Five chances. Twenty-three year old Stephen Garcia's coach gave him five chances to straighten out the life he was leading. And Garcia dismissed the warnings as just that, and nothing more. After failing an alcohol test, the South Carolina Gamecocks' coach cut Garcia from the team. The man's father had to drive up from Florida in the middle of the football season and ferry his son back to their home. Coach Steve Spurrier expressed that he was sympathetic towards Garcia, but since the football star had signed a zero-tolerance agreement, he had to let him go.
“I don’t like it, I don’t like it,” Spurrier said of Garcia’s dismissal. “I wished he’d stayed and wished he could have finished his career as a Gamecock, one way or another.” Gary Garcia, Stephen's father, was understanding about his son's dismissal, but also a bit miffed.
“It was heartbreaking for him to drive away from that stadium after seeing his teammates,” Gary Garcia said. “He got a lot of chances, but he didn’t get a lot of chances because the things he did were small, it was because the people there that know him love him.”
I for one completely agree with the coach's decision to cut Stephen Garcia from the South Carolina team. Signing a no-tolerance agreement and then breaking it multiple times is not the sign of a great man, or even a great quarterback. Most will agree that there are multiple football players in the NFL that, no matter how great they are, still struggle legally. I doesn't matter if Plaxico Buress had an amazing, game-saving catch during the super bowl, or Michael Vick has been a star player every season. Buress was in possession of an unlicensed firearm and Vick was coordinating dog fights. Both of them were wrong, and both of them faced the consequences, which I believe is right.
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