Skeete's Arrest & (sort of) Related Topics

[Steve19]

Since we really don't know the particulars, it is really hard to condemn this kid at this point. I also don't do drugs but I understand why many people think marijuana should be legalized. What I don't buy is that it is harmless; it causes chromosome damage and many other serious problems.

The previous contributions have made the point that this is a felony charge. If he is convicted of a felony, then he will probably do prison time and lose his place on the team and his scholarship. Quite frankly, in my opinion, that is fair. It doesn't mean he can't get out of jail and re-enter university somewhere and make a success of his life.

If this really is so minor that it gets pleaded down to a much lesser misdemeanor, then I don't know what to say about his future as a Buckeye and I would leave it up to Tressel to decide his fate.

It sounds like a very bright and hard-working kid was going down a very silly and dangerous path. Perhaps this arrest will end up saving his life. I sure hope it isn't the first in a chain of many.

Whatever happens, this kid has ruined much of what he could have hoped to have in life. That is incredibly sad, so incredibly sad.

 

[Alan]

the telling thing about the coaches comments is that he had a great spring.....i mean great spring...

he was going to be an important part of the team this fall....

 

[sandgk]

That he sold to undercover police (if true) changes everything. I was hoping that he might have sold some excess to a couple of buds and that activity was reported somehow. Selling to cops implies you are out to make a profit from drugs. If there is anybody out there who wants to make the case that kids doing that have a place on the Ohio State University Football you have a tough one to sell.

Just a refinement of the selling to undercover report, (twice), that repeated action is the stem from which flows the aggravated trafficking charge. Suggests more than a little, suggests more than once. Suggests Skeete was unable to get a handle on how lucky he was (as a kicker) to have the full ride scholarship.
(The NU academic scholarship probably doesn't carry full freight plus meals).

 

[gbearbuck]

bonehead move on his part... If he has a good attorney he could get the charges reduced (that would mean he would have to give up his "source"... me might not want to do that).

Don't kid yourself about pot... I'll bet at least 25% of the team smokes every now and then... myself or brother have been at several parties where athletes (read OSU football players) were smoking dope (along with the rest of the crowd)... and don't think it's just weed... some of the guys are into a lot worse stuff...

Granted the parties I talk of were several years ago.... heck most highschools have a large percentage of kids smoking every now and then(talking with my cousins in highschool, I'll bet at least 20% of the kids have smoked more than once)...

 

[Oh8ch]

I hung out with Skeet this weekend at a party, he's a good kid and i cant belive this happened to him. I dont think he's a drug dealer, he just made one big mistake.

Perhaps an unfair comparison, but this sounds so much like the comments about Louis Irizarry. GH from BN in particular said the first incident was totally out of character for Louis. Then it happened again - only much worse. You can't keep saying it isn't like someone to do stuff when it is the stuff we do that defines us.

To wax totally philosophical - there was somebody on here a while back with an excellent post about the development of the brain and the fact that teenagers really don't think like adults. Really don't have the same level of impulse control. Really don't have the same ability to judge the consequences of their actions. The bleeding heart part of me say this is an argument to let stuff like this slide once in awhile. But then I hear that God fearing conservative voice reminding me that the best ways for teens to grow up is to hold them accountable. That letting them slide results in 20-somethings who act like teenagers because they learned that there are no consequences.

And then there is that GD-APR.

 

[buckiprof]

Anyways, I would have never let my teammates down by doing weed.....but, again, times are alot different than in my playing days....

The part of all of this that really gets me is what Alan stated and I quoted above. Forget all of the other stuff around this issue (and others on the team in the past year who have had trangressions), the fact that by messing up like this has let your teammates down seems to be lost on many of today's student-athletes. As a coach of 11 year olds in baseball and in football, besides coaching the fundamentals of the game, I really stress to my boys the aspect of what it means to be a member of a team, what teamwork means, and what it means to let the team down. Granted I do not have to deal with these types of issues, but when I had a boy show up at last night's game tired because he thought it would be cool to stay up until 5 am (without his parents knowing it), I quickly let him know how his lack of energy and focus, which cost us 4 runs in the 1st inning, was due to him and how he had let his teammates down.

I guess that Alan's comment hit a chord with me and his comment seems to be an idea that is lost on many nowadays. Great post Alan! If all players had the mindset that you had in your playing days, we wouldn't have had most (all?) of the problems that have arisen in the past year.

 

[jlb1705]

Even if he's acquitted, I want him off the team. I mean, even if it's a mistake or, he's being railroaded somehow, you still have to fuck up pretty big to even get in that position.

Pot is harmless? No way. One of my best friends has completely smoked away his entire potential over the last five years. He went from being an honor student to working 20 hours a week arranging rental videos and living in his in-laws' basement.

 

[AirForceBuck]

Don't kid yourself about pot... I'll bet at least 25% of the team smokes every now and then... myself or brother have been at several parties where athletes (read OSU football players) were smoking dope (along with the rest of the crowd)... and don't think it's just weed... some of the guys are into a lot worse stuff...

GBearBuck:

Smoking pot has NOTHING to with this topic, nothing! There is a huge difference between being a party spot with a bunch of fellow students and having fun and relaxing and being out selling dope (more than once) to unknown older men. He obviously didnt know about his buyers and is completely immature with his decisions in life. He needs a big repremand for this one and I hope it doesnt come to jail time, but loss of something. He has single handily sacrificed this University's football integrity and possibly jeopardized our (now worse) APR rating. Is it not enough that we are under investigation in BOTH of our main mens sports (which Im sure they are looking hard for "lack of intstitutional control"), he has to act like selling dope numerous times isnt anything (and quite possibly the equivalent to his opinion of OSU).....Man, this aggrivates the hell out of me...If he is kicked of the team, is there a way to give his schooly to Ryan Pretorious (sp?).

 

[slickman]

Not going to defend or condemn. If he has a lawyer I bet he gets off on a lesser offense so he could get back with the team.

For perspective I think we should remember that this is a) a backup fieldgoal kicker, not the star QB and (b) he's not quite Marcus Vick.

95% of ESPN/AP/SI/Sportsline's audience who reads this info is male from 18-50 years old and they're saying... Weed? Backup kicker? Who cares? and probably adding, Ohio State... it figures...

just like they'd be saying for any other nationally recognized program. it's tough to name a program that hasn't had less than 2 smears to its program in recent memory. at this point I'm very numb to such stupidity. The college football links during this time of year always look like a police blotter.

i bet he gets off on something completely unrelated like disorderly conduct. if he's trafficking in amounts over 100 grams then he's got serious issues. that's very stupid to get caught with weight like that.

edit: I will say that it's really bad to let your team down like this. From a team standpoint, even though he's the backup kicker, he definitely (allegedly) acted very selfishly as the team's focus should be on earning Tressel his bonus and helping his teammate and fans like us with nothing better talk about really, really happy. Bad team conscience here.

 

[CleveBucks]

I hung out with Skeet this weekend at a party, he's a good kid and i cant belive this happened to him. I dont think he's a drug dealer, he just made one big mistake.

No, he made at least two big mistakes (selling to cops twice). And it's very unlikey that it just so happened that every time he sold drugs, he sold to a cop. So you ask yourself, just how often was he selling dope on campus?

I'm sorry, but trash like this is exactly what we don't need on campus... let alone paying for this piece of trash's education.

Kick (no pun intended) his ass back to Gahanna. I hear there's a nice McDonald's that needs a burger flipper.

 

[AirForceBuck]

Originally Posted by osujerry
I hung out with Skeet this weekend at a party, he's a good kid and i cant belive this happened to him. I dont think he's a drug dealer, he just made one big mistake.

Three things wrong with this statement:

1) It didnt "happen to him" - he made the decision to sell/traffic dope more than once! He didnt just "happen" to be walking down the street, look down and see a bag of weed, pick it up and give it to a random guy for money and it just "happend" to be a cop...

2) It wasnt ONE mistake, it was two (and thats just by the cops info). If the cops were able to stage two undercover stings, I can only image how many other times this has taken place under his own wants for money.

3) Hes not a "drug dealer" in your eyes? Well this is what the dictionary.com says is a drug dealer - "n : an unlicensed dealer in illegal drugs [syn: pusher, drug peddler, DRUG TRAFFICKER]." Im sorry, I didnt know Skeete was officially licensed to sell weed and other substances?! Also common sense should tell you that if hes dealing drugs more than once, than hes a "drug dealer."

 

[BB73]

Not going to defend or condemn. If he has a lawyer I bet he gets off on a lesser offense so he could get back with the team.

I think he may well end up with a reduced charge, but no matter what happens I believe he should be kicked off the team. I'll leave it up to Tress and Smith whether he should be booted off the campus completely if he doesn't end up guilty of a felony.

I also believe there is the possibility that if he's not convicted of a felony he could be kicked off the football team, but retain his scholarship; and if he stayed at tOSU, oddly enough we might not take a hit in the APR. That could be another factor in how these things get evaluated from now on.

 

['68Flask]

At least they got the facts straight. He is not the No.1 kicker.

The "Give him another chance crowd" should just take it on the chin like Skeete.

I know money is short for students, but gosh almighty, dealing?? Tress will boot him if he is convicted. Period. :(

 

[AJHawkfan]

Agreed '68Flask. I am all for giving people the benefit of the doubt and a second chance and whatever, but at some point, you have to make it clear that no more bull shit will be tolerated. I think OSU has, at some point, reached that point; probably a lot later than they should have.

 

[ArtilleryBuck]

Shit!!!! I hate hearing news like this. I have a hard time understanding why people are downplaying this because it was "only marijuana". He's been charged with selling drugs. If it's true, then he is a drug dealer. Why in the hell an Ohio State football player on scholarship would ever take a risk like that is just beyond comprehension.