Please Iowa, just don?t be stupid

Let?s talk about booze, spirits, sauce. More importantly, let?s explore why we?re talking about it on the sports page.

As some of you may have heard, the University of Iowa football team was hit with another run-in with the law last week when three members of the squad were charged with alcohol related offenses. One of which bears the same last name as the head coach, which has caused a little bit of media scrutiny.

This would be a situation where I do not envy Kirk Ferentz and I don?t mean to pile on James because he is hardly the first (and probably not the last, ugh) to commit such an infraction, but a lot of opinions have been voiced and, after a week for things to sort themselves out, I feel it?s a good time for me to do the same.

For a little background, last week?s citations were the 15th, 16th and 17th alcohol-related incidents charged to a hawkeye football player in less than two years. If that seems like a lot, it is. It was also the second for James after receiving a ticket for possession of alcohol under the legal age last fall that suspended him for the remainder of the 2008 season.

I don?t have an explanation as to why there has been such an influx, but I?m tired of people blaming the Iowa City police for being ?out to get them.? Granted, there are an overwhelming number of officers in the downtown area during the early morning hours, but to say they target certain people is, in my mind, a little ridiculous.

I spent the last four years living in Iowa City and the entertainment options are part of the reason it was the best four years of my life thus far. They are also a few of the reasons that thousands of people choose to attend the University of Iowa ? including football players.

A good number of people that age are going to drink alcohol. At this point, I don?t think there?s any way around it and I don?t have a problem with that. Let me rephrase that ? I don?t have a problem with it as long as you can handle yourself and don?t put anyone/anything in danger.

It has been my experience that you won?t have any issues as long as you don?t do anything stupid. Stupid can mean a lot of things, and unfortunately, people, myself included, do stupid things. In the case of the three football players last week, their stupid behavior is in the form of reports of a couple of them vandalizing city property and picking a fight with an off-duty police officer.

Everything I know tells me that?s not a smart thing to do. If they simply go home and keep to themselves, there?s no doubt in my mind their names are not in the newspaper the next day.

In conversations I?ve had with athletes, I hear time and again that it is pounded into their head nearly every day to not do anything that may fall under the umbrella of ?stupid.?

Still, here we are for the 17th time in two years ? 30 including non-alcohol related incidents ? with events that could fall within the aforementioned umbrella. I have to ask why, but know there isn?t an answer.

If anybody knows why people do things like this, please let me know. While you?re at it, please let me know the meaning of life as well.

To be fair, athletes represent just a miniscule percentage of young people getting in trouble, but they are just the ones we hear about. This past weekend, Iowa City police officers issued tickets to 34 different individuals who were a little too intoxicated for their own good. This also isn?t just a problem at Iowa, but all around the country as well.

Coach Ferentz handed down a swift penalty to the three players and suspended them for the remainder of spring practice. A penalty I find to be fair, justified and sufficient. There is something to be said for making an example of people, but there are also much, much worse things these individuals could have done. In this situation, I don?t feel there?s anything else that needs to be done.

One of the players plead guilty to two charges, while the other two have plead not guilty and await trial scheduled for May 8.

Hopefully this incident will turn the light bulb on in the heads of some people involved in athletic programs and demonstrate they have so much to lose and not a lot to gain by attempting to fight police officers. I sure hope so, but have said this very same thing in the past.