Alabama Dismisses Four Players Involved in Arrest From Program
By Josh Sanchez
The four Alabama Crimson Tide football players who were arrested earlier this month on felony burglary charges and fraudulent use of a debit/credit card have learned their fate with the program. Alabama head coach Nick Saban announced two weeks ago that the players were suspended indefinitely, but now he has brought down the hammer and announced that all four players have been dismissed from the team.
That means running back Brent Calloway, linebacker Tyler Hayes, defensive lineman D.J. Pettway and defensive back Eddie Williams will be looking to continue their college football careers elsewhere.
Saban released a statement on the issue:
"“Based on all the information we’ve received and gone through and tried to determine the future of the four guys that got in trouble, those guys are no longer associated with the football program. Their actions do not reflect the spirit and character that we want our organization to reflect. It’s obviously very disappointing and unacceptable what happened.“I also think that I’ve been really proud of over the last five years that our team has done a very good job and shown personal responsibility and how they represent the university, what they’ve done in the community, in the classroom, off the field. And they’re going to continue to do as much as we can in personal development, character development in our program with education to try to help guys have a chance to be more successful in life.“Some people learn by words, some people learn by consequences, some people can’t learn.”"
The incident that involved the four players was a serious black eye for the program that is currently sitting atop the college football landscape, so it would have been a major mistake for Alabama to choose to do anything but remove the players from the program.
It was the correct call.
Alabama can now put the embarrassing situation behind them and focus on the real goal — winning a third-straight national championship.