I wouldn't without knowing more.falconman wrote:We will all agree that Matt made a bad choice,
I don't know what Matt did.
It sounds to me like we have at least a handful of posters with disorderly conduct convictions on their resumes.
Let me tell you about mine.
I was at a party once when I was a junior, drinking keg beer and getting nicely blitzed. The occasion was the after party for a collection of student organizations from across Ohio who had gathered in Bowling Green for a conference. And just as I was getting to know a cute freshman from Miami a little better, the cops came in.
The neighbors had called. The party was too noisy. Chaos ensued, with the cops telling everyone to go home and people scattering in all directions. And, hell, I didn't want to go home. I wanted to figure out where everyone else was going (including the Miami freshman) because I was having a great time. But it was pretty chaotic. So I kept hanging around on the edge of the front lawn, trying to figure out which bar this party was going to head to. A cop told me a couple of times to leave. He was pretty direct about it, and he wasn't showing much of a sense of humor about it. The second time, he stuck his finger right in my chest pretty firmly and told me to get lost.
I wasn't taking that too well. Also, I knew a couple of cops in town, so I was curious who this guy was.
So I stepped in front of him asked him what "his badge number" was. I wasn't belligerent about it. I was very polite, in fact. But those were my words.
Of course, it was big, big mistake. And totally stupid. But, like I said, I was pretty hammered.
So the cop put the cuffs on me and put me in the car for disorderly.
Natch, a couple of weeks later, I pled guilty. I was a few weeks short of 21, and they could have always added that extra charge.
Was what I did dumb? Yeah. I see now the guy was doing his job. Maybe he got his ass kicked at a party or two in the past -- and while I wasn't belligerent in the least, I was bigger than that cop, and maybe he was a wee bit wary.
And maybe he was just having a bad day.
Anyway, if I were a football player, should the coach suspend me for something like that?
I don't think so. That kind of stuff is nonsense. IF a kid can't get boozed up in Bowling Green underage ... uh... how would we ever field a hockey team?
I figure whatever it was that Matt did had to be more obnoxious than whatever it was I did.
But I don't know. So I'm not jumping to conclusions.




