FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
Probe targets four UT football players

From the Houston Chronicle:

Four members of the second-ranked Texas Longhorns football team, including three starters, are being investigated by Austin police in conjunction with two alleged felonies, a source told the Chronicle on Friday.

According to police reports, the incidents under investigation are an aggravated assault Sept. 4 and a robbery assault Dec. 10. In a one-paragraph statement, police said persons being investigated in the cases were involved in the University of Texas athletics program but did not specify the sports.

Click here for the rest.

Man...this shit does not need to be happening right now. This kind of cloud over the 'Horns has the potential to totally destroy the mental focus needed to play at the extraordinarily high level of competition that they will most certainly encounter in the Rose Bowl against USC. I'm worried.

I'm reminded of the bizarre scandal hanging over the Longhorns before their Sugar Bowl appearance against Virginia Tech back in early 1997. Texas, fresh off its surprise upset victory in the Big XII title game over the reigning national champions, Nebraska's Cornhuskers, suddenly found themselves having to deal with the fallout from revelations that one of their players had assumed a false identity in order to play past his NCAA alloted four years of eligibility. It turned out that this guy had pulled the scam all by himself, so the Longhorns weren't punished in any way, but the news broke only a week or two before the game. When they finally played, Texas was routed by the Hokies. It is my sincere belief to this day that the scandal made them lose focus and play badly. I mean, I know they might not have won absent the weirdness, but they were a much better team than what hit the field in New Orleans that awful day.

Football scandals, real or imagined, hurt football teams. Like I said, this thing's got me worried.

Perhaps I can take some comfort in these lines from the above linked story:

Austin attorney Ken Oden, who is advising one of the players involved in the Dec. 10 investigation, does not believe the player will be charged. He said the player has been questioned and "is cooperating" with police.

"He is not charged, nor do I think he ever will be charged, with any offense," Oden said. "It is a minor incident that ordinarily would get a certain level of evaluation, but because of the run to the (Rose Bowl) and because of wild speculation, there's sort of an atmosphere of insinuation."

I hope the APD gets this straightened out fast. I wonder if anybody there has USC sympathies.

I wonder...

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