Let us all applaud that great good man, University of Oregon football coach Willie Taggart, for having the courage and moral clarity to dismiss a very valuable player from the team. Let us all read this testimonial in the local booster press about this heroic coach, who just said no to Darren Carrington. No, you might be a great player, but there are moral standards here, and we uphold them, dammit.
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Let’s not look too closely, though, at precisely how UO football does the morality thing. UD is the last person to want to bring up the fact that they kept Carrington on the team after he
1. broke a visiting UO alum’s arm in an act of unprovoked violence;
2. failed an NCAA-run drug test; and
3. “was cited by Eugene police for having an open container of alcohol while underage.”
No, no, all that was fine. Break an arm or two – no problem. But while using your massive footballer bulk to practically tear the arm off of a student is fine, fucking up a McDonald’s drive-through with your car is apparently the last straw. Students are just students; McDonald’s is not only private property, but a sacred symbol of what’s best about this land. You don’t come back from fucking up a McDonald’s drive-through.