Traffic fines lead to football player arrest warrants
Sports Analysis
Petty traffic fines are escalating into big problems for Georgia football.
In an offseason riddled with arrests and legal dilemmas, seat belt fines and other miscellaneous traffic violations fall near the bottom of the totem pole when referencing crime within the troubled program.
Of the 129 members on the Bulldogs’ current roster, 68 of them have accumulated traffic violations of varying degrees in Athens, with multiple players ticketed on several occasions.
Generally speaking, this should not be an issue affecting the team — although refusing to wear seat belts in cars or helmets on scooters is never in the best interest of personal safety.
With thousands of traffic violations handed down to University students every month, football players are not in a unique legal predicament.
Ticket Disaster
· Of the 129 football players on the online roster, 68 total have been issued ticket violations of some sort.
· 15 players have received seat belt violations, with select players earning the violation multiple times. Four of those seat belt violations escalated in arrest warrants.
· Eight arrest warrants have been issued for six different players since May 2009, each stemming from speeding fines, seat belt violations or emerging alley violations.
· Six players on the online roster have upcoming court dates in September, with the first coming on Sept. 6.
— All statistics were acquired at the Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court.
The notable difference: most young adults pay these traffic fines by the due dates.
As was the case with sophomore running back Washaun Ealey, whose arrest warrant was issued on Aug. 16 after failing to pay a $240 speeding ticket or to appear at his July 12 court date, major troubles are stemming out of minor difficulties.
And this apparent lack of individual responsibility may not be an isolated incident.
Over the past two years, eight separate arrest warrants have been issued to six football players for various traffic violations. Three of those warrants were issued in the month of August 2010 alone.
The original tickets ranged in fines of $15 seat belt violations to a $191 speeding ticket without a license, but the refusal to pay for the tickets on time caused fines to escalate to as high as $341.
In the numerous cases of refusal to wear a seat belt — 15 current players have been ticketed for seat belt violations, many on several occasions — a $15 slap on the wrist inflated to a $165 fine following Athens-Clarke County’s $50 late fee and a $100 arrest warrant.
The fact that numerous arrest warrants are stemming from speeding fines and seat belt violations, with another one potentially pending for an unpaid stop sign violation, verifies that something is amiss in the realm of personal accountability.
Mark Richt explained over the weekend that the program has a system in place of running driver’s licenses to identify impending tickets and legal problems.
However, if the Athletic Association is indeed using the identical research method as The Red & Black did at the county courthouse this week, then they too would have found an abundance of deficiencies going unaccounted for among several players.
And if there is a specific system in place, how does it allow enough time to pass that arrest warrants are being issued on athletes’ behalf? Why has this become a recurring issue?
Simply identifying legal hiccups does very little unless action is taken to solve the matter.
Even though this system being utilized by the football program is not effective — eight arrest warrants for 68 ticketed players is a borderline disaster — there should not have to be a system in place at all.
Young men in college should not have to be coddled into remembering to pay their tickets — that should not be Richt’s concern after each practice.
When you make a minor mistake on the road, just quietly pay your fine before it escalates into something consequential.
If the Athletic Association insists on having a system in place, it should be based on this effective crash course: Pay your traffic tickets and attend your court dates.
Georgia football players have six court dates upcoming in September for similar driving-related circumstances.
In the future, if these athletes want to help avoid incidents such as Ealey’s predicament the responsible act would be to make it into the courtroom on their appointed dates.
Furthermore, an easier solution would be to pay these fines before late fees and court dates even become involved — meanwhile saving money, effort and even playing time.
Petty fines should simply be a miniscule hit to an individual player’s bank account — not a significant loss for an entire team on Saturdays.
