Florida State will get along just fine without De’Andre Johnson, a quarterback who was too young to drink and, if he was, evidently didn’t know how to handle it.
Johnson has been dismissed from the FSU team, and only the sounds of his attorney still arguing – that is why they are paid, right – remains. Attorney Jose Baez now says that the woman who was hit by Johnson used “racial epithets” and “kneed him in the groin area’ before he struck her.
Of course, the problems are obvious. There is no audio to the footage, so it is impossible to say who said what to whom. The camera is from above the bar, so there is no clear shots of where knees were directed. And most of all, Johnson is a college athlete who struck a woman for whatever reason. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher dismissed Johnson immediately after seeing the video.
This is a good step, perhaps a step toward college athletics treating violence toward women with the scorn it should be treated. Remember when Nebraska’s Lawrence Phillips dragged his girlfriend down the stairs? This week, former Oklahoma great Tony Casillas chastised the Sooners for not dismissing signee Joe Mixon, who has been accused of the same thing as Johnson. It’s a start.
In the days since Johnson’s arrest, there have been a lot of references to the controversies of former FSU quarterback Jameis Winston. But Winston’s case devolved into a case of who said what and what could be proven. There was no video evidence. (Shots from a cell phone were destroyed.)
This time, the film was there. In the end, it was impossible to defend.
