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A depressing story becomes only moreso, a young man faces a long time behind bars, and this might be the last we ever hear from him.
Today, the bad news comes about Greg Garmon, a former 4-star tailback recruit who went Gone Baby Gone after the 2012 season (leaving Iowa early is sort of what 4-star RBs do, present young bucks excluded). Garmon eventually enrolled at Butte College, a football powerhouse in California and a national juco co-champion in 2013, but did not play. He returned to the Erie area at some point, and there things took a rather disastrous turn. We'll let YourErie.com take it from here:
A foot chase following an attempted home invasion robbery lands three men behind bars.
Vante Husband, 22, Gregory Garmon, 21 and Taron Johnson, 20, were taken into custody just after midnight.
All three face several charges including robbery, plus Husband is charged with firearms not to be carried without a license.
You can take the approach that since Garmon hadn't been a Hawkeye for years, this is Iowa dodging a (metaphorical) bullet—and that's not incorrect—but it's a damn shame that this opportunity he had went to absolutely nothing. Garmon had a bright future, whether at Iowa or wherever else would have him, and now unless there's a stunning reversal of fortune he's probably out of chances. Yes, he's innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but this on top of his previous conviction for marijuana possession and his, erm, itinerant approach to college is going to make it awfully difficult for a college coach to justify offering him a scholarship even if he somehow doesn't land behind bars for several years.
Maybe I'm still overly sensitive to failed attempts to use athletics as a path out of destructive behavior after high school after reading this old Sports Illustrated article about American Indian high school basketball in Montana from back in '91 (I forget who put it on Twitter yesterday, but it's just about the most perfect piece of writing you've ever seen). I don't know. If you want to laugh to keep from crying, chalk this one up to the inescapable, vicious wrath of Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God. I'm not going to stop you. But... just, damn it.