College Football Strangeness

I haven't discussed it much on the blog but I am a huge college football fan. I went to Auburn University and grew up a big Georgia Tech fan (where my grandfather was a professor for forty years). So I have spent pretty much my entire life watching lots of football in the fall.

And this weekend was one of the best. My Auburn Tigers utterly humiliated the hated Crimson Tide of Alabama. And the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech pulled a huge upset of "The U" (Miami). As I was watching the Tech game on Saturday night, I noticed something very strange. Reuben Houston was in the game.

Many of you who don't follow college football probably have never heard of Reuben Houston. Houston was a starting cornerback on the Georgia Tech football team last year. This past summer he was caught in a federal sting operation and charged with conspiring to distribute 94 lbs. of marijuana. Houston was suspended from the football team, though he was allowed to stay in school and received room and board as part of his football scholarship.

This is where the story gets interesting. Houston kept up his legal response and this past week had a federal judge declare that Georgia Tech could not suspend him from the football team and demanded that he be reinstated.

Needless to say, I would guess that almost every university athletic director in the country is freaking out over this ruling. This case is yet one more example of how our legal system in this country has lost its way.

Is Houston guilty? We have no way of knowing yet. Is playing college football a right or a priviledge? I'd say a priviledge but it is looking that our judicial systems sees it as a right.