Mike Bianchi: UF must suspend Callaway vs. Michigan.
Running off at the typewriter … Florida Gators coach Jim
McElwain needs to start by suspending star wide receiver
Antonio Callaway for the monumental season opener against Michigan and then see how he responds.
Callaway is literally and figuratively traveling down a bad road, and it’s time for McElwain and UF’s administration to put a stop to it.
Callaway was cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession early Saturday morning in Gainesville, which, on the surface, seems like a relatively minor offense. However, at the time Callaway was a passenger in a black Mercedes SUV driven by 40-year-old Kendrick
Williams, who has a rap sheet longer than “War and Peace.” Williams has been arrested more than a dozen times on charges such as battery, cocaine possession, drug trafficking, grand theft, and lewd and lascivious behavior with a child 12 to 16 years of age.
First things first: Why in the world is Florida’s star football player hanging out with a
40-year-old career criminal? Secondly, do you want such a reckless player with obvious character issues representing your program?
Let’s not forget Callaway is the same player who was suspended last spring amid sexual-battery allegations. He was eventually cleared during a Title IX hearing held by UF. During that hearing, Callaway testified that he couldn’t have sexually assaulted the woman because at the time of the alleged assault he was “so stoned [on marijuana] I had no interest in having sex with anyone.”
Obviously, Callaway has marijuana issues — not to mention eligibility issues. It seems only logical — based on the marijuana admission during the Title IX hearing and his most recent marijuana arrest — that Callaway has violated the spirit of UF’s substance-abuse policy. That policy calls for a player to be suspended for a second failed drug test. Is there really a difference between failing two marijuana tests and getting arrested once for marijuana while admitting another time in a public hearing that you were stoned out of your gourd?
Not only that, but McElwain has doled out onegame suspensions to two players in the past who were cited for marijuana: reserve tailbacks Jordan
Scarlett and Mark Thompson. It would send an awful message to the rest of the team if he doesn’t hand out the same punishment to his star player. The bottom line is this: If coach McElwain, as he says, really wants to use this as a teaching moment, then he will suspend his star player for the Michigan game so Callaway will understand his football career is on the verge of going up in smoke.
SHORT STUFF: Did you see where Tacko Fall worked out for the Magic earlier this week? Does this mean he’s now been on the court for two college teams in Orlando? … But, seriously, the only way Tacko should make himself available for the NBA draft is if he is sure to be a first-round draft pick. If not, he would be making a huge financial mistake. If he comes back to UCF next season and improves as much as he did this season, he could be a lottery pick next year. … And with the No. 6 pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic take — (drum roll, please) — anybody whose father isn’t a loud, obnoxious, carnival-barking laughingstock. I love my boy David Whitley, but his Sentinel column earlier this week about how the Magic should try to draft Lonzo Ball (and his insufferable father
LaVar Ball) was sheer insanity. Just what the Magic need — another player who already has stated that he dreams of being a Laker someday. No, thank you! …
ACC commissioner John Swofford says the financial woes at ESPN will not affect the Worldwide Leader’s promise of launching an ACC Network in 2019. What Swofford isn’t saying, though, is this: “Anybody can launch a network; the problem is getting cable companies to buy it and put it on their systems.” … Question: Why did Magic coach Frank Vogel wear a playoff beard to the draft lottery? …
Tom Brady‘s wife, Gisele Bundchen, says the New England Patriots quarterback has a history of concussions but yet the Patriots have never — in 17 years — listed him on their injury report for having suffered even a migraine. Deflating Brady’s balls? Let’s hope that the biggest scandal in New England history doesn’t turn out to be deflating Brady’s brain. … Three things more exciting and intriguing than this year’s NBA playoffs: (1) Rice cakes; (2) Waiting for a YouTube video to buffer; (3) Company meetings.
LAST WORD: I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that new FAU coach Lane Kiffin has offered a scholarship to a seventh-grader. The question is, who is more mature: the player who just turned 13 or the coach who perpetually acts like he’s 13?