This week was supposed to be the second installment of a two-part series on why boxing is lame and how the Ultimate Fighting Championship soon will overtake boxing as the most exciting display of fisticuffs in the United States.
Sorry, UFC fans, it will have to wait a week. It seems to be true what they say: The best laid plans of squirrels and sports writersG?
Last Wednesday proved to be an interesting one. Almost five months after events that culminated with Ohio football coach Frank Solich pleading no contest to a DUI charge, the Bobcat athletic nation seems to be uncovering new information in the case.
Deadspin.com, a site nationally renowned for catching sports stories that fall through the cracks and unique angles on issues creating the biggest buzz in athletics, had Solich as the top story Wednesday.
Few updates later, Solich was nowhere to be found on the Web site's main page, but head to the college football section, and the story still is prominent. The article links to a blog entry, which contains an e-mail allegedly written by Solich's son-in-law, Jon Dalton.
I would like to take a second to state that while a source of mine has confirmed that the e-mail is legitimate, everything else is pure speculation at this point until Solich or representatives of the university make an official statement.
Dalton writes that Solich was not passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle because of being overly intoxicated but because of foul play.
According to Dalton's e-mail, Coach (Solich) had a hair analysis test ran
and it was confirmed that he was drugged not intoxicated. The GHB (Gamma Hydroxybutyrate a date-rape drug) levels in his system were extremely elevated
which caused him to 'pass out' within 20 minutes of the drug entering his system.
While everyone's first reaction is probably to scoff at the idea of there being a conspiracy theory surrounding what seems like such a black-and-white issue, stranger things have happened. It is 2006, and, like it or not, messed up things can happen ' even in Athens.
This information, if it is true, can be called nothing less than a bombshell in what was thought to be an open-and-shut case months ago. And if someone did slip Solich a roofie-colada, was it on purpose or on accident? Regardless, any incident involving a date-rape drug is downright creepy and disturbing.
The e-mail goes on to say a few more things, most of which I will not dignify in this column. It's not that I don't believe what Dalton has allegedly written, it is just that there are some pretty hefty accusations lobbed at the university that, unless I'm sitting in OU President Roderick McDavis' chair, I am not qualified to talk about.
Also, Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt has refused to comment on the subject, which leads me to think that there is more to this story than just believing the e-mail and moving on.
Even moderators on bobcatattack.com, a Bobcat fan site, have frozen threads about the subject until more information is released. I've never seen anything like it.
After all, if this is true, Solich is probably going through legal hoops to straighten out the situation, after which there will probably be a university-sanctioned news conference.
So why write a column about the contents of an e-mail that still has a chance of having been written by a 14-year-old Frank fan in Nebraska?
The worst-case scenario: I look like a fool. And heck, I deserve it. When news of Solich's DUI first hit national news and local rumor mills like bobcatattack.com, I was one of his biggest critics.
The best-case scenario: Dalton's e-mail speaks the truth and fans of the Green and White will have their savior back, reputation unsullied. Call me gullible, but I'm willing to believe.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice; well let's not go there G? yet.
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Mark Shugar
