Ole Miss Players have Sticky Fingers

Ed Orgeron, head coach of Mississippi, has announced that 20 players on his team have been put on suspension for stealing items from a hotel room where they stayed this past weekend when they played LSU. Like most teams, the players stay in a hotel for both away and home games, but this time, their fingers got sticky. Items stolen ranged from pillows to radios, with no items over $40, and it seems as though the players have since repaid the hotel for the stolen items in order to avoid breaking any NCAA rules or any state/federal laws.  The list of players suspended has not been released, and Mississippi’s athletic direct has said that they will be reinstated to play this weekend’s game against Mississippi State.

I have two problems with this.

1. They took some pillows with them. Big deal. Thousands of people do that. If they were really out to steal shit, wouldn’t they have chosen bigger, more expensive items? I mean, what are they going to do with pillows, sell them out of their trunks? That’s why hotels require you to keep a credit card on record. If anything is stolen or damaged, you have to play to replace it. So yes, what they did was a little shady, but is punishment and a press release really necessary?

2. The punishment they got was half-assed. If they really did break team rules and commit this horrible offense, why is their “punishment” getting to miss practice? Because, I mean, what else happens if they are suspended? They’re going to play. That’s the school saying, “We’re just doing this to make ourselves look good. We don’t really care.” If they really cared about the team rules being broken, the players in question wouldn’t be playing this weekend, even if it is the last game.

So basically, what I’m saying is that you can’t just give someone a little punishment that doesn’t mean anything. They either did something wrong or they didn’t. Make up your mind, Ole Miss