Anti-Fan: Of clubs, athletes and early mornings

Jim Gordon | The New Mexican

9/4/2008 - 9/5/08

Read The Anti-Fan blog at www.theantifanblog.com

You have to wonder sometimes about the mind-set of coaches and administrators.

Take football coach Bob Stoops, basketball coach Jeff Capel and a couple of suits at Oklahoma University, for example.

Word got out Monday that at least two OU athletes were hurt in a brawl at a Norman nightclub that police said involved guns, knives and tire irons. Naturally, reporters were a mite curious.

Cue Stoops: "I'm not commenting. There was an incident where a couple of our athletes overall were assaulted. Outside of that, there's an ongoing investigation, so until we know more, I'm not going to confirm or not confirm anything."

Ah, the old "ongoing investigation" dodge. Beautiful.

Cue Capel, athletic director Joe Castiglione and university President David Boren — actually, why bother, none of them said anything worthwhile, not even providing the names of the athletes involved.

That left it to the police to identify football defensive end Frank Alexander and freshman basketball guard Ray Willis as the OU players, saying the two sustained knife wounds in the brawl.

Did the OU folks really think they could keep the names a secret — in this day and age? Amazing.

Police said the altercation started about 2:30 a.m. when a group unsuccessfully tried to crash a private party at the club, then began attacking invited guests.

No word on whether Alexander and Willis were in the invited group or the crashers, but watch Stoops, Capel and company spin hard the idea the two are simple victims. Perhaps that's the case, but whatever the facts are, don't expect them to come from OU.

• • •

Athletes, nightclubs and early mornings continue to prove a bad combination. Witness not only the incident in Norman but Tuesday's shooting of Jaguar offensive lineman Richard Collier.

Collier was critically wounded about 2:45 a.m. as he and former teammate Kenneth Pettway waited in a car for two women they had met — yes, at a Jacksonville nightclub.

The Jags have passed the Cincinnati Bengals as the NFL's most troubled team — off the field, at least. Jacksonville has had 11 players arrested in the last two years, including star running back Fred Taylor, charged with disorderly conduct just last weekend.

Head coach Jack Del Rio took issue with any attempt to lump the Collier shooting with the other incidents.

"He was out last night, enjoying himself, having a good time, being responsible," Del Rio said. " ... Listen, a person got shot. The guy who shot the gun is the problem, not the guy who got shot. He's the victim. He was victimized. You ought to be able to go out and have a good time and go back home and not be worried about being killed or being put in the hospital with bullet holes."

Maybe you ought to be able to. But when it comes to athletes, more and more it appears as though you can't.