In sports most of my commentaries and observations are about teams, players, coaches, and the triumphs and tribulations of a season for a respective team.
Last week the ugly side of sports settled in our own backyard when two of the top football players to ever come from St. Charles Parish, LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson and Tulsa wide receiver/return specialist Damaris Johnson, made news for all the wrong reasons.
Jefferson, the former quarterback for Destrehan, was booked late last week, along with another Tiger player, linebacker Josh Johns, on felony charges of second-degree battery due to allegations of their actions in a bar fight on Aug. 19 at Shady’s Bar in Baton Rouge.
Almost immediately after Jefferson and Johnson were booked and later released on bond, LSU head coach Les Miles indefinitely suspended both players from the Tiger football team.
One week earlier Jefferson was on the cover of The Sporting News’ college football preview.
Miles announced that senior quarterback Jarrett Lee will be the starter for LSU in the season opener against Oregon on Sept. 3.
What actually happened that night in Baton Rouge will eventually be settled in a courtroom, but for Jefferson it slammed the brakes on what looked to be his opportunity to have the breakout season many thought he was on the verge of.
I spent time in July at the Manning Passing Academy where Jefferson was a counselor for high school quarterbacks from around the nation. His workouts drew rave reviews from New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and current ESPN football analyst Jon Gruden.
Gruden, the former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, told me he was excited about watching Jefferson in 2011.
“Jordan really impressed me out there today,” Gruden said. “You have two guys who I think will vie for the Heisman Trophy in Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Oklahoma’s Landry Jones and both those guys will go very high in the 2012 NFL draft and Jordan threw the ball in the same zip code as those two. Jordan’s athletic, he has a strong arm, you can see he has improved his foot work and delivery and he looks like a leader now. I really believe he is going to have a super senior season at LSU.”
Jefferson’s bad judgment of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and his possible actions that night in Baton Rouge have put his career at LSU on hold. It’s anyone’s guess on what happens next.
All of us who have some age on our resume have put ourselves in a spot we shouldn’t have been in or done things we wished we wouldn’t have done.
We are a very forgiving people, but in our culture today an action or an accusation made about a standout athlete is major news and is no longer buried.
Like it or not athletes are looked at as role models by our youth and athletes can like it or disregard it, but their actions do matter to people who look up to them and pull for them.
Jefferson, his family and LSU are now paying a huge price for what looks to be serious charges leveled in his direction.
And the news got even worse as the day grew Friday.
Jefferson’s former Destrehan teammate, University of Tulsa wide receiver Damaris Johnson, was suspended from the Tulsa football team after his girlfriend, Chamon Jones, was arrested last Thursday and charged with a complaint of felony embezzlement.
According to police reports, Johnson used his girlfriend’s debit card to pay for $1,596.09 worth of merchandise, but was charged only $12.91 by Jones, who was working at a Macy’s department store.
The report also stated that Johnson paid 34 cents for $1,238.75 worth of merchandise at another time.
Johnson was brought in for questioning, but released pending further investigation.
The NCAA career all-purpose yardage leader and a second team All-American was suspended from all team activities and Tulsa head coach Bill Blankenship would have no further comment on Johnson after reading a prepared statement about his star player.
Both of these young men were blessed from above with great physical gifts, but both have also worked hard to get to a level of sports play that 99 percent of us could never get to.
Now those gifts have been put on the shelf by actions and accusations that remind us that we are all accountable for our actions.
The very ugly side of sports hit very close to home last week.
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