Mine Is Not A High Horse

You only need to read the first article in the Seattle Time's "Victory and Ruins" segment this week to get the sense that former University of Washington and Seattle Seahawks and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Jerramy Stevens probably isn't a guy that you'd want to hang out with.

The article details how Stevens was convicted of felony assault when he was in high school in 1998 and spent three weeks in jail for violating the conditions of his house arrest by testing positive for marijuana.

In July of 2000, Stevens was arrested on suspicion of rape. Four months later, Stevens crashed his red Toyota pickup truck into Donald Preston's Dodge Daytona on I-5. Five days later, the King County prosecutors office announced that rape charges would not be filed against Stevens.

In May of 2001, four months after Stevens and his UW teammates won the Rose Bowl, Stevens crashed his red Toyota pickup truck into the side of a retirement home.

Some, like PFT.com's Mike Florio, have read the Times' article and want the coaches at the college and NFL level who continually gave Stevens a second chance to answer some tough questions.

Well, why should the coaches be blamed?

Look, I'm positive Jerramy Stevens is a scumbag, but let's not pretend that Stevens' rap sheet was vastly different from what occurs in or around most Division I college football (or basketball) programs across the country. Or that his off-field activities as an NFL player in and around Seattle (and Scottsdale, Arizona) was different than what happens in other NFL cities.

After knowing of Stevens' off-field antics for the last 8 years, it's clear that the biggest reason he was allowed to continue his football career was the decision by then-King County prosecutor Norm Maleng to not file rape charges against Stevens despite him reportedly having sufficient evidence to proceed with it.

Had he gone ahead with the case, Stevens would have been suspended indefinitely from the football team, making it highly unlikely for him to become a 1st round pick in the NFL sixteen months later.

The sad bottom line is that nothing contained within the pages of the Seattle Times should come as a shock to anyone, let alone a guy like Mike Florio, who has written about the NFL for a decade and is an alumni of the same West Virginia University that has given the world prolific turds like Chris Henry and Adam "Pacman" Jones.

I'm willing to wager US$1 that their stories aren't much different than Stevens'.