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Arrest Affidavits Don’t Read Well for T.C.U.

By Paul Myerberg   //   Feb 16, 2012

The trouble brewing at T.C.U. is only in its infancy, if the arrest affidavits released yesterday in connection with the six-month investigation lead to further scrutiny of the school, its administration and its football program, as many expect. When it comes to the four football players listed among the 17 T.C.U. students arrested on drug charges, the statements each made to undercover police officers suggest concerns worthy of closer inspection of the football program in particular. In essence, the statements underline the idea that when it comes to T.C.U. football, the drug issues go deeper than just the four players identified by Fort Worth and university police as “drug dealers.”

These issues can be summed up in one bullet point in the affidavit filed for Tanner Brock, the former all-American linebacker who missed all of one game of last season due to an ankle injury. According to the affidavit, Brock was first introduced to undercover police officers by D.J. Yendrey on Jan. 18, when an officer met with the pair and purchased a half-ounce of marijuana.

A week later, per the affidavit, Brock alone sold more marijuana to undercover officers. A week after that second sale, on Feb. 1, T.C.U. police informed Fort Worth police that Gary Patterson had held a mandatory team meeting earlier that day with the purpose of requiring each player on the T.C.U. roster to take an impromptu urine test.

The initial investigation into the drug distribution began in mid-October, when university police told the Fort Worth police department that Ty Horn, a backup offensive lineman, was purported to be selling marijuana to fellow T.C.U. students. According to Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Patterson ordered the Feb. 1 drug test after a recruit had informed him of the team’s drug use — the recruit told Patterson that he was “shying away from T.C.U.,” according to Stevenson, because of the drug use.

This drug test is the potential tipping point that could lead to intense scrutiny of Patterson and the T.C.U. program. Later that same day, on Feb. 1, undercover officers contacted Brock to ask about the mandatory team meeting. “’Ya, they caught us slipping,’” said Brock, who then invited the officer over to his apartment to purchase more marijuana.

“Brock said the staff surprised the team with the test,” said the affidavit. “Brock responded, ‘I failed that bitch for sure.’” But Brock wasn’t worried about the result, according to the affidavit, and “didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

“There ‘would be about 60 people being screwed’” by the drug test, said Brock, via the affidavit. Brock told the officer that Horn “looked through the roster [that day] and said that there were only 20 people that would pass the test on the team.”

Less than a week later, Devin Johnson, who started at strong safety last fall, confirmed Brock’s statements to undercover police. Asked if he worried about the impromptu “piss test” given on Feb. 1, Johnson told an undercover officer, “What can they do, 82 players failed it.”

Taking Johnson’s statement as truth — that, in fact, 82 players failed the drug test — would mean that the overwhelming majority of the roster were taking illegal drugs in the period running up to the Feb. 1 test. If the test included all the seniors who had exhausted their eligibility following the end of last season, only 25 players out of 107 did not test positive for drug use. That’s slightly more than Horn suspected, though still only 23 percent of the entire roster.

Current players not implicated in the investigation were quick to refute Johnson’s statement. “This rumor of 82 of us failing a drug test is false, completely false,” said Kolby Griffin, a freshman defensive back, via his Twitter account. In addition, data on drug use among college-aged students suggests that Johnson’s statement leans towards exaggeration.

A study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that 21.5 percent of college-aged students used marijuana in 2010. A 2005 study by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that 33.6 percent of college-aged students used “any illicit drug.” According to Johnson’s number, as noted, more than three in four T.C.U. football players were using illegal drugs.

How deep the drug issues go will be determined by how much deeper the police investigation delves into the T.C.U. football program. As of now, it’s only logical to assume that local and university police will inquire within the program to gauge how many players were purchasing drugs from their former teammates. This is absolutely relevant to the investigation as a whole; it would also be unprofessional for any police force to not follow this lead to its conclusion.

Here’s the good news for T.C.U., though it’s far from a silver lining: in terms of the actual dealing of drugs, the investigation went no further than the four players. In addition, the affidavits suggest that Patterson and the T.C.U. administration acted proactively when given information regarding the team’s drug use. Nevertheless, if true, Johnson’s statement would place enormous pressure on the university to answer questions about its ability to monitor its football program.

Tags: D.J. Yendrey, Devin Johnson, Gary Patterson, T.C.U., Tanner Brock, Ty Horn

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