Assault rifle incident evokes questions about disciplinary action
By ANDREW ABRAMSON
Alligator Columnist
At 9 p.m., Dee Webb, Andre Caldwell, Reggie Lewis and Kenneth Tookes celebrate a season of 10 victories and nearly zero police reports.
Proud parents smile and rejoice with Urban Meyer at the team banquet - the already legendary disciplinarian had done the unthinkable.
Team barbeques and sing-a-longs replaced late-night brawls, while mug shots were confined to the media guide.
Just hours after the banquet, police see an AK-47 and other serious weaponry through Webb's sliding glass door, and Tookes, much like Dick Cheney, learns a valuable lesson in gun safety. Do you know where your football team is?
If you haven't heard this stunning saga of football players and assault weapons, here's the quick version: A shot was fired into an occupied apartment at The Cambridge apartment complex Feb. 11. Gainesville police Sgt. Keith Kameg said residents saw Webb, Caldwell and Lewis roaming around the premises carrying a gun case. After police officers saw Webb's stash of goodies in plain sight, they entered the apartment.
Eventually, Caldwell's SUV pulls up and a drunken Webb stumbles into the apartment, demanding to be handcuffed and hauled away to jail.
But sadly for Webb, police discover the guns are registered to the former UF player. The police then inform Webb he won't be the martyr for the overrated cornerbacks preparing for urban warfare cause.
See folks, the Fun-N-Gun didn't leave with the Ol' Ball Coach.
As for Tookes, it appears he won't escape the legal system. He will likely be charged with inadvertently firing the gun, an unfortunate accident, said his uncle Lawrence Tookes.
Now parents, coaches and the public ask themselves: What went wrong here, and why do football players have AK-47s in their apartments?
Granted, our Founding Fathers made sure Webb had a constitutional right to possess those weapons - because we all know the British Army is in hot pursuit of Webb and his slippery hands.
But is anyone else disturbed that Webb apparently walks around an apartment building full of college students reportedly drunk and carrying assault weapons?
It really makes you scratch your head and wonder what else these athletes do with their free time - I hear bomb-making really helps fill the time between the bowl season and spring practice.
Perhaps, we'll find out more details when the police finally release its report and Meyer makes a statement. It's not like football players are the only students with guns, and an AK-47 sure makes you look like one bad mother, if that's your prerogative. But why would kids with NFL aspirations and public lives even think about playing with guns, and why were the guns loaded?
"Even though they're living off campus, they're at the University of Florida on scholarship, and they're football players purchasing a gun of that magnitude," said the Rev. Herbert McGraw, stepfather of UF receiver Dallas Baker. "That's just a no-no."
While UF coaches should consider this a serious dilemma - much more disturbing than your typical Channing Crowder fight - I hope Meyer doesn't revoke Tookes' scholarship. You'd hate for a kid to lose his chance at a college degree just a year before graduating, and there's no reason to doubt Lawrence Tookes when he described his nephew as a good kid with no prior record.
But someone needs to be punished, and Webb already announced his intentions of entering the NFL Draft.
It's no secret how Meyer feels about behavioral issues, so it seems logical that Tookes will serve as the scapegoat - his seven receptions for 54 yards last season will hardly be missed.
But this problem far exceeds one accidental pull of the trigger. If it comes to light that Caldwell, Lewis or any other football player acted carelessly with weapons, he should be penalized as well.
No player with Caldwell's prestige has been tied to a crime in the Meyer era, so it will be interesting to see if and how the coach disciplines his star receiver.
I'm not ready to raise the national security level to blue and eavesdrop on the Gators' phone conversations, but how can you not feel disturbed about a tale complete with football players, assault weapons and crowded apartments?
