TCU Football Drug Issues Reportedly Less Severe Than Originally Thought

The TCU Horned Frogs football program is in a lot of hot water right now, but it may not be as bad as we originally thought.

Anytime football players get busted in a drug sting, it's going to negatively impact the program, so I'm not trying to give TCU a free pass here. But, compared to the original reports, the latest update should bring a huge sigh of relief.

Stefan Stevenson of the Star-Telegram reports that five TCU players tested positive for marijuana:

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Five TCU football players tested positive for marijuana and failed a Feb. 1 drug test initiated by coach Gary Patterson, a source told the Star-Telegram. Another 11 had trace amounts within the margin of error, the source said.

Marijuana was the only drug detected. Eighty-six players were clear.

Patterson ordered the tests after a recruit complained of drug use by players and turned down the Horned Frogs' scholarship offer, sources have said.

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While five may still seem like a huge number—and believe you me, at Texas Christian University it certainly will be—it pales in comparison to the numbers we thought we would be getting from this test.

Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari was following the story yesterday and broke an update, citing a Tweet from Trey Fallon of Angry Trey's blog that stated that a much higher number of players would fail the test:

20 players would be a catastrophe for the TCU program, but that isn't even the worst of the numbers. Stevenson cites an arrest warrant in his report that "quoted players as saying 60 to 82 players likely failed the test."

That would have been an incomprehensible amount.

In the end, it looks like TCU caught a break. Instead of 82 failing the test, 86 players passed it.

That being said, the Horned Frogs are not out of the woods. This kind of issue at a Christian university is undoubtedly going to cause a lot of collateral damage.

This is still a situation that needs to be taken very seriously.

That being said, it could have been a lot worse.