In a story that is being described as stunning by the college sports media, Tyrann Mathieu, otherwise known as The Honey Badger, has been dismissed from the LSU football team for violation of team rules or the substance abuse policy, depending on which report you read. Or you could’ve just read about Les Miles’ press conference Friday announcing the dismissal.
This story has gotten the blogosphere fired up, especially SEC and LSU related ones. Most of the coverage has centered on how LSU will get by without him or how college football is missing his exciting playmaking abilities. While these are certainly valid points to discuss, it just seems like a majority of the coverage is glossing over the fact that he broke the rules. I mean people are already talking about where he’ll transfer to and how this impacts his Draft prospects. He’ll probably transfer to an FCS school and get drafted lower then he would have, thus costing himself million of dollars. Plus he wasn’t even the best cornerback on his team last year.
There’s a culture around college football where winning is given premium importance and all other factors fade into the background. Colleges will recruit players despite the fact that they might have red flags or a history of behavior issues. They’re not recruited for their academic skills after all. These cultural norms might not go away anytime soon, but LSU dismissing Mathieu hopefully sends a message that even superstar athletes are not above the rules and that there are more important things then wins and losses.
