The Wednesday Rewind: Could Gary Patterson have done more to help Casey Pachall and prevent his DWI?

Oct 6, 2012; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Texas Christian Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson stands with his team prior to taking the field for the game against the Iowa State Cyclones at Amon G. Carter Stadium. The Cyclones beat the Horned Frogs 37-23. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

Everybody has seen the NCAA commercials that say “most of us go pro in something other than sports.” And while we can all mock the NCAA’s stance on “student-athletes,” it is definitely true that most college athletes do not play their sports professionally after college.

Going to college is a learning experience for everyone, it’s your modern-day coming-of-age story. Living on your own, making friends and being social for the first time without parental control is part of a person’s maturation process. College helps teach people responsibility by balancing classes, work and a social life while hopefully learning how to prevent one of those from negatively affecting the others.

As an athlete though, instead of being responsible only for yourself, you adopt the responsibilities that come with being a member of a team. As a football player, you spend a large portion of every day with your football coaches, no matter whether it’s the middle of the season or the middle of the offseason. The coaches almost begin to take on somewhat of a parental role.

When, then, does a coach become partly responsible for a player’s misconduct? If coaches rarely reprimand or penalize players for serious off-the-field transgressions, are they partially to blame when that player finds himself in an even bigger mess than one for which he previously should have been penalized?

At Western, one of our star players had a serious drug problem. He would show up to practices and meetings stoned, he would feign injuries to get out of football responsibilities and eventually he started selling weed on the side. He was rarely penalized as the coaches often looked the other way to benefit from his abilities on the field.

Unfortunately, the players got together and he was removed from the team. Eventually he stopped attending classes, was kicked out of or left the school, and then headed back to his home town where he attempted to play semi-pro football while still dealing drugs. If only he had gotten the help that he needed while at Western maybe he could’ve had a better success story.

Despite Casey Pachall’s success at TCU in the year-and-a-half he has been the Horned Frogs starting quarterback, there is a good chance he never makes it in the NFL and therefore must rely on his education and non-football-related experiences to succeed outside the sport.

But unlike a normal college student, Pachall’s coming-of-age story is a little different. Instead of balancing classes, work and a social life, Pachall has to balance practices, workouts and meetings, and then find the time for schoolwork and a social life. For Pachall, I imagine school-work is often a distant third as he chooses a social life over homework to unwind after a day filled with football. I know that on quite a few occasions I chose a social life over homework and later paid the price.

Pachall’s quick rise to success at TCU made him a superstar in Fort Worth. This stardom, with no financial benefits mind you, can go to a player’s head and make them feel more important then they are. And when Pachall’s coaches aren’t doing much to punish him for off-the-field actions, they are only building up Pachall’s belief that he can do no wrong.

Let’s not forget that Pachall is NOT in the NFL yet and while he may think he is going to make it to the next level, there are far more quarterbacks who think they’ll make it and don’t, then quarterbacks who think they’ll make it and do. As nothing more than a college student who plays a sport, one small mistake for Pachall could have a ripple effect that results in drastic changes to his future plans.

Sep 22, 2012; Fort Worth, TX, USA; TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Casey Pachall (4) celebrates throwing a touchdown pass with quarterback Trevone Boykin (2) during the first quarter against the Virginia Cavaliers at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRELast week, prior to their second Big 12 game of the season against Iowa State, Pachall was arrested for a DWI and his B.A.C. was reportedly more-than-twice the legal limit in the state of Texas. Pachall was later released on bond, and was almost-immediately suspended indefinitely by head coach Gary Patterson.

“We want to make sure we can make this turn into a positive,” Patterson said Tuesday at a weekly media luncheon. “Casey’s parents, Casey and I, we all agreed that there was only one way to change the path he was on — to step away from it.”

What about helping Pachall learn how to success and make the right choice on that same path? Most professional leagues have rookie symposiums to help athletes adjust to life as a professional. Maybe it’s time the NCAA look into a better way to help college athletes adjust to life as an unpaid superstar.

Most likely a result of Pachall not starting, the Horned Frogs lost last Saturday for the first time since October 1, 2011. The loss snapped a nation-best 12-game winning streak that spanned one year and four days.

To make matters worse, the loss also put a stop to the Horned Frogs record-streak of 25-consecutive conference victories. TCU won 24 Mountain West games prior to joining the Big 12 and beat Kansas this year in week two to extend the streak to 25.

When Patterson suspended Pachall, it seemed like the right move at the expense of winning. But could it have been prevented in the first place?

Last February, a drug bust nearly brought down the entire football program and at the center of a federal investigation that resulted in four TCU football players arrested for dealing drugs, was Pachall’s former roommate and teammate Tanner Brock.

At the time of the arrests, Patterson said:

“Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff, period. Our program is respected nationally for its strong ethics and, for that reason, the players arrested today were separated from TCU by the university.”

But just six months later, on the eve of the 2012 season, TCU360.com released the police report from that Feb. 15 drug bust and revealed that Pachall had tested positive for marijuana in a school-issued drug test just two weeks prior to the bust.

The police report also said, “Casey stated that he used cocaine possible a year from [Feb. 15] and ecstasy about seven months prior to [Feb. 15],” the report said. “Both were just a one time thing and hasn’t done either since.”

I’m sorry, maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I don’t believe for one minute that Pachall only tried cocaine and ecstasy once. He was living with a drug dealer, clearly in an environment where drugs were easily accessible. He had already admitted to smoking weed multiple times with Brock so why should we be inclined to believe him when he admits to using cocaine and ecstasy but with the disclaimer of them only being a “one time thing.”

And yet, despite Patterson’s comments back in February about drugs not being part of his program, Pachall was not reprimanded by the university or the football team at the beginning of the season for his failed drug test.

Apparently an apology and a pledge to stay out of trouble in the future was enough for the coaches. Of course it was, so long as Pachall’s off-the-field problems didn’t have a direct affect on the football program, why worry about Pachall’s well-being.

Again, how much responsibility do the coaches really have to make sure their players are not going down the wrong path in life? If a coach witnesses destructive behavior from a player that could hurt that player’s future in or out of the sport, does the coach have a responsibility to help guide that player back onto the right path?

When Patterson seemingly absolved Pachall of any wrong-doing for the failed drug test he essentially sent the message that as long as you don’t face consequences off the field, then you won’t face much consequences on the field. The four players who were arrested in the bust? They were all immediately kicked off the team.

As a result of the DWI and the revelation that he might have a substance-abuse problem, Pachall has left TCU and checked himself into rehab.

After Pachall’s departure from TCU, Patterson came out and said “This isn’t about the team, this is about Casey Pachall.”

I would argue that this isn’t about Pachall, but about Patterson and the responsibility he and his coaching staff have to make sure their players are making the right decisions.

At the end of the season, I imagine Patterson and TCU fans are going to be thinking “what if,” as in “what if Pachall had learned from his mistake at the beginning of the season instead of in the middle. He might never have gotten behind the wheel of that car if he had already faced football-related consequences for non-football-related transgressions.”

Instead Pachall is off the team and out of the school and now his career, as well as TCU’s hopes for a Big 12 championship, are in jeopardy.