 "Photo: Charlie Riedel, The Associated Press")
Freshman Oklahoma wide receiver Josh Jarboe was kicked off the team Friday after an obscenity-filled rap video of him talking about guns and shooting people surfaced on YouTube.
This was the last straw for coach Bob Stoops. In May, Jarboe received two years probation and 80 community service hours as part of a plea bargain for carrying a gun on school property at his high school in Decatur, Ga. According to ESPN, an assistant principal caught him in possession of a pistol in the school parking lot.
Many are commending Stoops for kicking Jarboe off the team. However, his dismissal shows a double standard for Stoops and the Oklahoma athletic department in terms of handling player discipline.
If Jarboe had been a proven talent in college rather than an inexperienced freshman, history shows he would not have received such a harsh sentence for his crime.
Take the case of DeMarcus Granger. The junior defensive tackle was sent home before Oklahoma's bowl game last season after being arrested for shoplifting. But he was simply sent home, not kicked off the team. Despite being suspended for some games, Granger is expected to be a part of the football team this fall.
Last time I checked, shoplifting was illegal and making a rap video wasn't. Also, last time I checked, there was an amendment for freedom of speech. If Jarboe's first gun arrest was that big of a deal, Oklahoma should have cut him then and there instead of having him go up to Norman.
Granger isn't the only OU football player to get preferential treatment.
Oklahoma defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek was kicked off the team in September 2004 for getting into a bar fight that resulted in his friend going to the hospital. The friend, Matt Wilde, suffered a head injury and spent several days in Norman Regional Hospital, but decided not to pursue charges against Dvoracek. In January 2005, Stoops reinstated Dvoracek to the football team. Which is worse - a rap video or a bar fight? You make the call.
It doesn't end there. In 2006, star Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson made an agreement to purchase a Lexus, drove it around for several weeks and then returned it to the dealership. Oklahoma found that, since the dealer has a "standard practice" that lets customers purchase a car and then return it, Peterson didn't get an improper benefit, and thus he was cleared without any repercussions.
The car dealership came up with the convenient explanation that customers can sign contracts to drive the cars for a period of time before funding is secured.
That same year, quarterback Rhett Bomar was kicked off the team for receiving payments from Big Red Sports and Imports for work not completed, which is an NCAA violation.
Bomar completed just 54.2 percent of his passes that year and threw 10 interceptions. An Oklahoma reporter said on the radio that the Sooners were fed up with Bomar before the violations even came up.
Peterson rushed for 1,208 yards that year despite missing four games, and he finished second in the Big 12 in rushing yards. But once again, that had nothing to do with why one situation was brushed under the rug and the other wasn't.
There's a lesson here, or at least a comment on OU's values: Don't screw up off the field until you've proven how valuable of a commodity you are on it.
Josh Jarboe's video is available on The Daily Texan sports blog, Views from the Press Box.
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