You may not remember this story about a Florida high school recruit, Darnell Salomon, who got in trouble while attending last year’s Georgia’s Dawg Night camp. He was charged by UGA police with burglary.
This post isn’t about chastising Salomon – indeed, I have to give him credit for manning up and writing Mark Richt a two-page letter of apology about the incident – but instead to mention that despite the charge, which the kid now apparently admits had some validity, he’s got an impressive list of offers out there. Including one from noted straight talker Nick Saban, who, just this past week, was heard bemoaning the wreckage the new SEC transfer ban on serious player misconduct was going to cause on the recruiting front.
I guess Saban’s figured out if he signs someone who misbehaves later, at least nobody else in the conference will be able to offer a second chance. Give the man credit. He knows how to work every angle.
Get The Picture 
Was an admission in the two-page letter?
Had “some validity”? Is that like the svelte lass, who, while standing on the trolley holding a strap, looks at a guy sitting and reading a newspaper and pouts,” You would think that a gentleman would offer a pregnant woman a seat.”. The guy jumps up and she sits down, whereupon the guy queries,” I saw you get on, and with your great figure, I didn’t see any indication, but how long have you been pregnant?” She replied, “About an hour and, boy!, am I tired.”
If the warrant is still outstanding, guess he ain’t coming to DawgNight next month. Maybe he’s looking for an invite by writing the letter this late(early)?
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I guess he was apologizing for wasting Richt’s time, then.
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Can anyone say what happened to the warrant? Were the charges dropped?
Just seems strange that there isn’t much after the initial story…maybe someone will ask him about it at the Army All-American game.
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I actually agree with Saban on this, I think we can be a little quick to write off a kid because he’s arrested and not see what the outcome actually is. You are innocent until proven guilty, after all, in ‘Merica. I have no problem with CMR kicking a guy off if he’s arrested, because it his team and his standards, but that shouldn’t preclude another team from picking him up, especially if the kid was never convicted of anything. Shouldn’t hurt the kid in the employment marketplace, why should it in college athletics?
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I don’t have a problem with Saban recruiting the kid either.
I just wish he’d quit whining about how tough they’re making it on him with things like the new transfer rule. He’s not having any problems at all – except with public perception when things like signing Jonathan Taylor blow up in his face.
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Why would someone who’s innocent write a letter of apology?
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Give the kid and/or his advisors credit.
However, where the $&);:! Is Jimmy Williamson? Isn’t this his jurisdiction? We should pillory Mr. Arrest-you-for-no-middle-name. That letter should be States evidence and an admission of culpability.
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If he didn’t do it, he sure is close to the person that did.
http://onlineathens.com/sports/college-sports/2014-10-07/update-warrant-accused-football-recruit-continues-use-iphone-he
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Yeah..remember that disturbing story now. If Saban really needs this kid then he’s one needy man.
UGA will be smart to accept his apology and never contact him again.
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I agree with Jonathan…to a point. My problem is that the asshole lawyers will drag the case out over 4 or 5 years…or easily whatever eligibility at kid has left. So you could really wait an entire college football career before finding out what the outcome is.
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When you need one you may rethink that terminology.
just sayin’
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I am sure someone will take my money…Hell–I’ll just call the Strong Arm from TV. 🙂
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“… asshole lawyers”? Us assholes are offended..
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Pobrecito!!! The services rendered never seem to match the price…I’ll be sorry for offending you when two are closer. 🙂
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Honestly..the kid need some help. I fear that someone that goes into a girls room and “watches her sleeping” and explains, ” because I saw you naked” and continues to use the stolen merchanidise will probably do something very regrettable if he isn’t helped. I know girls that would have shot him..thank goodness THAT didn’t happen..imagine the fallout from something like that. But it very well could have. This isn’t some minor infraction by an immature kid..it’s a dangerous and scary event, all around.
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Very creepy indeed. I would not want him on my team, theft is the last thing I would be worried about.
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I think it’s a shame he wasn’t shot. If anyone breaks into my house and I am home and catch them, they will spend the rest of their life there.
The kid sounds like a straight up thug to me. He’ll be dead or in prison within 5 years regardless of whether or not he plays football. His actions were not a “mistake”, a mistake is walking into the wrong room because you got confused on the room number. His action was a deliberate criminal activity, he knew what he was doing was illegal and wrong and he did it anyway.
If Bama needs a kid like this, they are much more desperate than I thought they were. I wouldn’t take this kid if he was the second coming of Herschel Walker.
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Agree with both your posts, Ug. Wonder if the forgiving posters among us, including the Senator, would feel any different if the coed was their own daughter? Adding the lies, continued possession of stolen property and the stealth enacted on a woman’s privacy at past 3:00AM, what lies in his background that we don’t know about?
Nothing grates me more about a person than if they steal. Everything else about them is rendered false in that one act. It isn’t a kneejerk action like loss of temper, but something that is thought about and carried out against society.We didn’t tolerate it from Nick Marshall and Co, so why would we say Darnell is free of complications to recruit? We got pictures that show him in another dorm sneaking to steal and a location of the stolen property at his address after an identification of him by the victim(s).
To you who say he isn’t convicted yet, neither was Jonathan Taylor when Nick recruited him so what the fuck were you fussing about then? Neither are people who sit in jail awaiting trial. Just bail them out and recruit them if you have to see “convicted” stamped on their forehead before determining they may not be of the character as a teammate or represent your school with a number on their back . If a kid is a gifted athlete, doesn’t it occur to you that he still has to work in the same society that he has shown antisocial actions against? Help, indeed. Several throw up their hands and say,”Yep! – so what?”. Niiice.
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Exactly what am I forgiving here?
If you think there should be a rule that any kid charged with a crime should not be allowed to be recruited or to receive an athletic scholarship, knock yourself out. But don’t get on your high horse and pretend that anyone not following your fever dream approves of what this kid is alleged to have done.
I’d also appreciate it if you would leave my parenting skills out of your moral perch. It’s none of your goddamned business.
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You had a problem with Jonathan Taylor being recruited by Saban at Bama and he wasn’t convicted. Thought you had a problem with Auburn recruiting Marshall and Louisville recruiting a UGA reject, but they weren’t convicted either. Now you say that you have no problem with Saban recruiting Darnell in one breath and in another chastise Saban’s parsing of the words in the SEC agreement about recruiting such players. In fact, I thought that the “charged with a crime” was part of the words that Saban used that you seemed to poo-poo a couple of days ago. My mistake for being confused as to your purpose or meaning.
If anyone on here has no right to speak of parenting skills, it’s me, but that’s a reach for you to say I’m criticizing yours. And by that measure, my “fever dreams” are none of your goddamned business, but if that serves your purpose to create a dust up, have at it. I guess “high horse” has been elevated to carry one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse now. Sheesh!
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The “problem” I had with Taylor going to ‘Bama was I thought Saban was making a huge error in judgment.
You confuse my mockery of coaches doing what’s expedient with my personal sense of morality. As long as the rules don’t prohibit the transfer, or the signing, my moral compass really doesn’t matter.
What I’m jabbing at Saban about is his complaint about the rules confining his ability to attract talent to campus. It’s really not an issue, as his examples of Marshall and Newton demonstrate. As does the kid who’s referenced in this post, I think.
If you don’t want your opinions to be the subject of other’s comments, best you keep those to yourself instead of posting them.
As far as creating a “dust up”, what I keep private from the blog is that way for a purpose. Unless you’re going to tell me that me not being bothered by one of my daughters being subjected to the threat of an intruder with a knife wouldn’t make any difference to you… in which case I can’t say I’d understand why you brought it up in the first place.
Sheesh, indeed.
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Senator, I don’t think Cojones was trying to delve into your personal life or judge your parenting skills. I think he was just trying to show that what Solomon did was a very big deal. If I caught a stranger in my daughter’s bedroom looking at her, either I would kill him or he would kill me. An act which I would kill a man over is a very big deal indeed. The guy is a POS thug who if I were a HC would never let on my team. However, winning is the only thing to some HC’s and they are more forgiving than me I guess.
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I recognize that it was a clumsy rhetorical device. But think about the choice of answers he was trying to solicit. One answer means I’m a hypocrite; behind Door Two lies “what kind of uncaring parent are you?”.
Ironically, it’s the same kind of bullshit Bulldawg165 pulled during his infamous temper tantrum about the Taylor situation. I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to play the game.
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That’s a low blow comparison there with ole 165. His and your argument was just that, yall’s temper tantrum, but you won’t find my comment anywhere near the vicinity of yall’s dustup. As everyone can witness here most days, I’m not clever enough to express myself in a word fight or use sarcasm as some of you prefer.
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Good stuff.
Cojones is a long time regular… enjoyable posts.
Bluto runs a great blog.
It’s unfortunate that these 2 special bloggers collide. Shit happens. I once crawled my brother in law about a remark he made about my youngest son. My intpretation . Oh well.
🙂
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No animosity here, Senator, and “dust up” as I’ve used it here means creating an argument that can be taken further. I honestly don’t understand your second sentence in your penultimate paragraph, but my comment seemed to have bone-jarred you in an unintended way. Sometimes we aren’t too concerned about comments being taken very seriously here and don’t couch our words in a way to avoid that situation because we think people know us here and we don’t intentionally get into personal issues. I’m guilty of that if my perception is that someone is attacking a UGA player or coach.
Regardless, my reply to those who weren’t qualifying Darnell with the same baggage as the other miscreant players mentioned in this transfer falderal was my opinion in a blog that attracts differing opinions. So be it.
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Ahhh well. It’s Monday. I’m sure we all really love each other…although I don’t expect Cojones and Bluto will be spending any hot-tub time together for awhile. Their cooler heads will soon enough prevail, I’m sure.
I think we understand both points of view and they aren’t that far apart.
My biggest concern is that Saban would risk bringing this kid into Tuskerville while the coals still smolder from the last, similar mistake.
It’s in the open now…even these posts here today are part of a very public and open question to Saban that asks, “are you out of your mind?”.
The Alabama A. Dept will have only one place of refuge if they bring this kid on campus and he does something bad (and it could be real bad). That place of refuge is in the hearts and pocket books of the Alabama faithful that will accept almost anything as long as they win and win big. That “Alabama Faithful would be the lunatic fringe at most football schools..but when the “fringe” is greater than the wholesome core, which it most certainly is between the Chattahoochie and Meridian, a lot can be overlooked. And it isn’t just ‘Bama.. (see PSU, FSU and that school that wants to be Alabama South, or the U of LA.)
We have a quip in the South..”Painting a turd”.
All of this second chance baloney is mostly just that…painting a turd.
And as far as being innocent until proven guilty is concerned…The guy who shot up the movie theatre in Colorado…would you want him still going to the movies just because they hadn’t gotten around to trying him yet? We can’t possibly cover every single situation in life and in society with a rule. Most situations call for common sense..which is not as common as it used to be.
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BTW, ,my opening comment was a serious question because the Rivals article referenced required one to be a member to read and I didn’t know what was in it. However, Christopher Smith at Saturday Down South told the contents and published that UGA was forgiving. Darnell said that he had never done anything like that before nor since and was sincerely contrite and earlier was going to face the music after he posted bond.
Well, hell, what’s good enough for Richt is good enough for me. That kid will probably be here for Dawg Night after all.
“Thanks” to you other readers who qualified my idiotic expressions. Think I’ll go have a cookie. Would anyone else like one?
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If I had a daughter in the athletic dorms I would request extra security for the dorms if he comes to DAWG nights. It is bad enough to steal on what should be an privileged visit but to enter a women’s dorm and stare at her naked body. What would have happened if she had not awoken. I hope we forgive but don’t forget.
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I’m with you Debby, I have a daughter and if I knew Richt was bringing in a thug that had broken into her room, stared at her while she slept (naked or not) and stolen her cell phone, in effect, a creepy burglar, to Dawg Night. I think I would either try and call Richt personally and, failing that or failing to have a satisfactory response from him, write him a very strongly worded letter that I would send copies of to every media outlet I could think of to express my outrage at his decision to invite a known criminal to Dawg Night.
Georgia football is important to me but it’s not important enough to turn a blind eye to criminal behavior, no matter how many stars a high school player has.
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According to the kid, he’s still being recruited to Georgia and plans on taking a summer visit.
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Just the part about entering a room and watching girls sleep, never mind stealing, is enough to creep me out. Yikes.
This is my theory on Saban. He thinks he can control players with playing time and NFL recommendations, and probably most of the time he really can. But even if so, what is the incremental benefit of THIS player to Alabama versus the next guy on their list? Because let’s face it, Bama isn’t signing any unranked receivers no matter what. If you were a school that this is the only way you can get a future superstar, I guess I could see it. But Bama? Well, maybe I’m just ignorant as to how fine the line is between winning and losing.
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