When You're At Texas, You're Family

...And when you’re family, you don’t get kicked off the team.

In what has apparently become an annual tradition at Texas University, a member of the Longhorns’ defense was arrested for doing something stupid in a car.

In '06 it was Tyrell Brown, who as you may remember was arrested for felony marijuana and gun possession. He of course, had blunt and a gun in his hands at the time. In '07 it was two defensive players, Sergio Kindle and Henry Melton who were arrested on DWI charges. This year the winner was Lamarr Houston, who was flagged for DWI over the weekend.

If you are familiar with my work, you know that I am a huge believer in second chances. And if I am to judge by Mack Brown’s track record, Houston is going to get a second chance (all players from previously mentioned incidents were suspended for a maximum of three games). With that in mind however, there was another Big 12 disciplinary issue that I can’t help but think about right now.

Josh Jarboe, was Oklahoma’s top WR recruit for 2008 and was expected to have a huge impact on the team this season. Some even thought he could be the next Malcolm Kelly. Jarboe however, did not see a single second of play in Soonerville however, because he freestyle rapped on YouTube about “putting meat on girls' grills,” and “shooting people up like pool tables.” Jarboe was not arrested for the YouTube video. In fact, while being stupid, the lyrics were less harmful than your average 50 Cent track. Jarboe was expelled within three days of the video’s airing.

Now, I’m not saying that Jarboe isn’t an idiot. He sure is. But here are the facts: Jarboe did not put his or anyone else’s life in eminent danger. Houston on the other hand, much like his teammates before him, did. Deaths resulting from DWI are more prevalent than ever and the fact that Houston was arrested, and not seriously injured or dead, is honestly a miracle.

Mack Brown has not been very strict with his punishments. And he protected his Athletic Department by saying “one thing we have really prided ourselves on in our program is our family atmosphere, and this will be handled within our family.” Even though that is just a sleazy way to say “everyone gets second chances and we are just going to slap his wrist,” it isn’t Brown or Texas University that is really bothering me.

I don’t understand how we can have two schools in the same athletic conference with such wild disciplinary inconsistencies. But it’s not just limited to the conference. It’s the whole system. Last season, Maryland suspended Josh Portis (who very well could have been Maryland’s starter) for the entire season because of his grades. And on the other side of the country, we’ve got USC athletes getting paid but the program not getting punished, kid’s with DWI’s only getting slapped on the wrists, and a YouTube rapper getting expelled. It almost seems like breaking the law has become second to perpetuating a racial stereotype that may negatively reflect the school.

If schools continue to be so image conscious, it is up to the NCAA to do something they should have done years ago: create a set of guidelines and standards and explain to schools what needs to be done in what instance. That is the only way the playing field will ever actually be balanced and that is the only way that some of these teams will stop getting away with murder. Because you and I both know one thing, If Houston hit a pedestrian, he wouldn't be playing Texas Football.