Stick a Fork in him........he's done

Well I'm glad to report that I'm finally back in the swing of things. I've graduated from college, moved to a new house, and come to the sad realization that I am no longer a college kid and will now have to start working to support myself. Gone are the days of sleeping until 10 A.M. and few responsibilities. In other news, my brother may be joining Husker Guy as a contributor, as he is something of a recruiting expert and will be writing from time to time about developments with prospects and signees.


Now, to today's main topic:


We all breathed a sigh of relief when Mo Purify was allowed to enter a diversion program after post-barfight arrest five weeks ago, but it appears that our exhale was premature. For those of you who dont know, Purify was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of DWI, which was followed by his prompt dismissal from the Husker football team by Callahan.

Before I say anything about Mo, let me say this: I've done it. I've made the same mistake that he did, the difference is that I didn't get caught. How many college kids (or adults for that matter) have two or three too many beers and then get behind the wheel? Trust me, it's a large number. There have been times where I had 10 or 12 too many and still drove, and to this day I still kick myself for my stupidity. So what Purify did is not that different from what happens in towns and cities across the country, which is bad of course but I think it's important that people realize it.

That said, the stakes and the circumstances of Purify's mistake are much larger than the average person who gets stopped for a DWI. If I had been pulled over for drunk driving, it'd cost me 3 grand and haunt my record for a while. For Mo, it's not going to cost 3 grand. The fines and violations will, but the damage he did to his potential for future income on the other hand is irrevocable. With the personnel the Huskers have in place on offense, Purify had the potential for a 60 catch-900 receiving yard-10+ TD season. Whether or not he really would have gotten those numbers is debatable, but the potential was there. With a performance like that, he would have the potential to be a second or third round draft pick (taking his somewhat pedestrian 40 time into account). Let's say that he would have been drafted in the middle of the 3rd round. The initial salary fora pick in that range is $345,000 a year, not counting whatever signing bonuses there are and other considerations. The average contract length for NFL rookies is six years, meaning that his total compensation off of just salary would have been just over 2 million dollars. And that's the first contract. The real money is made in a player's second contract, and who knows how it would have played out. But none of that matters now. With Goodell in charge of the NFL, there is no longer room for oft-troubled players who don't learn their lesson. While Mo isn't a Pacman Jones, his actions the past month and a half don't bode well for his draft potential. Adding to that is the fact that he never established himself as a game breaker before his suspension, unlike USC's Mike Williams, who sat out a year before being drafted a couple years ago. Williams was star player with no criminal record, meaning that even if he did sit out a year, a team would still take him. Mo has none of that going for him. At this point, he would be extremely fortunate if someone were to even offer a free agent contract to him. If he's lucky, someone might take a chance on him later this summer in the supplemental draft, but even that is a longshot.

It'd be one thing if Purify got in a barfight 5 years ago. People would be more forgiving, more understanding, and would go out of their way to make sure that he still had an opportunity to make up for this mistake. But he didn't get into a barfight 5 years ago. That was 5 WEEKS ago, and no judge (or football coach) is going to have any leniency when the kid obviously didn't learn anything from his previous altercation. It's been a rough couple of weeks for him, and its going to get worse before it gets better. The diversion program he was allowed into no doubt demands that he remain law-abiding for a certain amount of time (usually a year). Unless driving violations don't count, this means that he will be kicked out of that program and face charges for the prior assault as well as drunken driving, meaning that he could face jail time. I hope everything works out for him, and if nothing else he will live on in Husker lore for his game winning catch at A&M. It's too bad though.........he could have been one of the greats.