Apparently, at least one of the UK football players has decided to emulate the neighboring Cincinnati Bengals a little more than Coach Brooks would like. That's right folks, UK wide receiver Steve Johnson has been arrested after a traffic stop, which is fantastic news... really, it is.
Judging by the various reports, the Lexington Police didn't get their man without a fight. According to the Herald Leader and the Courier Journal, when Johnson was pulled over, he was:
- Driving without a license - Driving with expired tags - Driving without insurance - Not wearing a seatbelt
Now that's a great way to get the party started, but it didn't end there. After he was stopped, it was discovered that Johnson had a warrant out against him for failing to pay a fine from a previous traffic incident.
This led to Johnson pulling away from the police and being wrestled to the ground; effectively adding the charge of resisting arrest to his rapidly growing laundry list of offenses.
Was he trying to channel Chris Henry at the time?
Johnson was released after he made a restitution payment of $572. This covered his bail, previous traffic dust-up fine and the court costs associated with that. Johnson is also scheduled to be arraigned at 1pm this afternoon (8/30/07).
Now for the surprising part: the word out of UK and Coach Rich Brooks is that Johnson will not be suspended for last night's actions. In the Leader, Brooks is quoted as saying:
"We will deal with those issues internally. We will let
the case resolve itself. Stevie Johnson has been nothing but an
outstanding citizen since he has been here and I expect that will
continue."
Make of that what you will but all I have to say is Johnson is lucky Roger Goodell has no sway over UK or college athletics because if he did, Johnson would not see the field for sometime. Considering how much image plays apart in the Michael Vick/Pacman Jones/Cincinnati Bengals era of athletics we now inhabit, a lack of a suspension for Johnson, if only for one game, is pretty surprising.
In Johnson's defense, he stated he was on his way to the UK Hospital to see teammate David Jones who just had emergency surgery for a burst appendix when he was pulled over. If he was in an emotionally upset state, I can kind of understand the resisting part, but driving with all of those potential citations is really stupid.
As it stands, we can expect to see Johnson on the field Saturday when the Cats play Eastern Kentucky (hey, I know it's a cupcake but defending champ Florida is opening up with Western Kentucky, so there).
Until the end, evidently. Don't get me wrong, I want Johnson to play as well, but he should have to sit out at least one game... I guess Brooks thinks Johnson was emotionally disturbed by Jones' emergency surgery...
it would have been no big deal until it was discoverd he outstanding warrants for failure to be responsible for his actions and then resisting arrest. If he just would have said "really!!! I was unaware of that. Officer can you give me the information so I contact the Clerk so I can get that taken care of I would appreciate it. I would bet all the money in my wallet at this moment, and let me tell you folkd I could upsize my next meal, so we are talking big bucks, they would have issued him a summons or appearance bond with a $25.00 additional fine. You see folks be nice to the Police and in most cases thy will issue an appearance bond or summons instead of taking you in because they it was over failure to appear for traffic citations in whihc the cops do not want to have to drag your sorry butt all the way to jail and spend 2 hours on paperwork nor does the on duty captain in charge of traffic. Now he has to deal with everything
I was a UK Student back in the late 70's. I was pulled over by the Metro police just after midnight on July 4th. I had just left work riding a motorcycle. I was most likely speeding by 5-10 mph. I did not have proof of Insurance with me. Multiple police cars showed up when I was stopped. I was questioned vigorously about where I had been for the past hour. When I got nervous and put my hands in my pocket. I was slammed to the ground. I had no clue what was going on. They began writing me multiple traffic citations and began preparing me to be arrested. Just as they were reading me my rights, another officer came up and whispered some information to the officer that was about to arrest me. The officer that had begun arresting me then relaxed told me that I fit the description of someone who had just robbed a mini-mart. He went on to say, that If I had not been a pain in the *** he would just let me go, but instead he handed me all the citations and released me.
In this interchange, I was never beligerent or never challenged thier authority, I simple put my hands in my pockets. I can say, this was the worst experience of my life. I still shutter to think I was only seconds away from being locked up for attempted robbery and my life would have been changed for ever.
I don't know about you, but I have been guilty of leaving my licence at home on mutiple occasions. I have been stopped without up to date proof of insurance (always had insurance), I have even accidently let a tag expire. My daughter once got a parking ticket driving my car and never told me ab
Obviously, the arrest has been forgotten in the eyes of UK fans. 57-yard winning touchdown catches against rivals have a way of doing that, and perhaps rightfully so. Redemption comes in many forms.
And I've read and listened to interviews w/SJ and he doesn't sound like a typical wanna-be thug by any means. He's engaging and knows how to finish sentences, which is a lot more than I can say for many athletes, black or white or red or any color you choose.
I also know how Lexington police are, a significant percentage of the traffic variety anyway. And I don't doubt the only thing SJ was concerned about was getting to the hospital to see his teammate and a routine traffic stop could have become contentious, if only in the eyes of the officers... especially after his warrant information came up.
The fact that Brooks was so adamant about supporting his player does mean something to me, because he's been known to suspend and remove players from the team if they break the rules, especially after the Hal Mumme debacle.
And if you are thinking Brooks didn't suspend him because he was needed, this incident took place before the EKU game, a game his talents would not have been missed in. Besides, we do have other receivers on scholarship (Demereo Ford, anyone)...
The bottom line is the Coach backed his player and so will I... just next time; please bring your license, insurance and registration Steve. Please.
