It's now official, Beckford has been rightfully suspended for the bowl game...and in his wake, Gerald Gooden and Will Lucas thought it'd be a good time for them to introduce themselves to the police.
On Monday night after accruing a bunch of parking tickets, Lucas and Gooden removed the boot from Gooden's (I believe) and took back the property. The problem is, once a vehicle is booted, I believe the police regard that car as theirs until the fines are paid...but if you get that far, usually the tickets and fees are a few hundred bucks.
After taking their car back, the two were arrested for theft. Sweet.
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| Gooden (2) & Lucas (45) |
If you're keeping count, Purdue has two starters already suspended and another with a blown ACL. So now, Gooden, Lucas and Hope await Purdue's ruling on the matter (it was university police, not West Lafayette). My thought is pretty simple- these guys deserve to be suspended for the bowl game.
If they are, either by Purdue or by Hope, Gooden will have played his last game at Purdue and the team will lose its second LB this week.
Perhaps the three seasons in which the team didn't go to a bowl game kept Purdue's players from getting themselves into trouble. In both Beckford's and the Gooden/Lucas cases, the players probably would have been at home had they not been forced to stay on campus. In a roundabout way, they're getting what they want, right? Many players complained about the bowl draw via Twitter...so I'd give these guys their wish and send them home.
There's a pretty good debate raging on GBI and Twitter about the most-recent arrests and how egregious they are. Some are calling the guys thugs; I don't agree with that assessment...but they're definitely two guys who made some silly decisions (not paying parking tickets) followed by a really stupid one (taking the car back without paying the fines). Like Mom always said, you can pay now or pay later, but you're going to pay. As is the case in most crimes, this one would/could only end with the police getting involved as the proof is extremely simple to gather.
The second part of this issue that tweaks me a bit is if a normal student were to do this, what trouble would he be in? I don't think he'd get off by merely paying the parking tickets and boot fine; so these guys should be no different.
I think most of the Purdue football players are pretty decent people...I've met enough of them to make my own opinion about it. Purdue's football program struggled all season to get the fans behind them...and incidents like what we've seen in the last week don't help an already beleaguered program's image. Hope shouldn't wait for the university's ruling, in my opinion, to react to this one...his waiting two days on the Beckford situation was probably too much.
Western Michigan's offense feasted (at times) during the regular season on weak defenses. I really thought they'd struggle to put up a big number versus Purdue. Now, since three starting defenders are potentially out, we might have seen the tipping point that I joked about yesterday.
Out for Little Caesar's Bowl
Beckford (LB)- DWI
Ross (WR)- Academics
Bolden- ACL injury
Awaiting Decision
Gooden (DE)- theft
Lucas (LB)- theft