Under Urban Meyer, Florida has come to be known for three things: Tim Tebow, winning and getting arrested.
Tebow is gone, and winning may take a brief hiatus, meaning it’s time to take care of what’s behind Door 3.
Freshman defensive tackle Gary Brown continued the tradition over the weekend, getting pinched for allegedly slapping one female and scratching another after they asked him and a friend to leave a party around 5 a.m.
Brown’s arrest puts the Gators’ total around 27 since Meyer arrived in 2005, according to the Orlando Sentinel’s tally.
All the usual caveats apply. These are just charges right now, and he’ll probably lawyer up and get out from under them without too much trouble.
Or maybe he didn’t even do anything wrong.
There’s also a question of who to blame here.
Is it the coaches? They can’t be on top of these guys 24/7. Then again, they recruited them.
Is it the players? They are adults. Shouldn’t they be capable of handling themselves?
Is it society’s fault for building them up to feel like they’re above the law?
Is it on the high school teachers, coaches or parents for letting them slide by?
There are plenty of ways to look at it, but at a certain point, the blame game has to take a backseat to just fixing the problem.
That point is now.
Florida is quickly becoming a national punchline when it comes to arrests, and without Tebow around, the Band-Aid covering up UF’s ugly scars has been peeled away.
The program doesn’t have a face right now, and if the Gators aren’t careful, that face is going to be a mugshot.
For me, the answer isn’t to just kick these guys off the team. And Meyer doesn’t believe in that either, unless the crime is particularly heinous.
He learned that lesson a few years ago with cornerback Avery Atkins, who was booted out and later would up dead.
Meyer feels a responsibility to try to give second chances and develop players into better people.
He always gives the spiel about how his players are high-quality humans and how his coaching staff is all about developing good people.
Well, it’s time to do that.
The first thing to say is, “STOP HITTING WOMEN!” This really shouldn’t be that hard, and it has become something of a trend lately.
Also, there have to be some punishments other than making them run or kicking them off the team that could do the trick.
Don’t let these players think they can spend a night in the pokey, have super-lawyer Huntley Johnson fix the situation then get back on the field after some extra conditioning.
From Day 1, they should know that if they can’t behave, they can’t play.
You know how players lose playing time if they suck and can’t make tackles?
Make it clear that slapping, choking, shooting, stealing or fighting will be treated as more seriously.
Until that’s understood, Florida is going to keep heading toward being known as the new Thug U.
