Southern conference foe in the middle of the conference grind.

According to some, Matt Simms, younger bro of Longhorn alum Chris Simms, is eyeing Oklahoma after a stint at juco this fall.

Swift Justice Demanded

I returned from the promised land today, retrieved the DMN, and went to "the library" to expel the remnants of the delicious fried pie I had on the way back. Mr. Ted Philmon of Richardson sounded off in the DMN that since Phil Loadholt was arrested for DUI last week, Stoops needed to act in a similar manner as Mack Brown did last year and suspend him for three games.

I didn't recall Mack acting swiftly on the the drinking charges, so I decided to do a little research.

Jun 1, Henry Melton arrested on DUI charge
Jun 9, Robert Joseph arrested for two misdemeanors. Joseph suspended indefinitely.
Jul 28, Sergio Kindle arrested on DWI charge
Aug 3, Dre Jones arrested, Robert Joseph turns himself in for aggravated robbery charge stemming from Jul 27 incident.
Aug 3, Jones suspended definitely. I think Joseph was also placed on "double secret probation" at this point since he was already suspended indefinitely.
Aug 5, Brown suspends Melton and Kindle for three games.

So, in summation, Henry Melton was arrested on a DUI charge on Jun 1st and suspended for same on August 5. At first, I figured Mack probably couldn't act on such activity in the summer, since summer contact with the student- athletes is limited. Plus, Mack might have been backpacking across Houston with Vince Young, and unavailable to suspend Mr. Melton.

However, one week later, the Horns were able to promptly suspend Robert Joseph for two misdemeanors.

On Jul 28, Sergio Kindle was arrested for DWI and Mack did nothing until Aug 5. Maybe he was on a summer cruise? No, on Aug 3, he was available to suspend Andre Jones as a result of his aggravated robbery charge.

Now, according to my calculations, if Bob is going to follow Mack's lead, he must wait for a couple of misdemeanors, another drinking and driving charge and two teammates working together on an aggravated robbery before invoking swift justice. Hopefully it will take longer than two months for the Sooners to accumulate that many charges.

To Mack's credit, his swift actions on the DWI and DUI were effective, as no other Longhorns were charged with DUI for the remainder of the year.