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TCU coach fails to back his own message on drug use

07 August 2012 08:47 PM

It’s that time again in Texas when young men spill gallons of sweat to prepare themselves for the rigors of another season, when every team is undefeated and has a chance to win it all. (That’s football season, by the way. This being Texas, it seemed redundant to specify.)

Optimism should run even higher at Texas Christian University. Our friends from Fort Worth are embarking on their first season in the Big 12 Conference, a long-awaited step up to college football’s big time.

So it’s unfortunate that they opened practice this week with public talk focused on what has become a very public mistake by coach Gary Patterson.

This wasn’t a missed opportunity like failing to score after recovering a fumble inside the other team’s 10-yard line. This was a blown chance to draw a clear line for every TCU football player, present and future, between acceptable behavior and time sitting in the stands.

Patterson was among the mortified in February, when four of his players were arrested and charged in an extensive drug ring at TCU. The university cut ties with those players, who have pleaded guilty and received probation. One of the arrestees, star linebacker Tanner Brock, told an undercover cop that Patterson ordered a teamwide drug test and that 60 players were "screwed." The university responded that only five players failed the test.

Patterson at least sounded unequivocal: "Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Period."

Coach, what if it’s your starting quarterback?

This was the news that broke just before practice began. Casey Pachall, a record-setting sophomore passer last season, was Brock’s roommate. Pachall told police in the investigation that he had used marijuana and tried cocaine and "ecstasy." He also was among the five who failed the Feb. 1 drug test, although Patterson said Pachall passed several others since.

So "will not be tolerated" really means … what? According to the university, it’s mandatory drug education counseling and/or treatment for all first-offending students, which is what Pachall received. To Patterson, it’s apparently that Pachall keeps throwing passes and, hopefully, leading TCU to a big season.

To everyone else, "will not be tolerated" might well depend on how important you are to the team’s record. If a coach is willing to punish - or give a pass to - the starting quarterback, a leader and most valuable player on most winning teams, he cements an attitude, a culture, for the rest.

A driven, successful coach of a rising program had it within his control to back up his tough talk by going beyond university policy for chem students and English majors. Instead, Patterson wasted a chance to prove wrong those doubters who say winning football games trumps all, even at an institution of higher education.

Gary Patterson, then and now

"As I heard the news this morning, I was first shocked, then hurt, and now I’m mad. Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Period. Our program is respected nationally for its strong ethics, and for that reason the players arrested today were separated from TCU by the university. I believe strongly that young people’s lives are more important than wins or losses."

TCU football coach Gary Patterson, after the arrest of four players in February in a campus drug ring

"We’ve been pretty straightforward with what we have done here. … This is not one of those things where we’re pushing it aside. As a parent, as a coach, as a person in charge of young people, I know what it leads to, so you have to fix it, or at least try to."

Patterson, responding to questions this week about his decision to not discipline starting quarterback Casey Pachall for admitted marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy use

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20120807-editorial-tcu-coach-fails-to-back-his-own-message-on-drug-use.ece

Patterson is just preparing himself to try a run at becoming the hc for the whornes.

Go Ponies!!

Everyone is a man of good character when things are going well. We all have a pretty good idea about Fatterson's character. He saw the final number and names from the drug screening and made a decision. Whether that number was 5 or 85, Fatterson made a decision that was in his best interests.

Besides the fact these kids play for TCU and any hardship Fatterson faces makes me smile, (I know it doesn't say great things about my character) it doesn't seem right to create additional punishments for the kids, months later, after they have already served their sentence. We can argue about the terms of the original sentence, but the players did serve the sentece they received. If Fatterson suspended them for some games when he got the report, I would have been fine with it. To start suspending players because Mac "I like to play Patterson's shriveled Frankaphone" Engel had a thought of his own for the first time in years and the DMN wrote articles is just garbage.

One doesn't know all the details. A positive test doesn't tell us what chemical was identified. And the kid did have to undergo some rehab/punishment for his positive test. Patterson made a decision based on the facts and situation. We can argue all we want about hypocrisy and such but we don't have the details Patterson had.

And pot, coke and ecstasy have been tried by thousands if not millions of college kids. Not saying it’s right but the temptation to try, and the experimentation of youth can be powerful.

I am for giving a kid a second chance. We all made some less than stellar decisions when in college (or through our youth, into middle age and continuing to this day).

From what I have read Patterson followed to schools policy on first time offenders. If he does it again then I believe it states that he will be suspended. First he has to go through rehab. I hope for the young man's sake that he has stopped the drug use.

Rebel10 wrote:From what I have read Patterson followed to schools policy on first time offenders. If he does it again then I believe it states that he will be suspended. First he has to go through rehab. I hope for the young man's sake that he has stooped the drug use.

I agree.

if you have a problem with the policy, that's your right. but GP followed the policy, which happens to be in line with a large number of schools.

stc9 wrote:Everyone is a man of good character when things are going well. We all have a pretty good idea about Fatterson's character. He saw the final number and names from the drug screening and made a decision. Whether that number was 5 or 85, Fatterson made a decision that was in his best interests.

Besides the fact these kids play for TCU and any hardship Fatterson faces makes me smile, (I know it doesn't say great things about my character) it doesn't seem right to create additional punishments for the kids, months later, after they have already served their sentence. We can argue about the terms of the original sentence, but the players did serve the sentece they received. If Fatterson suspended them for some games when he got the report, I would have been fine with it. To start suspending players because Mac "I like to play Patterson's shriveled Frankaphone" Engel had a thought of his own for the first time in years and the DMN wrote articles is just garbage.

As I always say..Circumstances don't make the man...they just reveal him. Fatterson is a hypocrite for not punishing his QB for what happened IMHO.

The funny thing is they open at home against Grambling St.

Fatterson could have easily "punished" Pachall by benching him for a series, or a quarter, or even a half and come out of it looking like a stand-up citizen, but instead he just ends up looks like a [deleted].

Yes, I realize the lack of punishment is the policy, but Pachall's public admissions of doing more than he was technically caught for demand at least some extra token punishment in my opinion - if only to build goodwill with the fans and the new conference.

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:The funny thing is they open at home against Grambling St.

Fatterson could have easily "punished" Pachall by benching him for a series, or a quarter, or even a half and come out of it looking like a stand-up citizen, but instead he just ends up looks like a [deleted].

Yes, I realize the lack of punishment is the policy, but Pachall's public admissions of doing more than he was technically caught for demand at least some extra token punishment in my opinion - if only to build goodwill with the fans and the new conference.

The fans and the new conference have UT in it and they are just doing what UT would have done. But they did follow their policy.

I've heard several sports shows ripping Phatterson for being a total Phony.

This fails to mention patersons sweat rag or how he isn't going to help SMU.

Skillet

GP doesn't have time to hand out punishment. He has been preparing since spring ball for TCU's 2012 Super Bowl at Ford Stadium.

ALEX LIFESON wrote:I've heard several sports shows ripping Phatterson for being a total Phony.

Recently?

Hard to believe that any young person rooming with a dealer didn't know what was going on or even participate. Regardless, he deserves a second chance.

This is great, now the newpapers in Dallas and Ft. Worth are getting into the skillet fight!