So we’re back here again, huh? After two years of “Justin Blackmon is a great guy, see he’s friends with a cancer patient and loves his community” features on ESPN 1 following his 2010 DUI in Dallas, we’re left wondering about his decision-making and whether or not he’s ready for the life that comes with being able to do something better than seven billion other people.
Justin Blackmon was arrested at around 3 AM in Stillwater for an aggrevated DUI after a night of apparently partying at Murphy’s. He blew a .24 which is somewhere between drunk and dead if we’re keeping score of these things.
This coming days after he was publicly criticized by his coach for not knowing the Jags playbook 2.
I’ve always felt like Blackmon was kind of a different dude, never one for the spotlight, even appearing at times indifferent or reclusive, so part of me wonders if there’s something else, something more serious than “oh he’s just shy.” Obviously that’s complete speculation but the bottom line is that if you’re gettin multiple DUIs 3 before ever having taken an NFL snap, you need to find the root of that issue.
Other thoughts:
-Really, the person I’m most sad for today is Olivia.
-Would Gundy have kicked him off the team if this had happened last year?
-As one of my followers pointed out, you can BUY a cab company, how do you not pay to have one come pick you up?! It’s not like you blew a .09 and were like “crap, I thought I could handle that.” YOU BLEW A .24 which means you were probably struggling to walk.
-Blackmon arrests: 2. Dez arrests: 0.
-You know how the “fool me once, shame on you…” saying ends, right?
It’s been a bad week for OSU in general and OSU football specifically. Between the Frank Anderson firing, the Herschel Sims saga, and now this, I half expect to get a “hey man, just wanted to let you know Keiton was involved in a gang shooting in Pawnee” text from somebody in the next 48 hours.
I’m sad for Justin, sad for Olivia, pissed to think about everything that can happen when you drink and drive, and, as is becoming an ever-increasing theme, hesitant to put my faith and admiration on the shoulders of a flawed 22-year old.
Get better, Justin. And don’t do this again.
- And to be fair, for any non-OSU people reading this post, those stories are totally legit, given that he was friends with Olivia Hamilton well before the first arrest. It just has begun to feel like there are multiple narratives going on here ↩
- Draw your own conclusions here but it doesn’t seem to me like the best response to a coach calling you out for not being studious enough is to go home and drink an amount of alcohol generally associated with not even being able to recite the alphabet. ↩
- Yes, I do know the details of the first DUI and that he “wasn’t really drunk,” my point is that it’s an indictment on your character to put yourself in that situation to begin with ↩
Here’s the truth. None of us really know Justin.
How many others driving home from the bars last night got arrested too? Be mad at the socially acceptable practice of binge drinking in Stillwater.
On less serious note. Maybe Justin doesn’t like Jacksonville and feels alone. He really wants to be in Cleveland.
Well said…he did commit a crime, but he IS only 22. He is a good kid, hit with a lot of fame and grown up decisions at once. Not tryin to justify bad behavior….just sayin let those who can walk on water let the others sink….give him a break!
JB will be aright..just gots to have that Cowboy Shuttle on speed dial next time…
You blow a .24 speed dial isn’t going to help. A DD friend is the only way to go.
As much as I like to think that football programs teach kids self-discipline and to make good decisions, stuff like this keeps happening.
I am SO bummed. Rough week for Pokes football.
I just feel like if there was one person in Stillwater that could get a ride from literally any person in the town, it’s him. There’s no excuse.
Yeah, this is kind of what I was thinking too. You have to be man enough to ask too though.
Not sure you can feel “bad” for Olivia. She’s a kid and, if anything, she’s the perfect role model for JB right now since she’s gone through something that’s way tougher in life. JB’s still a kid too and kids do make mistakes, albeit a serious and dangerous mistake.
And in all honesty, that first run-in with Johnny Law had about as much weight on JB’s life as it would have for any of us. He took the hit, paid the consequence, but in his mind he was probably more embarrassed than inwardly thinking “he had a problem.” Most of us would have felt the same and sadly we wouldn’t have really understood the true consequences of drinking and driving.
But JB’s now officially in the real world…with a real world job and real world problems. So, it’s time for him to find out why or how he’s gotten into these situations (friends, comfort level, not knowing when to stop, etc.). He could have been feeling low because of the Jags coach or could have just been blowing off steam after being away for so long. Regardless, you can tell just how “low” he feels in the mugshot. It’s hard not to feel bad for him right now…but he has the intelligence, time, dough, and resources to fix whatever is wrong. So, I would say THIS will be the test of his character.
First, let me say that I am not condoning drunk driving or irresponsible behavior in general. But I would like to bring to light another perspective. Forget Justin Blackmon, O-State or sports at all. Put aside social norms. I know that Justin Blackmon was drunk – very drunk even. But he who is without sin may cast the first stone, right? Has anyone reading this ever driven drunk? Ever driven too drunk? I’ll slowly raise my hand with (most of) you. Did you make it home? You probably did. I did too. Thank God. Truly. Many, many people don’t make it home even without the intoxicants or recklessness. Something like 40,000 people die every year on public roads in the United States, and they weren’t all drinking; so, I most certainly do not mean to downplay the issue at hand. But my point is: if all of us idiots were “over the limit” and made it home and went to bed, what crime was committed? What harm has been done? Sure, we acted foolishly – just like Blackmon has. I’m not saying that anyone should EVER drive intoxicated – they shouldn’t, Blackmon was wrong to do so. I’m just saying that, as a society, we should punish crimes, not “crimes”. The intention is valid: intoxicated drivers are more likely to cause problems than sober ones. But where does the state get the authority to check the content of ones’ blood? People in red cars are more likely to run red lights than people in brown ones – shall we crack down on red cars? Those in red cars have not committed a crime – yet. And those intoxicated have not committed a crime YET, either. True, they are both more likely to. But where do we stop with this thinking? It seems to me that Justin Blackmon might be a better driver wasted than my sister is sober. So, crack down on destruction of property, rape and murder and you’ll get less of those whether intoxicants were involved or not. Crack down on intoxicants because you think it’ll bring less destruction of property, rape and murder and you’ll get a whole new class of “criminals” that has nothing to do with destruction of property, rape or murder.
Bo, that’s probably the worst logic I’ve ever heard. Drinking and driving actually IS literally a crime in itself. For good reason. People who drink and drive are statistically more likely to kill someone than people who are sober and driving, except for your sister, apparently. That’s not because someone just thought about it and said “It sure SEEMS like this might be dangerous”. No, many people have died as a direct result of it. This is serious. And it’s not like every person driving drunk got in the car unaware of the risk they were taking. Even blowing a .24, unable to go to the restroom anywhere but on yourself, you know what you’re getting yourself into. You know you could damage your reputation, get arrested, or accidentally kill someone. You don’t let someone run around in an airport with a bomb attached to themselves waiting for it to explode before you charge them with anything.
Driving while drunk should be a crime, period.
Bo, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this blog is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
In New York it is illegal to sell a soda over 16oz now. Much like checking the content of our blood even though we’ve broken no natural law – this is a slippery slope. What if they decide that you can’t drink a 32oz pop and then drive? Caffeine is a stimulant. What about nicotine. I dipped once when I was a little younger (read: dumber) and I swear to you that I have never been more impaired. (I could have driven legally, though.) It’s not unimaginable to think of a caffeine or nicotine breathalyzer in the near future. Eventually YOU will be a criminal. Before you dismiss natural law and common sense as irrational perhaps you should take your own thought process to it’s natural conclusion. Thanks for contributing so generously to this idea soup that is the internet with your… pepper?
I don’t think a slippery slope argument applies here. I suppose one could make the case that caffeine could make a driver more jittery, but the extent of the effect is not the same, and the effects themselves are not the same. Alcohol impairs judgment and slows the whole reaction process. If thousands of people died due to caffeinated drivers then we would have to consider this topic.
So what should cops do? They see someone swerving around while driving, and they just let them carry on? Wait until they kill somebody before punishing them? (I’m asking seriously, not rhetorically).
The New York soda ban is a PROPOSAl, not a law. And, your logic is still pretty bad. Caffeine does not result in car wrecks. Drinking and driving significantly endangers the public and driver to the point it’s worth making illegal. To your point of sampling blood – is it better to submit to a breathalyzer test or just be charged outright if an officer suspects you are impaired. Refuse the breathalyzer if you care that much.
So you guys want to focus on caffeine, but what about nicotine? Someone who hasn’t used the stuff will get wasted the first few times. This is true and legitimate – where is the law to protect us from this great evil? Oh, you say that we have laws against destruction of property and reckless driving and that this is sufficient? Well then why is this not sufficient in the case of drinking? Is there a stigma left over from prohibition in the case of drinking? Listen, I don’t know all the details of the Blackmon arrest and honestly I’m not overly interested. If Blackmon was swerving left of center, smashing mailboxes and forcing others off of the road then I say: Arrest that man! If he was handling himself sufficiently, not posing an imminent threat to others and was caught in a checkpoint then I say: Illegitimate, let him go! An individual should face the consequences of his or her actions. If you have a bomb strapped to your chest then you’re probably not armed for the event of “self-defense” (which I believe is legitimate) and you are a imminent threat to those around you. In this case you should be apprehended… Duh. Look, I’m just trying to bring another angle to the conversation besides the old re-hashed bologna that everyone’s already heard before and thought of again. Thought and debate are productive, don’t be offended.
If you have a blood alcohol content higher than .08, you are an imminent threat to those around you, and should be apprehended. That’s what the law is. It’s not like the lawmakers snuck this whole “drunk driving is illegal” law in on us. Everyone knows it’s illegal.
In fact, driving while intoxicated (unable to control yourself) with a n y t h i n g IS illegal. So if you’ve smoked a few cigarettes to the point where you can’t control your ability to drive, it’s illegal. It doesn’t need to be a law…because it already is.
Checkpoints are just another way to keep other drivers safe. If you haven’t been drinking, checkpoints don’t matter. If you have, you’re endangering everyone around you, and even if you’re caught at a checkpoint, you should be apprehended. You still got into your car knowing you shouldn’t. And even though you continued, you still knew the consequences.
Since you don’t know the details of his arrest, I’ll just tell you–he was left of center.
I do appreciate your desire to debate, and I’m not offended, but I do think you’re way off on this.
Yeah, I read up on it and it sounds like he was being reckless. Good reply. I have to disagree with you on a couple of points though. checkpoints are not our friend. This isn’t Nazi Germany [yet] (“Show your papers!”) is it? And you and I both know that .08 is more drunk for some and less for others. This means that the amount of alcohol required to achieve “drunk” in a given individual is subjective. How can one effectively legislate, much less enforce, something that is subjective? One can’t. Which is why you and I probably both know someone who has received a DUI and wasn’t “drunk”. And I’m sure that we both know people who drive drunk as a skunk seemingly as often as they can manage and get off every time. This is the nature an extra-market entity with the power of force ruling- not just the roads- but every part of our lives it can get it’s hands on. I’m just saying…
I’m sure Ron Paul would agree.
He also skipped out on his autograph appearance at a big sports collectors show in Houston on Saturday, notifying the promoters at the last minute. It was one of the major shows of the year by one of the biggest companies. So instead of showing up where fans had paid $75-100 to get his autograph, he decided to get loaded at Murphy’s? There’s something going on here beyond a DUI that’s troubling.
Like the fact he is still dating a girl living in Stillwater possibly?? Gotta cut off the connection real soon…
Well, this sucks.
Pretty much.