Kiffin dismisses 2 players charged in robbery
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Two of three Tennessee freshmen football players charged last week in an attempted armed robbery have been dismissed from the team.
“Clearly, their actions have no place in our program,” coach Lane Kiffin said Monday.
Kiffin said wide receiver Nu’Keese Richardson, 18, and defensive back Mike Edwards, 18, were permanently dismissed from the team, while former starting safety Janzen Jackson, 18, will continue to be barred from team activities while Kiffin awaits more information in his case.
Richardson was the player whose recruitment first got Kiffin in trouble with the Southeastern Conference. Kiffin joked in February that Florida coach Urban Meyer cheated in trying to keep Richardson as a Gator, earning Kiffin a reprimand from the SEC.
All three players were out on bond but kept home Saturday when Tennessee traveled to play Mississippi.
Three victims told police they were sitting in their parked vehicle about 2 a.m. last Thursday outside a convenience store near Tennessee’s campus when two males dressed in hooded jackets, one brandishing a handgun, approached and demanded, “Give us everything you’ve got.”
“The victims stated that they all presented their wallets to the suspects and showed them that they did not have money,” a police report said. “The victims stated that a third black male then approached and told the other two black males, ‘We’ve got to go.”’
The three freshmen were arrested shortly afterward with companion Marie Montmarquet, 22, also a UT student. She allegedly drove their getaway Toyota Prius in which police found a pellet gun and hooded jackets.
The victims identified Richardson and Edwards as the men who approached their vehicle, and Jackson as the one who told them to leave, the police report said.
“After extensive and thorough research of the situation … and considering various disciplinary options, I’ve decided it’s in the best interest of our program to remove Nu’Keese and Mike,” Kiffin said in a statement.
“We hold our student athletes to an extremely high standard on and off the field. Our student athletes must be responsible members of society, and this type of conduct will not be tolerated.”
Kiffin said he hoped Richardson and Edwards “will learn from their terrible decision.”
Richardson, a highly touted recruit from Pahokee, Fla., finished his Tennessee career with six catches for 58 yards. Edwards, a Cleveland, Ohio, native, played in eight games and registered five tackles.
Jackson, a Lake Charles, La., native, has started seven games this season, logging 33 tackles and a forced fumble. He was suspended for the Memphis game for undisclosed reasons, a week after he was named SEC freshman of the week for a strong performance against South Carolina.
177 Comments
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He screwed up, badly, when he fled - especially, with the others. Ask any lawyer, judge, police officer or victim - I'm sure that they will agree with me.
Young people should use this as a learning experience - it applies to situations that one might encounter at any point, and in any aspect, of their life. Running from problems is not the answer.
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Did you ever go to college?
Even if he did know the drugs were there, in today's college environment, getting into a car or going into a dorm room knowing drugs are there is not uncommon at all. To expect that an 18 year old who hasnt been on campus for more than what, one semester, would refuse to get into a car with drugs in it because of his high upstanding character is naive.
The fact is that marijuana is very prevalent on college campuses both in the US and abroad, and to judge an 18 year old's character due to his proximity to it is ridiculous.
Go to your nearest major state college and ask the campus police how many people they cite for drug possession each week. Then ask them how many they catch and don't cite...
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When I played football my coach would have kicked me off the team for doing anything but sleeping at 2 AM in the morning when I was a Freshman. And handed down a 3 game suspension during which I would have learned every crack in the stadium grandstands when I was a Senior.
As for the third player, let me pose a question.
When you are 18 years old, in a new environment a thousand miles from home, with newly found friends who you are still trying to make an impression on, and you walked up on this scene, would you have hung around with the victims at the scene of the crime, or would you freak out and just try to get away from there as quickly as possible?
Now add in the very real situation of being a young black male from the south, in east Tennessee...
Before anyone erupts about racism, Ill tell you that I have spent a lot of time in Knoxville, TN, and whether you want to believe it or not, bigotry exists there and the players know it.
I know that when I was 18 years old I wouldnt have been out at 2 AM for fear that my coach would rip my guts out and then kick me off the team, but I can also say that if I happened to find myself in the same situation young Mr. Jackson did, I would have likely reacted in the same way, because I was 18 years old and stupid.
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Older people can teach you things if you let them.
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I cut the grass between posts - we have 20 acres, about eight acres that we cut with a lawn tractor - and I thought of this incident that happened when I was 18 or 19. A bunch of my male friends and I were hanging out with the girl that I've, now, been married to for 36 years. Some $#!+ came down and one of those guys was left in a position where he was going to be in deep trouble, and the rest of us would, at least, be very embarrassed. Everyone else took off and left him to face the music alone. My girl and I stayed to support him. I'll never forget the props that we got from his parents. No matter how bad it looked, they knew that we had done the right thing. Those other guys looked like @#$%s.
Nobody on here can change what's happened. All one can do is try to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid those same mistakes themselves.
With that being said, we may never know what motivated Jackson. Who really cares? Sit him, run him and move on - if that's all he deserves. Players are punished all of time for putting themselves in stupid situations.
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At the moment, I would have to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how I'd react if I'd walked out of a store and was surprised to see two of my friends attempting an armed robbery. In hindsight it's easy to say what he should have done; in the heat of the moment, it's understandable if all he could think to do was what he did. Certainly, more information might surface that would make me change my mind. Let's wait until all the facts come out before we ride him out of town on a rail.
BTW, Kiffin is unintentionally comical. It is a sign of the times that a major college football coach could, presumably with a straight face, assert sanctimoniously that he holds his athletes to an "extremely high standard" by kicking them off the team after committing an armed robbery. Is there really a program out there with lower standards - like, you have to actually murder someone to get the boot? Yikes!
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He did it, because they did it. Obviously, Kiffin knows that they did it, he just hasn't decided to tell you yet.
Let's get out of here (before somebody gets caught).
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I feel that Lawrence (156) made some good points. Instead of discussing his thoughts, you made up excuses.
One thing that I have found to be a fact, when a blooger can't make or defend his views, the person will start with the trash talk. Calling someone a "Redneck" shows me that your blog is not worth my time nor effort.
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If he had yelled, "Run!", as a police car approached, would you be making the same argument? Is telling them that they need to get out of there and then fleeing in a car with them that different? Why did he need to flee? Couldn't he have told them to put the gun away, chastised them in front of the victims and tried to diffuse the situation right then and there? That would have required courage and a little thought - both lacking one can digest.
Or, he could have stayed with the victims and tried to assure them that they would be alright and tried to smooth things over. We wouldn't know anything about the entire incident. He could have gone to the coaches and gotten those guys some help and maybe they could all help Tennessee to a descent season. Perhaps the help that they could have received would have been driven home and none of them would ever be faced with the problems that they now have again.
Nope! He jumped in the car and fled with them, he and his coward friends. Stick up for him if you must, but he showed his true colors. Hopefully, you, or a loved one of yours, are not the next victim of someone possessing that logical thought process that put those three guys in the position they're in.
English class,or not, if you want to be understood, you should separate your thoughts to make them legible to those to whom you're directing your comments. That will aid others in their attempt to understand what you're saying. Some might find it courteous, but, considering the kind of 'courtesy' that you're so busy defending...
In the meantime, have a wonderful day!
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Go to town, michael h, he's all yours.
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You feel what you want to feel. Do you just need to be heard? Many of the posts here are aimed at UT and Kiffin and ridding themselves of these evil kids. I'm not in an English class so I do not feel compelled to separate my thoughts into paragraphs for you. I appreciate the little dig you are trying to make about my level of intelligence though. The redneck reference was not directed at you and I could care less whether you believe that or not. You have your opinion and I have mine. I choose to see what the FACTS are prior to making unjustified assertions based upon my parents eyeball test. As of right now, the facts have NOT been examined and been decided upon by a court of law. Hmmm....Funny little thing the Founding Fathers thought up to make sure that people's rights are protected.
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I'd like to think that you have never caught your friends in the middle of attempted armed robbery, or any first degree felony, then jumped into the getaway car and fled the scene with them. That speaks to one's character and is a direct example of the point that I was making. YOU ARE THE COMPANY THAT YOU KEEP. Does one fleeing with his friends from the scene of a felony not speak to their character? Would I have gotten into that car? Absolutely not. It, at least, gives the appearance of duplicitousness. At some point, discretion becomes the better part of valor.
Also, you addressed me at the beginning of your post and then again at the end. I still feel like your entire post #132 was aimed at me. Oh well.
My point has been made
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I did read your posts and the redneck was not aimed towards you but those who choose to throw out their racist jargon. He did not take steps (according to the story) to aid a get away or cover up. If he went into the store to distract the clerk from seeing the situation and prevent him/her from calling the police then said "let's go " upon the clerk seeing them I could understand that. He went to no lengths to disguise himself in the bright lights of a store. After being seen inside the store without any hoody he goes and gets into the car with those who tried to "disguise" themselves using black hoodies? That doesn't make sense. Is it too much to believe that one innocent kid got caught up with 2 criminals and got scared when he saw what the other 2 was doing and said "let's get out of here". Not to me obviously , but I grew up where those things happened sometimes and you found out who you were with after the fact. We still ran home, but we never hung out again. It didn't mean I was part of the crime, but it did mean that I wasn't gonna hang around so that I would be seen as part of it.
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Rhim3264...it's a Tennessee road so don't worry about it. He's our coach so who cares what you think dumbass. Worry about your team and not ours. Do you think UT fans and Kiffin cares that you think this will happen again or we're going down the wrong road with him...LMAO! Will you hold our hands and take us down the right road so we can come stay in your basement apartment with your mom and play chess with your dad? Idiot! Do you think Fulmer thought Donte Stallworth would run over someone years after he left UT when he was recruiting him? Thing is dumbass.....in the end you can't read into a person's mind, otherwise no crime would ever be committed because we could prevent it, hero! Let's switch over to the Eagles' team site and post how Andy Reid is horrible for the signing of Michael Vick....
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