SHOTS IN THE DARK
Media shunning gun attack on Colts asst. an example of disinterest in reporting crime
THE STORY is almost impossible to visualize, let alone explain. Yet these days such stories make scant, one-and-out news. Nothing more to see here, break it up.
According to witness and police reports, on Sunday evening, Mother’s Day, three carloads of young men pulled up to the Indianapolis home of 27-yearold Colts assistant coach Parks Frazier and pumped more than 80 gunshots into the unoccupied house before speeding away.
By all accounts, Frazier, once a quarterback at Murray State, was a legit student-athlete with a degree in computer science — which made him attractive to head coach Frank Reich as Frazier has expertise in formulating playbooks. So what the heck? According to police, shell casings recovered included eight 9 millimeters, 18 .223 calibers, 10 .45 calibers, 14 .40 calibers and 27 7.62x39mm rounds. The perps unloaded an arsenal. Some shots hit a neighbor’s house.
Stunning. But again, it could not compete for sports news with, say, bigger news: Charles Barkley’s latest public classlessness, telling the 76ers’ Joel Embiid and others that if they don’t like his criticism “they can kiss my a--.”
But everyone loves Sir Charles
and cherishes his every word — or at least we’re told we do.
Also Sunday, the Dolphins signed running back Mark Walton, who arrived last season in the NFL from the University of Miami — a football crime mill fronted by a college for the past 40 years. Last season, Walton played for the Bengals, the NFL’s longtime sanctuary team for criminals, but was waived after his third arrest, a bit premature for the Bengals. Walton, true to both teams’ traditions, this year has been arrested once for felony possession of a concealed weapon, once for reckless driving and resisting arrest, once for misdemeanor battery against a woman. But who hasn’t?
Three arrests in four months. Dolphins coach Brian Flores explained the math to the South Florida Sun Sentinel:
“I think people deserve a second chance. I believe that. I think that’s the case. I don’t want to judge people based on one incident, two incidents. I think it’s a case-by-case situation for a player and just for people in general. That’s kind of my stance.”
And that goes double for running backs! Not until a fourth arrest does a player become “a distraction.”