Posts Tagged ‘marijuana’

The Gift That Keeps On Giving?

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Ed Johnson, former Nittany Lion and now starting defensive tackle for the NFL Indianapolis Colts, was arrested early Wednesday on a drug possession charge.

Ed’s Penn State screwups are still fresh in most of our minds. You’ll remember Ed from the sexual assualt episode back in 2005. He was reinstated in 2006, but didn’t play in the Outback bowl due to a violation of team rules.

This Turkey thought that Johnson would straighten out his act when he got the stint with the Colts and happened into the starting job when Booger McFarland went down. He was an undrafted free agent, who was lucky to find any interest in him by the NFL and even more fortuitous to get a starting job by happenstance. He has a very supportive coach in Tony Dungy, who is often referred to as a “players’ coach.” Dungy had a talk with Johnson when he was brought on board and thought they had reached an understanding about behavior issues. However, clearly, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Ed had a fine year last year, starting all 16 games and recording 63 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. He won’t be playing this week for sure, according to Head Coach Tony Dungy, and his future is uncertain.

Johnson was stopped for speeding on I-465 north of Indianapolis. The cops subsequently charged him with both possession of illegal drugs and possession of marijuana. (This Turkey doesn’t know why there were two separate charges, but I guess there is a legal distinction in Indiana.)

“As in any other incident of this nature, it will be reviewed under the league’s substance abuse policy,” league spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “A player’s prior history can be considered in evaluating potential discipline under the program.”

This underscores what I’ve been saying about guys like Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma. First of all, not keeping their noses clean gets them the “character flag” on their NFL scouting report, which alerts teams to character issues and, in the worst case, keeps them undrafted. Then, later on, if they should happen to actually land an NFL job and get into even a minor jam, the league will look back at their college record and brand them as repeat offenders. This does not portend well for the health of their wallets.

Ed’s checkered past, along with the plethora of recent off-field incidents, could impact Penn State players trying to enter the NFL. I hope Penn State is not developing a reputation for producing tainted players, but the more incidents that come to light, the more NFL teams will shy away from Nittany Lions.

Time will tell whether Ed Johnson’s NFL career will survive this incident. If it does, he better reform his ass, or he’ll be gone for good.

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Ganja Three Suspended; Harriott Gone

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

The Daily Collegian reports that Maurice Evans, Abe Koroma, and Andrew Quarless have been suspended for Saturday’s game against Oregon State. Meanwhile, Willie Harriott has been removed from the team for a violation of team rules. However, A J Wallace, who was apparently not an alleged participant in Tuesday’s small quantity of marijuana party, will play on Saturday.

So, you have two defensive starters and one key special teams player out of the mix for Saturday.

The Official Turkey Poop Prediction now must change to Oregon State 41, Penn State 31.

No charges have yet been filed against the participants in Tuesday’s party which had to be broken up with police intervention, but participation in it was enough of an offense to get the three suspended. This Turkey’s guess is that, unless they are cited for some offense, they will be reinstated before the Big Ten opener with Illinois.

The police have sent the evidence to a lab for analysis, which could take a week or more.

These guys are dumbasses. With all the adverse publicity the program suffered because of the Outside the Lines feature about Penn State’s discipline issues and off-field incidents, one would believe that the coaching staff would have impressed upon players the need to keep their snoots clean so as not to validate the contention that Joe Paterno is losing his grips on the program, among others. Apparently, they’re too stupid, undisciplined, and short-term self-interested to understand the significants to crap like this to the program. It doesn’t matter whether the knock on Joe is a potshot by the sports media, either.

Once again, we have to believe that there has been a leadership breakdown. Neither the coaches nor the two co-captains on defense, Sean Lee and Anthony Scirrotto, apparently have not been able to convince Evans and Koroma to behave. Draw your own conclusions there.

Harriott was involved in an underage drinking episode with Quarless last year. The current scuttlebutt is that he got nailed for DUI this time around.

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Nittany Apartment Incident Update

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Here’s more on the incident reported very vaguely in the previous post.

The Centre Daily Times reports that the police responded to complaints of a loud party at #5204. I don’t see why that requires four units, including a “special response vehicle”; however, the university police said that they just happened to be driving the aforementioned SRV when they got the call.

OK, so no big deal—except that the cops also confiscated a small quantity of weed.

No arrests were made, the cops left with the confiscated evidence, and that was that. If any violations are to be cited, that will occur through the mail.

The boys couldn’t even roll themselves a fattie to pass around because the cops raided their stash. Pity.

Now, I can hear you Generation X and Y types who don’t know any better saying that smoking a little pot shouldn’t be a crime. However, these are athletes in training during an active season for their sport. They shouldn’t be using any drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, while I am not privy to team rules, I think it’s a good bet that smoking pot is prohibited.

Certainly, the ganja didn’t belong to Evans, Koroma, or Wallace. Some fool not on the football team undoubtedly left it there unbeknownst to the three innocent football players who live there. Yeah, right. Sounds a lot like Michael Irvin explaining away the coke allegedly left in his Dallas hotel room by a hooker a few years back.

There is something quite disconcerting about these dumbasses having even an ounce or two of marijuana in their apartment after all the attention that has been paid to off-field incidents involving their team. Christ, what is Paterno supposed to do now? Suspend half the defensive line? He can’t do that! He’ll have to let these guys off the hook, at least for the duration of the season. How will that go down with those who have been asking for Paterno’s head on a platter? No matter what he does, he’s screwed.

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. They haven’t been charged with anything yet. I’m just sayin’. For those of you who are conspiracy theorists, perhaps Graham Spanier and Tim Curley planted that bag of mary jane in the apartment.

Oh, well. Business as usual.

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I didn’t need the money, ’cause I deal dope.

Friday, September 28th, 2007

The headline above constitutes part of former Nittany Lion LaVon Chisley’s legal defense—namely, that he couldn’t have killed PSU senior Langston Carraway during the commission of an armed robbery because he made between $400 and $1,000 per week selling marijuana. Chisley is currently standing trial in Centre County Court for Carraway’s 2006 murder.

This is a sad case. I’ve commented on it before and it saddens me each time I revisit the issue. Here’s a guy who had a helluva lot going for him and he blew it. Not only did he get his ass kicked off the team, but also instead of learning his lesson he let his life spiral inexorably downward and out of control.

I guess that since it was a matter of public record that Chisley ran afoul of the law in Anne Arundel County Maryland, where he was locked up on drug charges, his defense attorney thought that record would be of use in proving Chisley innocent of murder.

He also skillfully presented the highly effective and erudite Roger Rabbit alibi and said he didn’t know how his DNA got inside a glove left outside Carraway’s apartment that also bore Carraway’s blood. If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit. No Johnny Cochran here to save yo’ ass, LaVon.

LaVon, man, you’re in deep shit.

Read the full CDT reportage. More also at Uwire.

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