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Time for Kirby Smart to start making tough decisions in face of more driving-related arrests
By David Wasson
Published:
I stand before you without pretense, and with no apologies for what is to come.
From the first moment erstwhile young men began matriculating a stuffed pigskin down a gridiron, football has been littered with participants of varied moral compasses. It’s just simple truth.
For example, I stood in a room once and heard legendary linebacker Dick Butkus intone that to play linebacker at an elite level that player needs to be a barely legal hunter of his fellow man. To strap on a helmet and launch yourself at full speed into other human beings, well, it quite possibly takes a person willing to take questionable risks with their own health and the well-being of the opponent.
That’s football, and it is the nexus of our visceral love for the sport. Put another way, we don’t mind paying good money and dedicating a goodly part of our weekend toward seeing organized violence in the name of our favorite school, town or set of childhood memories.
The problem, however, is this: every moment spent outside the lines for those barely legal footballers means they must adhere to the norms and laws of the rest of us mortals. And at the University of Georgia, those footballers seem to be having an awfully hard time toeing the line.
News last week broke that 2 more Bulldogs have been indefinitely suspended for driving-related incidents – raising Georgia’s total of similar incidents over the past years to uncomfortable numbers. The New York Times reported that the arrests of sophomore WR Nitro Tuggle and freshman OL Marques Easley raised said total to 10 known arrests since January 2023.
On one hand (which is the decidedly Georgia-centric way of looking at this, we admit), it is almost impossible to assemble 100-plus young people and not expect some n’er-do-wells. Wander into any ECON 101 class on a state-school campus and odds are you could peg a recently arrested student with a Nerf football.
But 10 since January 2023, which is when Bulldogs player Devin Willock and team staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a car accident? That’s about 10 too many.
Jail records indicated that Tuggle was arrested on misdemeanor charges of speeding and reckless driving, and was released after posting bond. The Athens Banner-Herald reported Easley was involved in a vehicle crash earlier in the same week. Coach Kirby Smart promptly suspended both Tuggle and Easley indefinitely from all team activities.
What went unreported, and which is why we take aim at Smart here, is that this nonsense is a full-blown epidemic within Georgia football. And try as he might with punishment like guest speakers and withholding payment from the school’s NIL collective, Smart apparently hasn’t even glanced at the one tool that will actually get his players’ attention.
“I know that our staff, myself, continue to drive home the sensitive nature of it,” Smart said to reporters in September after cornerback Daniel Harris was charged with reckless driving after being clocked at 106 mph.
“It’s certainly a deadly speed when you talk about the speed that he was traveling at. You want kids to grow up, you want to treat kids like your own kids, you want them to grow up and make good decisions, and learn from their own mistakes. We had guys share and we obviously continue to talk to them. But it hasn’t stopped it. So we’ve got to find a way to do it.”
Talk is cheap, and so are paltry 1-game suspensions like the one Harris got last season. Talk is cheap, and so is the penalty that Jalen Carter got – who was found to be street racing with LeCroy before that deadly crash, pleaded no contest to 2 misdemeanors and did not serve any jail time.
Talk is cheap, and it is past time for Smart and Georgia to do something with actual bite against his lead-footed players. Yes, our world is built on second chances. Yes, everyone deserves one to a point. But with a full-blown epidemic continuing to manifest itself in Athens, there is only one true solution.
The next Georgia player that finds himself behind bars, for any reason related to a vehicle, should be gone. For good, and without argument or discussion. It is time for Smart to forego the traditional checks and balances of law and order and take a stand. It is time for Bulldogs who think they can operate outside the law to find themselves outside the Georgia football family – no questions asked.
Would Smart grabbing the nearest microphone and announcing that new policy immediately solve the issue? Probably not… but the second the first player, superstar or third-stringer, to test it and get kicked off probably will.
How long will the “indefinite” suspensions of Tuggle and Easley last? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain.
It is past time for Smart and Georgia to stop talking tough and start actually acting tough when it comes to driving-related arrests.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
