Casey Pachall Failed Drug Test, Roger Goodell and The NCAA
By Kyle Kensing
TCU quarterback and Heisman potential performer Casey Pachall admitted to police this winter that he failed a drug test, and Gary Patterson confirmed the result in an email to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Patterson said that Pachall will not face suspension.
The Frogs open the season in Week 2 against FCS opponent Grambling State, a game in which Pachall’s services frankly are not that needed. The opener would be a perfect opportunity for Patterson to placate skeptics, without sacrificing standing. Of course, to some cynics that might seem an empty gesture and not punishment fitting the crime. To wit, Mac Engel wrote that Patterson should suspend Pachall for four games. Such a suspension would keep Pachall on the sidelines for non-conference dates against 2011 bowl teams Virginia and SMU, the latter of which defeated the Frogs a year ago. Pachall would also miss the conference opener against Kansas.
Patterson faced a dire situation with the arrest of former players in February, and the team-wide drug test that was issued upon a recruit’s urging. The NCAA does not mandate such a sweeping drug test, and thus any punishments stemming from it are handled internally. But drug use in college football has become a matter of growing public scrutiny. ESPN published an investigative report that targeted Oregon, and the university responded with a more rigorous testing system.
Other programs have taken a more hard line approach. Mark Richt suspended players for the Bulldogs’ opening stretch,
.
Dabo Swinney suspended Clemson’s All-America wide receiver Sammy Watkins
following an arrest that included possession of marijuana.
So are these matters should be handled internally? A universal policy would have to be instated by the NCAA, and would extend the organization’s already far-reaching power. The NCAA went into uncharted territory when last month, it sanctioned Penn State for legal matters. A precedent was then set dictating that situations for the courts but involving athletic programs, and deemed heinous enough, were in the NCAA’s jurisdiction.
The threat of the governing body’s influence overextending its intended purpose is evident should it intervene in these internal affairs. Such is the criticism targeted against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has wielded unprecedented power overseeing the league. His ongoing battle with the New Orleans Saints has garnered the most attention, and is a football situation. But Goodell has also taken a proactive approach to addressing player arrests. Of the more than 30 arrests this off-season, over half are drug or alcohol related.
The counterargument is that weeding out a problem that plagues the sport’s image is what a governing body and/or commissioner’s job entails.
Which approach is more suitable is subjective and open to debate. But the more the topic is discussed, the closer the NCAA’s hand is to being forced.