Nigel Carr was expected to start for the Florida State Seminoles as a linebacker this season. Those plans are probably going to be altered, now that Carr faces a slew of felonies related to burglaries he allegedly committed this week.
According to Tallahassee police, Carr burglarized a parked SUV, stealing the victim's book bag that contained her purse and other valuables. Carr allegedly dumped the items in to a nearby trash can and police say they found the victim's credit card on the floor board of a vehicle being driven by Carr.
Surprisingly, Carr is also a suspect in another car burglary on campus and faces charges from alleged marijuana possession. His career is in serious jeopardy and may likely be coming to an end.
I am not sure what the reasoning might be behind this alleged incident, assuming that the police version of the facts are accurate. Nearly any crime involving a college athlete on the weekend or at night makes me wonder if alcohol or drugs were involved. Carr's charges for marijuana possession lead me to suspect that this is a strong possibility. For some reason, we've fed our young people a set of beliefs that create a culture of substance abuse as a fundamental part of college life.
As my daughter prepares for college, I make it clear to her that she should be strong enough to not follow the crowd. I am not one to tell her to refrain from alcohol consumption, but I let her know that college can be a blast without risking rape, illness, incarceration or death, which occurs each year in alcohol-related incidents across the country. While we can't say that substance abuse played a role in the Carr case, this point should be made nonetheless.
What is also interesting about Nigel Carr is that he is described by his teammates as being one of the most reliable men on the Florida State roster. This is surprising in light of the fact that the multiple felonies against him paint a man who is undisciplined, unprincipled and out of control. This defines the contradiction lived by many college athletes across America: They are Einsteins on the football field and unintelligent in the classroom. Hard-working when someone puts a ball in their hands, but as lazy as water buffaloes when it comes to preparing for their academic future. They are ultra-disciplined when it comes to their athletic regimens, but incredibly unfocused when it comes to how they conduct their personal lives.
The contradiction of the collegiate athlete occurs because many of them have been told that as long as you can dribble a basketball or throw a football, everything is going to be OK. You don't have to learn how to read. You don't have to be responsible with your personal choices. You don't have to manage your money properly. You don't have to worry about your future. What the athlete finds later on, though, is that the man who only defines himself as an athlete has put himself in to the same social trap that has incarcerated black men for the past 100 years. Athletes must become more intelligent.
One final and very important point is that when an athlete is arrested for robbery or found to violate NCAA rules by accepting money from a sports agent, the NCAA itself is at least partly responsible. Some athletes steal, borrow or take money under the table because they don't have enough to live on.
A player like Nigel Carr, in a free market, would earn between $250,000 and $1 million per year based on the revenue he generates for Florida State University. Given that his coach earns $1.8 million per year off the backs of his athletes (who do all the work), we know that the system is inherently unjust. Some people commit crimes because they are stupid, and some do it because they have no other way to survive. While we don't know what motivated Nigel Carr, we can certainly say that many athletes struggle financially due to the greed of the NCAA.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the Athlete Liberation and Academic Reform Movement (ALARM). To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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