Fourth and long

This past week saw another duo of University of Wisconsin football players become acquainted with the local criminal justice system. Antonio Freeman and Jameson Davis met up with Jefferson County police when they were arrested for possession of marijuana after allegedly taking a 100 mph joy ride to the west of Madison.

The next morning, a parody column appeared on The Daily Cardinal's opinion page, dealing with the recent arrest of Booker Stanley, another Badger football player. The well-scribed satirical piece fictitiously quoted UW Director of Athletic Communications as commenting:

“Booker obviously has some minor legal issues to sort through, but we will withhold judgment until further notice. Of course it is our policy to get our felons, err ... students, err ... athletes back to their sports as soon as possible.”

And while the comment is the product of Cardinal writer Dan Wiersema's imagination, the underlying point would prove all too apt as the beleaguered football squad once again saw its members facing charges. (The column was presumably written before news of Messrs. Freeman and Davis' arrests, given that none of the local papers would carry that news for another 24 hours.)

In the past, I've touched on how incidents like this mutilate UW's reputation, and the Badger Herald's editorial board recently echoed that sentiment. The image catastrophes formally known as Marcus Randle El and Mr. Stanley were enough to cast this school in a negative light. Messrs. Freeman and Davis are merely fanning the fire in a most egregious fashion. As the Herald's ed board noted:

Universities, above all else, are about academic education, and prestige is surely always more valuable than a favorable win/loss record on the gridiron. Yet too many schools of late have created veritable public relations fiascos, allowing star athletes to get away with behavior that brings disgrace to their respective universities. Athletes and coaches — especially those appearing on television every Saturday — are ambassadors from their respective institutions and, while each school surely should have its own process for dealing with all members of the student body in a disciplinary context, it seems only wrong that those given these heightened delegation privileges ought to be able to so willfully bring shame to their schools.

All of these athletes are innocent until proved guilty and the legal system must act accordingly. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to read these allegations and view them as isolated incidents. Something is rotten in the state of UW athletics and it must be fixed immediately.

For the school to continue to operate in an entirely reactionary fashion and not become proactive in guiding “student” athletes away from wrongdoing would be to sully the name of an institution that graduates should be able to put atop their résumé without blushing.