Adrian Clayborn Does Not Appreciate Your Ethnic Slurs

Remember that one movie for old people, "The Bucket List"? The premise is that there's these old people who create a list of wonderful things they want to do before they kick the bucket. How they came up with the name "bucket list," I have no idea. I'm not old enough to see that movie. Probably because one of the things had to do with stealing buckets.

We bring that up because there should be such thing as a Reverse Bucket List, which is to say, a list of experiences young people should never undertake, because those things will kill them immediately. And short of busting out the Hulk Hogan Leg Drop on a land mine*, there probably aren't any items higher on the Reverse Bucket List than calling Adrian Clayborn the N-word to his face.

That's what one cab driver did 18 months ago, however, and the cabbie was lucky enough to live to tell the tale. Unfortunately, he told that tale to the police, and that was enough to have the legal cloud hanging over Clayborn's head for over a year before Clayborn pled guilty to disorderly conduct this spring.

The "Neutron Bomb" aspect of the case wasn't exactly a well-kept secret around Iowa over the last year or so, but it had never been addressed publicly--by Clayborn or anyone else in the athletic department--until today at the Media Days. Here's what Clayborn told Marc Morehouse:

There was more to it than just the honking. Clayborn said Tuesday the incident turned racial and the N-word was used.

"It’s a racial slur and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get it again, being on the stage that I am," Clayborn said Tuesday. "Now that I know how to handled it, it’s something I learned from. I regret doing it, but I wouldn’t take it back. I think it made me a better person."

Clayborn is from St. Louis. That was the first time he heard that word used toward him in Iowa.

"It was a shock to me and I never dealt with that situation," he said. "Now that I’ve dealt with it, it’ll never happen again."

To Kirk Ferentz's credit, he's stuck with Clayborn through both this and that stupid manufactured controversy by bringing Clayborn to Media Days. Ferentz could have easily said that there was too much possibility for distraction and negative press with Clayborn there--look at DJK's continuing sequestration from pressers--but instead he's demonstrating the value of responsibility and accountability for both Clayborn and himself.

*which, violent as it may be, is one mighty delightful mental image.