Castille makes a bad choice

By Ken Rogers

Published: August 19, 2007

I guess Alabama cornerback Simeon Castille got an early start on two days off.
The Tide senior made five tackles and intercepted a pass in the end zone during Saturday’s scrimmage at Bryant-Denny Stadium, but apparently he didn’t leave it all on the field.
Castille spent a brief time at Tuscaloosa County Jail after his arrest for disorderly conduct around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Tide players have Sunday and Monday off.
It’s both easy and tempting to overreact to this story, but the more accounts I’m hearing of the incident, the better I feel for Castille. I wasn’t there, so this is strictly the result of reading between the lines. A carload of unidentified buddies recognized Castille walking the Strip near campus. They screamed at him, apparently in jest. He screamed back, apparently in jest. But a Tuscaloosa police officer thought it crossed the line of “orderly,“ whatever that means. Hey, I’m not taking sides and I wasn’t there. I’m guessing the officer had a watch and it read 2 a.m. “Jesting” stops long before 2 for most cops, and I can’t blame them.
Of all the sports stories I’ve read and written in the past 25 years, I have concluded that nothing good ever happens outside at 2 a.m.
I’ve seen no suggestion that alcohol was involved. No one has hinted that Castille was abusive or confrontational.
The star football player has something else going for him: a good track record. He’s a leader on the team, on and off the field. Other guys look up to him. Nick Saban is counting on him. He was one of two players chosen to represent the team at SEC Media Days in Birmingham. He’s on the Peer Intervention Group that Saban started, where Tide players help recommend solutions for cases just like this one.
There are going to be those who equate his behavior as a betrayal of his coach, his teammates and his good name. He’s worked too hard for all of those entities to lose that with a poor decision of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He won’t get off lightly, either. He may be running stadium stairs until Western Carolina’s bus arrives for warm-ups.