Iowa's Assault on Fulmer Cup Continues Unabated

by Oops Pow Surprise on Feb 23, 2008 6:02 PM CST in News Comment 29 comments

Let's get the bad news out of the way right now: WR James Cleveland, two counts of misdemeanor drug possession, one felony count of tax stamp violation.* QB Arvell Nelson, possession of marijuana. Both are, in all likelihood, gone, gone, motherfucking gone. Via the Great Gazoo:

According to police reports, University of Iowa public safety officers found marijuana in plain view on top of Nelson's desk at 2:41 a.m. Nelson admitted the marijuana was his, according to the complaint.
At 3:01 a.m., Cleveland consented to a search of his room, according to the complaint. Police founds 21 units of oxycodone and 24 does of carisoprodol in his desk. Cleveland admitted the pills — for which a label or prescription was not found — were his, according to the complaint. Oxycodone usually is prescribed for pain relief, while carisoprodol is a muscle relaxer.

If you were curious about whether we'd had any warning signs of the bad behavior, why yes, we did. Remember the facebook picture fiasco from last fall? These two guys sure do; they were there! Here they are, posing with Head Retard In Charge Dominique Douglas:

KEEP IT REAL

aaaand

DALE JUNIOR WHAT

If the allegations are true (and based on the police report, that sounds prohibitively likely), then they should be fed to bears. That's probably not the direction that Ferentz will take in this matter, sadly, but we can't be sure yet. We can't be sure because he can't be reached, on account of being on a motherfucking cruise. (Sailboat Bill completely approves, by the way.)

*The tax stamp law is complete and total horseshit, by the way, but the lesson is still the same: do not fucking sell drugs.

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Darwinism in action

I guess having a fellow CBI member go down in flames isn't enough warning for these guys. I like how I read other people (on other boards) blaming the coaches for this stuff; really? it's a coach's fault? For god sakes (counter-Darwinism phrase, but ok for now, due to a lack of better phrasing), what's a coach to do? Don't tell me "don't recruit these type of people" - how exactly do you pick out "these type of people"? Pierre Pierce was a good student without any major history of trouble before he strolled into our state and pillaged the landscape. *yes, I know, douchebag "redacted" made that mess worse - different point for a different time).

These two are stupid. Good bye to them. Sorry they wasted our team's time. I'm sure the coaches feel the same way.

by hdhawk on Feb 23, 2008 7:24 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Not so fast, my friend

Nelson is gone baby gone, no doubt about it and, if all inside rumors are correct, not a moment too soon. But Cleveland is only charged with a misdemeanor. Cleveland's charge is probably less serious than Bowman, who is now back in the program. I'm not condoning our resident idiot (remember the arm band against NIU?), but I don't think he's gone just yet.

by Hawkeye State on Feb 23, 2008 7:50 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

backwards

Cleveland is carrying the felony charge, not Nelson.

Anyway, and it's probably not worth much, because it's personal and anecdotal:

My daughter attended the #1 rated high school in the country. My son is graduating now from #37, or some such shit. I don't much care about that, because I would have preferred that they attend Iowa City West, which USNews doesn't care about. Anyway, the behavior that these Hawk guys were busted for is mainstream for 16 year olds in these high schools, and they are elite high schools. So, WTF? I guess Iowa has to stop mainstreaming its athletes, in regular dorms, and build an athletic dorm so that they can be monitored 24x7, in order to lock them down.

The whole situation is unmanageable because prevailing social norms are a) illegal; b) contrary to the Frank-Armstrong-Football-Hero cartoon version of football.

The question I have is what are the other schools doing? Tell me that Illinois has choir boys for players and I'll laugh like Vicki Iseman at your credulity. They must have them sequestered in some fashion. I repeat, my son's prom queen date at high school #37 in the center of the free world does shit that would get her busted by the James Cleveland standard. This isn't aberrant behavior, it's middle of the road. So, what are all the other schools doing? Is Ferentz simply guilty of treating his athletes like students?

by Bellanca on Feb 23, 2008 8:53 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Sports Marketing Dept?

Maybe at other schools the coaches don't have to do anything, because the school has an army of lawyers and PR folks to bury any/every indiscretion on the part of a player. So maybe it's not so much a matter of what KF & staff are/aren't doing to prevent this type of behavior, but rather what the school isn't doing to keep these things covered up.

by Bucketochicken on Feb 23, 2008 9:23 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Personally, I don't

care what other universities are doing to cover up this stuff, and I mean that with no disrespect to you, bucketochicken. Cover ups just promote escalation. My issue is with the individuals involved.

I know that college is a time of freedom, experimentation and exploration; however, for these athletes, the focus is greater than ever. It's not a "fair" to them to be the focus of so much attention but it's now part of the territory. For every walk-on who gets caught pissing in a alley there's an attention whore picking between school hats in the school assembly on national tv.

You make your choices and suffer the consequences and rewards. The two clowns, even after seeing CBI boy #1 go down in flames, decide to not clean up their act. Bye bye.

by hdhawk on Feb 24, 2008 12:29 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed.

The previous was just speculative musing. I agree though - what you reap is what you sow. These aren't eight-year-olds here.

by Bucketochicken on Feb 24, 2008 12:54 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Let me just add this

HDHawk is 100% correct and I agree with the entirety of his post.

I will also add that to my immediate recollection, I have not seen damage control done by an SID on matters of criminal charges. Sure, there was something like that in The Program, but 1) fuck you Iowa wins in that movie 2) there isn't an athletic department in the nation that doesn't think that the less you talk about criminal behavior by the athletes, the better. You can't bury matters of public record. Not with an active press. And efforts to do so only exacerbate the problem.

No, sadly, Iowa has been an environment of criminal behavior. I just hope it ends soon. That's all I can do.

by Oops Pow Surprise on Feb 24, 2008 1:33 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

and let me just add this

I mean that with no disrespect to you, bucketochicken

That may be my favorite thing I've ever read on this site.
That, right there, is why we do this.

by jebushchrist on Feb 25, 2008 9:46 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Indeed

In the "sentences we never thought we'd type" category...

by Bucketochicken on Feb 25, 2008 10:25 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe, but...

I'm sorry, tax stamp evasion and oxycodone is NOT middle of the road. I understand your point, but this is not something we should look at and say, "Eh, at least its what all the kids are doing nowadays." Weed, fine; it should be legalized anyways. But presciption drugs? And felonies? No, these are not the actions of your average HS or college student. Regardless of where your kids go (btw, congrats on having successful children, although accepting their use of weed / oxycodone may negate their success a bit IMHO).

What these guys did was stupid, and its terribly unfortunate that it happened. There is no way to predict what a kid will do once he gets on campus, but this is an alarming recent trend for Hawkeye athletics. hdhawk makes a good point that it isn't a coach's fault, yet at the same time, Iowa didn't run into these types of problems until very recently (or at least not with the same regularity / severity). So what's the difference? Is it the overall maturity of the athlete? Is it a lack of policing (i.e. public dorms and not a "lock-and-key" athletic dorm)? Is it a complete blind eye by the administration and the coaching staff? Who is to blame?

I'm here to offer the idea that everybody's to blame. Certainly you can't lay everything at KF's feet, yet at the same time, you can't make the argument that he knew nothing without laughing halfway through. Moreover, athletes are being treated like rockstars more and more, especially at places like Iowa (where top-level success is expected rather than hoped for). These kids come out of high school, having been treated like Gods, enter college where they're expected to perform like Gods, and then nobody's there to tell them, "Hey fucktard, you can't do that anymore. They actually care if you break the law here." While we can't expect them to make that connection, we also can't expect the coaches to assume they'll make it on their own. Point being, all parties are to blame, and I'm waiting for KF to acknowledge his fault in all this and work towards changing it. Maybe start offering a "Being a College Athlete 101" class, taught by Pierre Pierce. Similar to the "How to be a Pro Athlete" seminiar that most rookies are forced to attend, it could discuss how one should carry themselves in the public eye (and mention that smoking weed in the dorms is probably a bad idea, but I digress).

Ultimately, I think its terribly unfair for any of us to hang the students OR the coaches entirely out to dry. Both are at fault. These kids are off the team, which is a shame for us as fans, but also a shame for them as individuals. If they're the typical athlete these days, how will they go about getting an education now, assuming no other college picks them up? The system has failed yet again, and its disappointing that nobody is willing to pick up the ball and fix it.

by jason3kidd on Feb 24, 2008 8:48 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Quit blaming Captain Kirk

I don't think the good captain KF is going to make any drastic changes as far as controlling the student athletes lives. He doesn't need to. He's had good kids in the past and he'll have good kids in the future. I honestly think this is just an unlucky series of arrests the past year. Every school has these ups and downs once in awhile, both on and off the field. KF won't make any knee jerk reactions to this like most picky, know-it-all, armchair-coach fans want him to. He's a level headed no bullshit guy that is more qualified for this stuff than any of us. He's not going to come out firing at these kids just to make these same fans satisfied to improve his perception. He doesn't care what those fans think. Stick with him through thick and thin and don't be that hypocrite guy by judging him. That is all.

Duez I say

by Duez I say on Feb 24, 2008 10:44 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

ha

You Anonymous Heroes are very tough and "street". I notice you're anonymous though, which is telling. Smoke all the weed you want. Pop your hillbilly heroin like chiclets. Go for it.
You however, aren't state employees and national representatives of the University of Iowa - the players are. The players to go school on a scholarship which is paid for by the State. That's the reality of it. Stop comparing what you do to what they do. They're not the same as you. If the players want to enjoy the "college experience" and sample some drugs - have a blast. Be free! And be willing to suffer the consequences. And pay your own way through college.

Also, the indication that the athletes are being harassed is fucking ludicrous. If you blast your music in the middle of the night and have drugs laying out in plain view, you deserve to go to jail. Seriously, this behavior is not acceptable.
Enough with that shit.
Jesus.

by jebushchrist on Feb 25, 2008 10:02 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Word

And, let's not forget, this isn't all that different from what other students get.

I had a friend at Iowa who was from Philadelphia. He moved to Iowa City knowing nobody. Not long after getting into town, he was thrown out of the dorm for an Arvell-like infraction. He spent a week homeless - he didn't know anyone other than people in his dorm - until he found a spare room to rent. If you ask him today, I'm sure he would say it was his own damn fault.

During my freshman year, my RA went on an RA retreat and, being the only person over 21, bought a couple of beers for his friends. He was thrown out on his ass in 48 hours. He spent the rest of the year living in a closet. We spent the rest of the year destroying the Currier north 100's.

These are youthful indiscretions, to be sure, but these guys knew the consequences of their actions (they're in the photos; they know what DD is doing now). Sure, it's too bad it ends like this, but that's their fault. Blaming the cops for responding to a call and, you know, enforcing the law is absurd.

by Hawkeye State on Feb 25, 2008 1:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Thank you!

For fuck's sake, that's what I'm talking about! Weed isn't bad, I'll agree with that, but these kids are athletes, being paid to play a game and go to school on the side. It isn't too much to ask that they, I don't know, refrain from using drugs while doing so.

Per my post above, I still think the system failed them, but for the love, common sense should be enough to tell you to not smoke weed in the dorms. And if you get caught, you deserve what you get. The end.

by jason3kidd on Feb 25, 2008 2:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Goddammit!

EDSBS has updated the Fulmer Cup big board, and we're still stuck behind Illinois and Indiana! Can't we lead the Big Ten in anything??

by telepathetic on Feb 25, 2008 1:00 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

it's still early

(mailing an assault rifle to Shonn Greene, waiting)

by Oops Pow Surprise on Feb 25, 2008 1:26 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Overeacting

I understand everyones view on this incident but does Nelson really need to get thrown off the teams for getting caught with some weed in his dorm rood. It seems a little harsh.

Since my friends and I spent our freshman year at Hillcrest ripping bongs like it was our job, my take is slanted.

I heart bobby da hitman

by MacG on Feb 25, 2008 1:24 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Bob Sanders

It's a shame we didn't throw Sanders out of school for his OWI; society would have been much better served. What were we thinking? He was a representative of the State University of Iowa, and we let him get away with acting like a U.S. Senator?

Well, we can get it right, this time. Arvell's going to pay.

I'm Anonymous guy #1, fwiw.

by Bellanca on Feb 25, 2008 2:47 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

again

I don't even understand what you're getting at here. We weren't talking about politicians. I was responding to a couple of ridiculous comments that were insinuating that these players are being treated unfairly and unnecessarily persecuted.
They broke the law. Quit making excuses for them. Stop talking about "how things are today". This is not how things are. This is not reasonable or acceptable behavior.
Further, this comes on the heels of a fifth of the team being arrested over the past year. They didn't just break the law, they were fucking stupid about it.
It's hard to compare what Bob did 8 years ago to what these clowns did. Circumstances were very different. Bob screwed up and learned from it. These guys aren't learning from their teammate's mistakes, or their own.
Get real.

by jebushchrist on Feb 25, 2008 4:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The issue isn't weed, it's responsibility.

And Jebus understands that.

The point of the rest of this article was to demonstrate that Mr. Nelson is not just merely a careless weed smoker, but he has a history of poor judgment, and there appears to be no sign of that abating. All this while Ferentz has had the team on a microscopic-short leash.

Look, I'm not here to rail against the demonweed either; lord knows I inhaled a few times back when. But in those few times:

I never kept any in my dorm room, much less left it sitting out;
I never had loud music playing or otherwise engaged in behavior to bring any attention to the room;
I certainly didn't do so at the risk of a serious responsibility (in this case, football & scholarship). Once you've got something to work for, right then and there, no more toking. And if Nelson doesn't get that, then I'm not sure life on the Iowa football team is right for him.

by Oops Pow Surprise on Feb 25, 2008 4:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It's your site.

I understand the pov of this site, and it's your site.

I'm just saying, Iowa City is some sort of middle class alcohol-debauchery zone, with 15,000 white kids breaking the law Thursday-Sunday, and Sally Mason is studiously silent on whatever it is these kids are doing with their bingeing, and ... Arvell gets thrown into the fire because he committed a moped offense, and then got caught doing what 95% of the NBA does every night of the year.

Oh, and neither McCain nor Obama has a job as a U.S. Senator if you apply these standards to them. Wait, one of them is about to be president! Does this mean Arvell is being held to higher standards than John McCain?

So, Iowa City has a huge generalized problem with adolescent substance (alcohol, other drugs) abuse, but rather than deal with it, we'll just burn some "urban" kids who are visible because they're athletes.

I'll support this zero tolerance policy when the University and Iowa City adopt zero tolerance as their perspective on the 15,000 white kids who are "just having fun" four nights a week. I actually think in loco parentis was a good system, btw. I have no problem if it comes back, and the dorms have moms and dads with the power to send the children home when they do a Bohall.

by Bellanca on Feb 25, 2008 5:31 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Finally, we get to the real root of the issue!

When all else fails, let's make it about race!
I do like the insinuation that somehow we do not allow dissenting opinions on our blog. That's a beauty.
Seriously, you could not make a dumber argument here. No wait, you could if you compared out of control Iowa players to Obama not being a Senator, I suppose.
Oh.

by jebushchrist on Feb 25, 2008 5:54 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Shamed into silence, clearly.

Uh, I like your site. And, uh, no, I don't fight on the internet.

Anyway, I'm not dropping a race card. Apologies if it sounds like it. I don't understand why people are so het up about Arvell being a sophomore-in-college lout, when IC is generalized, officially sanctioned, bedlam at least four nights a week. Ferentz can keep his kids in the Johnson County jail, or bedcheck them before they have dinner, but on this campus, now, you're not going to get to zero tolerance/zero failure. Not going to happen, and why is that a 19 year-old's fault? I just want the same standards applied to Sally Jo Mae Amundsen that are being applied to Ar-VELL.

I don't understand why no one doesn't understand that by the code of conduct applied to Arvell-the-moped-criminal, Obama and McCain are unemployed by the U.S. Senate. This is my simple way of saying, If Arvell is so embarrassing, how about some guy running for President after snorting coke for a decade?

You paid for the mike, I know, and I have already lost the argument.

by Bellanca on Feb 25, 2008 6:15 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Hey, Jackass

Nobody is saying that Arvell should be held to any higher standards per se. They're saying that he deserved the punishment he got (point 1) and that he shouldn't be in his current position (point 2). To simplify, I'll break it down for you, as you seem completely incapable of following along on your own.

Ar-VELL broke the law. He was smoking weed. He laid the weed, in plain sight, on his desk in the dorms. Those are all uncontroverted facts. That you're even wondering why he got in trouble is beyond me. And nobody here is lambasting him for getting arrested for smoking weed (this is point 2, which I'll get to, so don't get your panties in a bunch quite yet). Ar-VELL (um, why?) getting arrested for breaking the law has NOTHING to do with Senator(s) Obama and McCain. They may very well have smoked weed as students. Hell, they may do it still. But thats irrelevant. The situations are so dissimilar that your argument cannot hold true. You're trying to compare apples to oranges, and that's completely unfair. If, say, Obama and McCain had been on football scholarships, were both caught smoking weed, and this particular board applauded their lack of punishment, then MAYBE you could say what you're saying. But until then, drop it. Its dumb. Moreover, we all know that the cops treat athletes, non-athletes, different races, etc. differently. Yet this, too, is irrelevant. Because of point 2.

Ar-VELL is getting a free ride to play a game and get free schooling. With that comes extra responsibilities. Lots of them (namely, not getting caught smoking weed in your dorm room). Because he has these upped responsibilities, it is his duty to be more mature about the decisions he makes. And yeah, because we (at least in part) pay for his education, we have more of a right (duty?) to be pissed when he fails to live up to those heightened standards. What the remaining population of U of Iowa does has nothig to do with the scholarship athletes -- nothing. We could, theoretically, make the argument that EVERY scholarship student owes a higher duty of responsibility, but because we cannot know them all, we focus on the ones we can point out (but I'm sure if the President's Scholars were annually printed and hilighted each time they got a public intox ticket, etc., there would be an interest group on campus complaining about them just as loudly as we do here). However, because the general public (read: fans) doesn't know your average scholarship student, we can only be angry when the ones we cheer for on Saturdays (or Tuesdays, or Fridays, whenever the games may be) get busted. And believe-you-me, we're not mad they got caught smoking weed. We're mad because they ruined the trust we placed in them, and blew their chance to represent the teams we cheer for.

In conclusion. Arvell broke the law. We pay for him to enjoy the benefits of football and a free education. With those benefits comes a higher level of responsibility. He blew that. And now we're pissed. What the fuck are you so confused about? Or are you now going to point and U.S. Senators and random white / black guys to try and confuse the point because you have absolutely no ability to form a coherent argument? Douche.

by jason3kidd on Feb 25, 2008 6:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

[rings bell]

OK. I may have escalated things unnecessarily here. Let's all just cool off. I think everyone's had their opinions heard. We don't have to agree, I mean, thank the gods we don't. We probably shouldn't call names though. I mean, we're all Hawkeyes here. It's not like there's a Buckeye in this wood pile.

Let's agree to disagree and hope this is the last arrest not involving someone peeing in public.

Sincerely,
The MGMT

by jebushchrist on Feb 25, 2008 7:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Jacques Pe'pin

One of my present enjoyments is cooking French provincial food per Jacques Pe'pin and I must say, his memoir has a few amusing cross-cultural notes -- such as douche(r) (infinitive: to shower) and the time he went to the grocery store for a few napkins and made the mistake of buying the SANITARY variety.

It's okay, Arvell is toast, and sorority girls may behave like harpies and camp followers while Bohall --- oh, never mind. I'm baking a killer gratin tonight. Slice those yukon golds in 1/16" sections, butter, heavy cream, parmigiana reggiano, 60 minutes. Just about enough time to finish off a pinot blanc. Did I just admit to doing drugs at the end of the day in my own home?

by Bellanca on Feb 25, 2008 7:50 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs