Josh Jarboe Got a Raw Deal

Wide receiver Josh Jarboe has been relieved of his scholarship by Bob Stoops and Oklahoma after a video of him that middle-aged sportswriters invariably refer to as "violent" and "expletive-filled" showed up on the youtubes. It does indeed have some expletives, so keep it away from children and those constitutionally prone to fainting spells:

This would be the most insane player dismissal ever if Jarboe hadn't gotten expelled from his high school and charged with a felony for bringing a gun to school. Still, the Wizard of Oddsnotes that Bob Stoops was of one mind Thursday...

"Kick a guy off the team for what he says?" Stoops said. The whole Internet culture frustrates Stoops. "We're starting to talk about everything kids say and do," Stoops said. "Now we're in people's homes, in their private spaces."

...before he was of the opposite mind a couple days later. What happened?

Nothing, really, except public pressure. The only thing that transpired from Friday to Saturday was the further spread of the video online and local sports columnist clucking.

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Berry Tramel, last seen looking drunk at 10AM and comparing message boards to Hitler or something, wrote that "Jarboe's jabbering about shooting people shows that he is undeserving of an Oklahoma scholarship," further blathering about youth culture before striking on what's very likely a false statement:

Jarboe himself took this from private to public.

Except that Oklahoma center Ben Habern appears in the video and has got to be "habe35," a youtube user that had posted two things to the site: the rap and a highlight film of Ben Habern. Jarboe very likely had nothing to do with posting the video, and is guilty only of screwing around with friends who are incautious.

Meanwhile, fellow Okahoman knob John Rohde is offering a "standing ovation" for the dismissal, wondering if Stoops wife 'whispered in her husband's ear, "Would you want our children going to the same school as a Josh Jarboe?"' He further insists that Jarboe's high school coach has no idea what kind of kid he is, at least not as well as Some Knob At The Oklahoman does.

That coach is the only one talking something resembling sense in this situation:

"My players rap," Bonner said. "It's a cultural thing."

Bonner pointed to rap artist and Atlanta native Ludacris, whose new song "Politics as Usual" made headlines this week because of disparaging lyrics against political leaders.

"Ludacris can say whatever he wants to say, he doesn't care and he's a man," Bonner said. "To Josh, he (thinks he) didn't do anything (wrong) because he wants to be a rapper. Jarboe said things that are completely typical of a genre of music. He smiled as he did it; he wasn't angry or threatening. He was just a kid screwing around. No one was hurt. Jarboe didn't do anything wrong unless you're the sort of writer who just loves it when poor, unwise black 17-year-olds make bad decisions so you can get on your high horse and write thunder from your perch at a newspaper.

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