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Cam Robinson Suffers and Benefits from the Power of College Football

By Ben Richardson

Sep 5, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Cam Robinson (74) in game action against the Wisconsin Badgers at AT&T Stadium. Alabama won 35-17. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Cam Robinson (74) in game action against the Wisconsin Badgers at AT&T Stadium. Alabama won 35-17. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports /
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“Your hard earned tax paying money is not worth prosecuting someone with a half gram of marijuana…”

Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones had drugs and weapons charges pressed against them in May while in Monroe, Louisiana. We all know the rhetoric that followed.

First.

“When will they ever learn?”

Then.

“They’ll get away with it because they play at Alabama.”

And, yes they got away with it, but is that how you should view it? It is so easy to read the headlines without catching the story in between. The knee-jerk reaction is to say that they only got away with because they are Alabama football players.

But how did we get from weapons and drugs charges, to charges dropped?

The local DA, Jerry Jones, summed it rather simply.

“I want to emphasize once again that the main reason I’m doing this is that I refuse to ruin the lives of two young men who have spent their adolescence and their teenage years, working and sweating, while we were all home in the air conditioning,” Jones told the local news station, KNOE.

I’m not even sure what that means other than “I don’t care.”

Most will look at it as an old school DA letting some kids off because they play football in the SEC. What if I told you that the only reason they were in there is because they played football in the SEC? What if I told you the charges were so improbable and unnecessary that there were 2 other people in the car with Hootie Jones and Cam Robinson that were allowed to just walk away from the incident?

Because that is exactly what happened.

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Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones were in the vehicle with 2 other young men, and apparently the parked car they were in wreaked of marijuana. So, naturally, the officer goes to the car and proceeded to find a half gram of marijuana. A half of a gram. Your hard earned tax paying money is not worth prosecuting someone with a half gram of marijuana, but this where the reported “drug charges” stem from.

Now, on to the “gun charges” of the headlines. Why Hootie Jones had a gun in his lap, I don’t know. I don’t know the neighborhood, and I don’t know the circumstance, but I do want to point out Attorney Joe Guerriero is quoted as saying, “Mr. Jones is the one who called it to the police’s attention because he didn’t want anything to happen.”

Let’s catch up to where we are in this story. Hootie Jones, Cam Robinson, and 2 unidentified people, in a car, smoking weed with half a gram of weed in the car. Meanwhile, for whatever reason, Hootie Jones has a gun in his lap. He notifies the cop, and the cop is made aware of Hootie’s possession of a weapon in an effort to prevent violence.

Ok, so from this point, the cop decides he has enough to search the car. Guerriero would argue that wasn’t enough to perform a search but I’m not upset about it honestly. Now, the cop went on to find a stolen firearm under the seat and Cam Robinson was hit with 2 misdemeanors and a felony charge.

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There was no proof that he was the one who put the stolen firearm under the seat. Even if he had touched it, Guerriero is quick to point out that it’d be impossible to tie him into stealing it, or proving that he knew it was stolen.

These charges were so petty and so weak in evidence, I’d argue that the only reason they were arrested in the first place is because they are big time football players in the SEC.

I’m sure that the policeman was notified that they were football players at the University of Alabama, and with all of the commotion going on the world of college football, I’d argue that the policeman may have been instructed to handle with extreme caution. Extreme caution in this case meant bringing them in for even the most likely of charges to cover the policeman’s own butt.

If the release of the other 2 people in the car doesn’t make that a dead give away then I don’t know what does, but I do know it speaks to a flaw of our society.

We no longer wait to see a story fold out or spend the extra 5 minutes to find out the whole story. We see a headline with college football players and guns and drugs, and we immediately cry:

“Guilty!”

“The system is broken!”

Next: Smart, Muschamp, or Odom

Calm down people. There is a very good chance that you or a loved one has been in a vehicle in which there was a gun and a half gram of marijuana in the car. I’m not saying that is a good situation to ever be in, but have you ever had a friend that liked to smoke weed? Have you ever had a friend that liked to hunt, or to shoot guns? Have you ever been in the car with both of them at the same time?

Ok, then.

Luckily, we weren’t the ones playing SEC football and had the world to lose from a quick headline. We here at southboundanddown.com surely questioned Cam’s judgement, but to see what some people were writing about these young men was quite troubling to say the least. Especially without a single step in the justice system having taken place yet other than an arrest. Putting himself in such a situation showed poor judgement, aka the judgement of a 20-year old.

The Greg Hardy’s of the world have ruined our views of the modern day athlete, and the serious shortcomings of a few have led us to rapidly judge the majority. Let’s learn to hold off on judgement based off a series of headlines.

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