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Georgia Dismisses RB Isaiah Crowell Following Felony Weapons Charges

It’s an ever-recurring phenomenon in sports, how star players who get in trouble always seem to get more second chances, more opportunities to reach their potential, than lesser players who have similar issues. It only makes sense, of course – if you’re better, people are more willing to put up with whatever baggage comes with having you around – but it’s worth remembering since if an especially talented player runs out of chances, it’s a good bet that player really screwed up.

Today, Georgia dismissed running back Isaiah Crowell from the team. And Crowell is good. Last season, after producing an actual bulldog puppy to announce his highly-touted commitment to Georgia, he ran for 850 yards and five touchdowns as a freshman despite dealing with ankle injuries – and there were high hopes for him to take his game up another level this year, and Bring Georgia along with him. Now, obviously, he won’t.

How’d we get here? Crowell’s issues started last season – he was suspended for a game after failing a drug test. And while that result – testing positive for marijuana, specifically – couldn’t exactly be termed catastrophic (if it were up to us, testing positive for marijuana would be met with a penalty of absolutely nothing), it was still a misstep. And it made it easier to cut ties with Crowell entirely following his latest trouble, which was way worse.

Specifically, it was another arrest – but this time, on felony weapons charges. Here’s how it went down:

Crowell, 19, was taken into custody at 3:37 a.m. after a vehicle check point stop. According to an Athens-Clarke County police spokesperson, during the road block, police smelled the odor of marijuana in Crowell’s car. He gave consent for the vehicle to be searched. Crowell was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a weapon in a school zone and an altered ID mark. No marijuana was found. Crowell remains in custody at the Athens-Clarke County jail and is not eligible for bond.

First off, the pot thing. We can’t say for sure, since no marijuana was actually found. But if the odor was coming from there, and they’d smoked it before, and Crowell had already been suspended for pot previously – not a banner day for good judgment. And that doesn’t even get into the concealed weapon charge, which has to be the main reason Georgia cut Crowell loose. Well, that and that while Crowell was good, he wasn’t, say, Marcus Lattimore good. If he were, Georgia coach Mark Richt might have had a tougher decision on his hands.

It’s all too bad. Crowell has a lot of talent. He’s from Georgia, and he chose his state school with plans to help it return to the top of the SEC. If he’d kept building off his promising freshman year, he might have done it, but he just got into too much trouble for star treatment to cover – star treatment at Georgia, at least. Because another part of being good is that not only do you get several chances with any one team – you also have a way better chance at getting a shot somewhere else if that team decides it’s had enough of you. Crowell’s good enough that some other school, even if it’s at a lower level, will give him another shot. This time, let’s hope he makes the most of it.

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