NCAA Football: Arrest of Notre Dame's Michael Floyd Shouldn't Hurt Reputation

In the world of sports, or any other media-fueled domain, it's nearly impossible to make news without doing something wrong or incredibly stupid.

In college football, making the news for winning can take up some internet space for the fall. But during the spring, news of arrests and player misconduct, as well as tons of scandal and fraud, break out as obtrusively as the pollen in the air.

This is the case for Notre Dame's All-American senior receiver, Michael Floyd, who was arrested early Sunday morning on suspicion of drunk driving.

Floyd's arrest made headline news on most sports media outlets. For those who don't look further into an article than the headline, a shake of the head and a quick, shallow and opinionated response ensue.

The news of NCAA athletes constantly getting into all sorts of trouble—thanks to the emergence of the NCAA "Gate", as well as social media's ability to swiftly disperse lethally consequential information—has increased, and is frankly making even the most die-hard college sports fans sick to their stomach.

We wonder why these highly regarded citizens apparently are so blind to their own purpose, and constantly find ways to prove their ignorance and selfishness to the world.

I've even once claimed that any highly gifted athlete that has the potential to make millions of dollars should take the responsibility to avoid any type of activity that could potentially hinder their own career.

I've bashed professional athletes for their foolish antics many times before. As a Georgia Bulldogs fan, I've bashed enough Bulldog players to count on ten fingers—per year.

But, in Floyd's case, I'm sympathetic, and supportive. Anytime an All-American athlete does something stupid, it sticks with them and stings for a while.

He was arrested for a DUI as a 21 year old adult. Is it against the law? Yes. Does this make him a horrible representative of Notre Dame? Possibly. Eh, most likely.

But what we are already hearing in blog chatter is that this arrest, being Floyd's second, will drastically impact his draft stock next spring.

I just do not see how this can be so. Yes, he had an incident just a year ago that was a little sketchy, where he was apparently involved in a fight. And yes, he's been caught with alcohol as a minor.

But Floyd is a college student. If anyone gets on their high horse and says he needs to stop partying and hit the books, you better be just as much of an ideal citizen, or something of a saint.

It's reality. People get in trouble for doing dumb things. My personal philosophy is that smart people get caught doing dumb things, and dumb people get caught doing dumb things.

The case of Adam "Pacman" Jones, throwing money around in a club in the wee hours of the night is one that baffles me. Many other strange stories of off-field misconduct rival that level of stupidity.

But anytime a college football player (especially an upperclassmen who's over 21 years of age) gets arrested for a DUI or the like, things seem to fly a little bit out of proportion.

I watched as Georgia fans urged the school to kick wide receiver Tavarres King off of the team after he was caught by police with alcohol (as a minor, in a vehicle) during the offseason.

I've hated a lot of Georgia players for doing dumb things, but King is actually a pretty level-headed kid who's smart, works hard and overall has stand out character.

I see this Michael Floyd situation in the same light.

Internet users are already calling Floyd a self-neglecting waste of talent.

Nevermind the fact Floyd committed to his senior season at Notre Dame to continue his education, receive a degree and lead the Notre Dame program back to prominence.

And we can all trust that he's matured since his earlier days of misconduct.

Sure, we don't know all of the details (thanks to Notre Dame, as a private institution, withholding all of the information we want to get our hands on).

But, unless any developments come up of Floyd doing something completely crazy, we shouldn't knock down his stock from where it is now.

Hopefully, it will all blow over.