A Weekly Tradition: Cincinnati Bearcats Football Player Arrested

For the second time in as many weeks, a Cincinnati Bearcats football player has been arrested. This time Marcus Tappan is that UC player to have a run in with the law, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports:

"Marcus Tappan, a sophomore linebacker for the Bearcats, was stopped during a breaking and entering investigation and displayed behavior “consistent with being intoxicated,” Hamilton County Municipal Court documents show.Russell “Brett” Walsh, a freshman linebacker for the Wildcats, was also arrested during the same investigation for underage intoxication, records show.The complaint states that Tappan, 19, and Walsh, 19, were slurring speech, had an odor of alcohol and admitted to consuming alcohol.Tappan, from Pasadena, Calif., and Walsh, from Monrovia, Calif., allegedly broke a window while intoxicated to retrieve property from inside a home that caused an alarm to go off, reports show. The homeowner did not want to press charges, the court complaint states.The court documents state that Tappan and Walsh knowingly consumed alcohol, a first degree misdemeanor.Tappan was admitted to the Hamilton County Detention Center at 2:14 a.m. on Sunday, according to Hamilton County records."

This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Here’s the list of Bearcats football players who have brushed shoulders with Johnny Law this year:

• Jarred Evans (#12), arrested for assault
• Alex Thomas (#25), not complying with officers
• Hosey Williams (#23), disorderly conduct while intoxicated
• Leviticus Payne (#9), outstanding warrants for minor drug possession
• Ey’Shawn McClain, outstanding warrants for minor drug possession

Now Marcus Tappan joins that long and disturbingly growing list.

Honestly, I don’t care about the circumstances surrounding any of these run ins with police. This kind of negative publicity is unequivocally embarrassing for the Bearcats’ football program and the fact that the number of those involved has grown to six is inexcusable. It speaks to a systemic issue with this team, one that UC head coach Tommy Tuberville doesn’t seem to even remotely have control over. And if the players, who are going to school and getting a four-year degree for free by the way, can’t control themselves or avoid questionable situations, they shouldn’t be in this program.

It’s about accountability on both sides and both are failing miserably.

I’m not sure what Marcus Tappan’s fate will be. Up until this point, Tuberville has been fairly all over the place with his punishments. Jarred Evans was suspended indefinitely while Hosey Williams played in the game immediately following his incident and Leviticus Payne continues to see regular playing time.

But punishing Tappan might not mean the end of these arrests. The crux of this program’s off-field problems might be Tuberville and this staff, at which point the athletic director Mike Bohn and school president Santa Ono need to get involved. Something needs to be done to get these players under control.