That's understandable, given the way those Gator coaches just keep standing up and making the tough choices. I mean, after all, Meyer did finally stand up after that press barrage and dismiss Avery.
Now, what about those wonderful souls with the assault rifle, any game suspensions there, G8erBait?
So can we now please bury this urban myth about how Florida football Coach Urban Meyer doesn’t tolerate disciplinary problems? Meyer, as we’ve been trying to tell you, is no better or worse than any other college coach when it comes to key players getting into trouble.
The latest example involves troubled UF cornerback Avery Atkins, who has been in and out of the doghouse and most recently was involved in an incident in which the mother of his child accused him of punching her repeatedly and holding her against her will. Atkins claims he was only trying to defend himself when the woman attacked him.
Believe what you want, but here’s the part that always makes me roll my eyes at coaches: Meyer announced that Atkins has been — are you ready for this? — “suspended indefinitely.” That’s downright Zooker-esque. In football coaching lingo, suspended indefinitely translates into, “Suspended until we need him.”
And when Atkins asked for his release so he could transfer from UF, Meyer refused because, as he told the Sentinel, “We feel like it’s in his best interest to try to fight through this and not be scared of the issues.” That’s coachspeak for: “He’s our best cornerback.”
Then again, maybe Meyer is just cutting the kid some slack because no assault weapons were involved.
No charges to be filed after accidental shooting
Posted 2/24/2006
No charges will be filed against any players involved with a misfiring of a rifle outside former Dee Webb’s apartment. WR Kenneth Tookes is said to have accidentally shot into the apartment of a neighbor. Nobody was injured.
Police interviewed Webb, Tookes, Andre Caldwell, Mike McIntosh and Reggie Lewis, although a police spokesman said none were initially willing to cooperate until the athletic department was contacted.
GPD spokesman Sgt. Keith Kameg: “We didn’t feel comfortable that there were any criminal charges that we were able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, especially when you took intent out of the picture.”
Kameg: “The players early on had a chance to help us. Either fear or thinking it would go away, they didn’t. Once we contacted the university and the athletic department, all of this turned around.”
Kameg: “It was an accident with a tremendous amount of poor judgment.”
The family of one of the unnamed women whose apartment was shot into issued a statement slamming Webb.
Family: “Is this a future NFL player that kids are suppose to look up to? Accidents happen, but attitudes of people are chosen. We feel that D. Webb should ‘arm’ himself with a better attitude while preparing for the NFL rather than arming himself with an ‘assault rifle.’”
Now we get to see if Urban Meyer truly is a tough disciplinarian or just a tough talker. … Andre Caldwell, Reggie Lewis, Kenneth Tookes and former cornerback Dee Webb are being investigated by police after one of the players (Tookes) allegedly fired an assault rifle into an apartment occupied by two women.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Tookes told his father he inadvertently discharged the gun in Webb’s apartment and the bullet traveled through a wall and lodged into the wall of an adjoining apartment.
Believe what you want, but I have two questions: 1. Why are these players in the possession of assault rifles in the first place? 2. Why, as police discovered, were they riding around in Caldwell’s car with loaded weapons? Maybe these knuckleheads actually believed Meyer’s silly claim last season that his players are a bunch of “soldiers.”
This is a moment of truth for Meyer. Does the coach take a stand and suspend the “Gainesville Gunslingers” for some games in the fall or does he pull the old “it’s being handled internally” and make them run extra laps?
Forget the Florida State game. This is where we truly find out what Urban Meyer is all about.<!-- end STORYCONTENT -->
