40 Acres Sports

Andre Jones and James Henry are indicted for their alleged roles in a July robbery. There had been persistent rumors Jones would be cleared, doesn’t look like that’s happening.

UT President William Powers responds to latest Longhorn arrest. Supports Mack Brown & says playing at Texas is a privilege.

I can’t tell you how tired I am of reporting news like this. But yes, you guessed it, yet another Longhorn was arrested last night, charged with two felony counts of obstruction and tampering with evidence. Don’t have any details on what exactly this could be, but it sure doesn’t sound good.

This makes it the 6th Longhorn arrested since June, officially making Texas the new Miami. Seriously though, how hard can it be to stay out of trouble, especially when you know what has been going on in the program. The last thing I want to do is make a new category for this type of stuff, but I think that is exactly what I might have to do. We will have more details once they come in.

OBSTRUCT OR RETALIATION
3RD DEGREE FELONY — Cause Number: D1DC07302254
Bond:$20,000.00 ANY TYPE OF BOND

TAMPER OR FABRICATING PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
3RD DEGREE FELONY — Cause Number: D1DC07302252
Bond:$10,000.00 ANY TYPE OF BOND

Source

Senior safety/wide reciever [tag]Tyrell Gatewood[/tag] was arrested again last night on reckless driving and two counts of misdemeanor possession of a dangerous drug. A “dangerous drug” usually refers to prescription medication that he did not have a legal prescription for. The range of drugs that includes is huge and could be something silly or very, very serious.

The booking information from the Travis County Sheriff Inmate Population Reporting System is below:

GATEWOOD, TYRELL ANTWAIN

Date of Birth: 9/27/1984
Booking Number: 0744322 Booked: 9/13/2007 00:36
Facility: CENTRAL BOOKING
Charges (3)

POSSESSION DANGEROUS DRUG
CLASS A MISDEMEANOR — Cause Number: C1CR07218651
Bond:$2,500.00 ANY TYPE OF BOND

POSSESSION DANGEROUS DRUG
CLASS A MISDEMEANOR — Cause Number: C1CR07218652
Bond:$2,500.00 ANY TYPE OF BOND

OUT OF COUNTY MISDEMEANOR
CLASS A MISDEMEANOR —
Bond:$500.00 ANY TYPE OF BOND

I’ll try to withhold judgment until we learn more about the charges, but this is not Gatewood’s first run-in with the law and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s gone before the weekend. With the other recent off field incidents, his history, and Mack Brown’s new tougher stance on these issues the punishment will likely be swift and severe.

We’ll have more on Gatewood’s status as details are released.

Update: Gatewood has been suspended indefinitely by Mack Brown.

Freshman defensive tackle [tag]Andre Jones[/tag] has turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued for a felony aggravated robbery charge. The charge stems from a July 27th robbery involving former teammate [tag]Robert Joseph[/tag], who was kicked off the team last month. According to the Austin PD, Joseph and Jones entered an apartment in east Austin last Friday. Joseph waved his gun at residents, including a 14 year old boy. Jones never flashed his gun, but made threats to indicate he was carrying a weapon.

Things are getting out of control this summer with 5 arrests in the last 2 months. I think it is clear that Mack Brown needs to take some serious action. Obviously Andre Jones should be kicked off the team, but Mack needs to find another way to prevent things like this from happening in the future. Recruiting efforts need to change. Discipline policies need to be more severe. Something needs to happen.

One thing I don’t understand about all of this is how some of these players can be so dumb. Do they not watch ESPN? Do they not see Pacman Jones losing millions of dollars because of his actions. Do they not see Michael Vick throwing away $100 million? I just can’t understand what makes you think you can pull a gun on people, steal their possessions, and then expect to still be able to play football. Frustrated just doesn’t express how I feel right now.

Texas linebacker [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] was arrested Saturday morning by the Austin PD and charged with driving while intoxicated. Kindle was pulled over for swerving lanes in downtown and arrested around 2:30 am after he failed a field sobriety test. He was later released from Travis County Jail. Coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] released the following statement on Kindle’s arrest:

“We’re aware of Sergio’s situation and are disappointed anytime one of our players is accused of wrongdoing. We take a strong stance against drinking and driving and will thoroughly investigate this situation.'”

Kindle, probably the defense’s most promising young player and a possible future superstar, is the second Longhorn to be charged with a DWI this summer. Defensive end Henry Melton was arrested on June 1st.

College students drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. They also get into the occasional scuffle. I can let those types of transgressions go, but this is different. Drunk driving kills innocent people and ruins families. It only takes a second to change lives forever. This is not a “boys will be boys” situation. It’s time for Mack to put a stop to this kind of behavior.

Kindle and Melton may not be bad kids and these may just be isolated mistakes, but they must be punished severely. You can’t (and shouldn’t) stop players from having the occasional good time, but you can make them realize there will be consequences for their actions. The two players must miss playing time, suspend them both for at least the season’s first three games. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to make an example of someone. The next time a player goes out to party maybe he’ll think twice before he gets behind the wheel under the influence.

Promising true sophomore safety [tag]Robert Joseph[/tag] is no longer a Texas Longhorn. Joseph was arrested Saturday morning for apparently breaking into two cars outside the Omni Hotel in Austin. It doesn’t sound like he was trying to steal the cars or anything in them, he was just sitting there. Pretty strange behavior combined with the fact that it was the wee hours of the morning makes me wonder if he was completely in his right mind. Either way, the young man may be in serious trouble.

Head coach Mack Brown wasted absolutely no time in suspending Joseph indefinitely from the team. That indefinite period ended Monday as Joseph announced he would be leaving the University of Texas. He is officially transferring, but I’m guessing just like with a few other former Horns it might not have exactly been his idea to transfer. Either way, the arrest combined with already rumored academic issues have prematurely ended Joseph’s Longhorn career.

As a true freshman Joseph made a quick impact early in the season. He was getting playing time as a backup safety and nickel defensive back. He saw the field in crunch time against Ohio State so you know the Texas coaches trusted him. A shoulder injury ended his season early and I think the secondary suffered. He was going to have a big role in this season’s defense and likely would have been the starter in 2008 and 2009.

Best of luck to Robert wherever he ends up. He’s got enough talent that some school will give him a second chance, hopefully he’ll earn it.

Texas running back Ramonce Taylor was arrested early this morning when police discovered five pounds of marijuana in his car. Five pounds is a lot more weed than you can claim is for personal use so Taylor could be facing second-degree felony charges. A large fight had broken out at a party near his hometown of Belton, Texas and sometime during/after the fight Taylor had the window to his vehicle broken. Taylor contacted the police to report the vandalism. When talking with police about his broken window, Taylor gave the officers permission to search his car.

While interviewing Taylor at a convenience store, deputies were told by other officers at the fight scene that Taylor had been involved and had threatened to return with a gun. Taylor was placed in handcuffs. Taylor told deputies he didn’t have a gun and gave them permission to search his vehicle. Deputies reported finding the bullet and the backpack with the marijuana.

Taylor’s lawyer, Buck Harris, says the weed wasn’t his and for now I believe him. I can’t imagine Taylor would call the police if he knew he had more than $3,000 worth of marijuana in the back of his car. The fact that his window was broken out also leads me to believe someone could have chunked the weed into his car to hide it as the cops were showing up at the party. If you’ve got a felony’s worth of drugs in your car, you don’t call to report a misdemeanor and than let the cops search you car. You get the heck out of there and worry about the $100 window some other time.

A bit of a conspiracy theory and orange-tinted glasses, but right now it actually seems more likely than the alternative.

As for Ramonce’s Longhorn football career it may be in trouble whether he’s guilty or not. This isn’t Taylor’s first time to make news for the wrong reasons and his return in the fall was already questionable. You can’t just lock yourself in your dorm room for four years, but if you’ve already got two strikes against you than you’ve got to be more careful where you party and who you hang out with. Reports had been leaking that he had gotten his grades in order, so if this incident turns out to be nothing then there’s still a chance he’ll be back. I imagine his status depends as much on what the Texas coaches think of him as a young man as it does on the outcome today’s events.

For Taylor’s sake I hope he gets things figured out. If he makes smart decisions (and stays away from poor decision making friends) he’ll have the chance to get a UT degree and set himself up for an NFL career