ShareFor the duration of the recent Stephen Garcia suspension saga there have been myriad points of view. The weakness with almost all of them, mine included, has been a lack of information about what actually merited the suspension. There has been little said by the university, and information has trickled out at a glacial pace. We still don’t now all the details, but Saturday Down South has a story that is a must read for all Gamecock fans. Here’s a short part of the article. Click on the quote for the full piece.
The event was a “life skills” seminar which was part of the MVP (Mentors for Violence Prevention) program. Attendance at the event was made mandatory by the SEC for football players from each of the 12 SEC schools. Contrary to initial speculation, Stephen was not supposed to speak at the event, he just had to attend with the rest of his team. The athletes were split up into groups of about 30 and sent to their respective rooms where they would listen to speeches. The first speaker for Stephen’s group, whose identity is still unknown began his speech by asking the athletes who they would rather have as their leader, Tim Tebow or Stephen Garcia. Stephen was not the only athlete who had a problem with the question, and some snide remarks were made. Other teammates asked them to just let it go and stay quiet. As the nameless speaker proceeded to berate Stephen, bringing up all of his prior indiscretions, in front of the team that he has led for the past four years, Stephen began to disrupt the speaker in his own defense. After the questionable speech was concluded, Stephen was pulled aside by an unknown event administrator and privately asked to cease his protest. The disturbed quarterback once again began to defend himself to the administrator, who then claimed to smell alcohol on Stephen’s breath and asked him to leave the event, which Stephen gladly did. Being honest with his coach, Stephen unfortunately admitted that he had a few beers prior to the event during a celebration of a teammate’s birthday, which led to the widespread belief that Stephen was intoxicated when he arrived at the event.
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