Quote:WVU arrest story isn’t a big deal

http://wvgazette.com/section/Sports/Dave...2007060634

June 07, 2007
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer

MORGANTOWN - Am I missing something here?

Slap me down if you disagree - and I’m sure I’ll get my fair share of that - but in the long and sordid history of athletes running afoul of the law, this seems to rate, on a scale of 1-to-100, perhaps a 5.

Maybe.

Jason Gwaltney, no longer even a member of West Virginia’s football team, has been charged with driving 36 miles per hour in a 25 zone, with failing to have a driver’s license in his possession and with underage drinking.

Not enough to be considered drunk, mind you, but drinking nonetheless.

Quinton Andrews, meanwhile, has been charged with obstructing an officer. He saw Gwaltney pulled over by police in the parking lot of his apartment complex at 4 in the morning and went to see what was going on. After what appears to be about a five-minute exchange with another officer, during which he ticked the guy off enough that he was asked for his ID, Andrews shut his apartment door and wouldn’t let the officer in. He was arrested and taken to jail for what remained of the night.

Stupid? Yes.

That’s not the part I’m unclear on, though. I, as much as anyone, understand that it’s news when the starting free safety on a high-profile football team is arrested. People want, and deserve, to know this stuff. Rich Rodriguez might disagree, but deal with it.

Here’s what I don’t get. A Tuesday morning headline across the top of Page 1-A of a Morgantown paper, “2 WVU football stars arrested.’’

Then Wednesday, there was the complete arrest report from both incidents published in a Charleston paper.

Talk radio and message board freaks, I’m sure, can’t get enough of it. Rodriguez’s phone rings off the hook.

All because of a 4 a.m. traffic stop involving a guy who isn’t on the team and a brief, albeit ill-advised, attempt by a friend to find out what was going on.

Now, I’ve written plenty of stories about plenty of athletes getting into a whole lot of trouble. I’m sorry if I sound like an apologist, but for me this is just a non-starter. I don’t even like writing this much about it, but apparently on a really, really slow news day this is what we’re reduced to doing.

For the record, West Virginia has certainly not been immune to athletic scandals in its football program. Mountaineer football players under both Don Nehlen and Rodriguez have had their share of brushes with the law, although of late not too many stick out in my memory. The most egregious was probably Pacman Jones’ pool-cue-wielding bar fight during his first weeks on campus in 2003, an incident that also involved teammate Leandre Washington.

Aside from that, a little-used linebacker named Mo Howard was arrested in 2004 and charged with illegally selling more than 20 cheap guns and was immediately suspended by Rodriguez. But far from a dark, backstreet deal, Howard had actually applied for a permit to sell guns. The charges were later dropped and he was reinstated to the team.

Adam Lehnortt was arrested for marijuana possession a few years ago in the offseason, and All-America center Dan Mozes, believe it or not, was once charged with dealing in stolen goods. Police came to the house he shared with three other players because of a noise complaint and found a street sign in the house.

Yes, a street sign.

Actually, the majority of incidents connected to West Virginia football of late have involved players who had been, would have been or will be Mountaineers, not actual, current players. Easily the most serious was the murder charge against recruit Raymond Williams of Cleveland. Needless to say, his scholarship was revoked.

Brandon Barrett, the former Kennedy Award winner from Martinsburg, was charged with DUI and marijuana possession in 2004, but he wasn’t a member of the team then. Barrett didn’t qualify academically and the arrest came while he was out of school for that year.

Pat Lazear, a linebacker, will arrive this summer as a freshman carrying a past conviction for armed robbery.

Two former players, Travis Garvin and Alvoid Mays, robbed a grocery store in Glenville in 2004, long after they had left WVU. I still haven’t figured out what that was about.

And, of course, while Jones and Chris Henry have become infamous for their brushes with the law, almost all of them came after they left West Virginia. Henry, while incredibly stupid in many of his on-field acts and classroom work at WVU, was never arrested for anything here, and Jones stayed pretty clean after the bar fight that happened during his first preseason camp.

All of those are stories. Every one of them. The Andrews-Gwaltney thing right now is a story, too.

Excuse me, though, if, unless I missed something about a transsexual hooker or 50 pounds of cocaine being in the car at the time, I just don’t think it’s as much of a story as it’s being made out to be.

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call (304) 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickman1@aol.com.

Boy did that last statement hit the nail on the head.

Not sure what you think is missing...other than WVU listed Gwaltney on their Spring Roster/Prospectus (2007 Spring Roster/Position Breakdown):

http://www.msnsportsnet.com/content/fbprospectus6.pdf

Maybe the writer had no clue that WVU has Gwaltney listed back with the team?

Was that it?

Gwaltney had left the team prior to this. That was in yesterday's story - or didn't ya notice?