Howe: Iowa Football OWI Punishment Must Be More Strict

DodgerHawki said:
Yes, no need to make strawman arguments on either side. 99.9% of the population and fan base thinks OWI is serious and should be treated as such. Reasonable people can differ on what punishment should be for that (from a team perspective). There is a student code of conduct policy that covers this, as well as KF's approach to dealing with matters where the more years a player has been in the program, the larger the punishment tends to be.
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Is that really true? The more years a player is in a program, the larger the punishment?

I have no idea, but I was under the impression that the more violations a player has, the larger the punishment.

Maybe things have changed, but I keep thinking back to the Micah Hyde precedent in 2012, where Hyde had a minor run-in with the law as a senior. Because it was his first offense and had no track record of bad behavior, his punishment was small for his first offense.
 
RobHowe said:
Two other people with Wirfs on a moped, blew a .129.

LINK

I appreciate others sharing their opinions on the topic. I'm not picking on Tristan. I've known him since he was a sophomore. He's a good kid from what I know.

I do think OWI should face stricter football penalties than public intox. If you know going in, hey, if I drink and drive, I face a three-game suspension, it's a greater deterrent.
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Amen. Be it a 3 game or half the season or whatever. When the players get preached to about it in meetings be it as freshman or however often they are as a team if the coaches would say if your caught here's what will happen no if ands or grey area about it you'd think it should help curb tail it.

I would go so far as to piggy back it in this way. As a team deal say if your dumb enough to do something like this alcohol related coming off the heels of what Reif did you have an escalator clause saying you get more. And the 3rd person dumb enough to do something is kicked off. Now they all KNOW THIS AHEAD OF TIME. Now that would be the coaches holding the players truly accountable. Is it fair? Of course not but if they are going to behave like disobedient kids then that's how they should be treated. I'd have no problem if a coach were to implement such a policy.
 
RobHowe said:
Two other people with Wirfs on a moped, blew a .129.

LINK

I appreciate others sharing their opinions on the topic. I'm not picking on Tristan. I've known him since he was a sophomore. He's a good kid from what I know.

I do think OWI should face stricter football penalties than public intox. If you know going in, hey, if I drink and drive, I face a three-game suspension, it's a greater deterrent.
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No argument there, Rob. But on balance, I think KFz polices things pretty well.

I had the chance to interact with TW as well (obviously not to the degree you have) and he was a great kid...very polite and appreciative of his opportunities. He'll pay the penalty and learn his lesson (I'm an optimist).
 
I agree with the author that OWI should get a tougher consequence than public intox. I do feel, tho, that Rob was too quick to dismiss in a toss-away manner the idea that police are targeting athletes, labeling that idea "a tired narrative". Actually, I believe it's been formally documented that Iowa City police officers profile and arrest African-Americans at a rate disproportionate to the general Iowa City population. Given that a higher % of UI football players are African-American than the general UI population, frankly I don't think anyone can say with certainty that any African-American arrested in ICity was done so without regard to their race. Just sayin'....
 
IMO the one game suspension for Reiff was a joke, and a one game suspension for Wirfs seems fair. Wirfs also spent 7 hours in jail, and will have to make a court appearance, pay fines, go to alcohol abuse classes, and lose his drivers license.

Just because Reiff was over punished, doesn't mean Wirfs needs to be suspended additional games.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
In short, if I had Bezos-level funds, I too would be selling streaming to fans. WTH is the point for someone in Florida planning a big trip to Kinnick just to stay in Moline, park in Coralville and get busted for doing a post-game celebratory shot on a "public" sidewalk, when instead he/she can go to Lucky's Market, fill a couple growlers, grill in the backyard and watch the game four times over the course of the weekend, complete with working wi-fi, air conditioning, and nobody crowding your seat on the couch?
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Ditched my seasons a few years ago after that reseating and haven't looked bad. Lucked into a club ticket for OSU and had a blast, but the run-of-the mill games sure don't have the buzz they used to. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Anyway, now that I moved down south, the only way I'll probably ever make it to another Iowa game is if they schedule a game in the Carolinas or Georgia or have a bowl game in Georgia or Orlando. Maybe Nashville if the weather looks good. I'd also go to Knoxville if they scheduled a home and home with UT.
 
This whole thing is an argument that will never reach an agreement. There will always be drinkers, social drinkers, drunks, non drinkers (for various reasons), those whose families generally drink responsibly and those that don't. It can be time of good family time while at the same time, so me childhood abuse and there will most always be alcohol involved. Fetal alcohol issues impact up to 5% of the population. Depending on your side of the coin you can see the behavior as childish or terrible. You can see the police as fun stoppers or not doing enough. Rob did a fine article led to dialogue.

The questions that remain. Why was James treated differently. Why is public intox treated the same as drunk driving. If a drunk football player plowed into Mary, would they still be on the team. All fair questions.

Life is messy.
 
RobHowe said:
Two other people with Wirfs on a moped, blew a .129.

LINK

I appreciate others sharing their opinions on the topic. I'm not picking on Tristan. I've known him since he was a sophomore. He's a good kid from what I know.

I do think OWI should face stricter football penalties than public intox. If you know going in, hey, if I drink and drive, I face a three-game suspension, it's a greater deterrent.
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The most surprising suspension news is that the suspension on a moped can handle Wirfs and two other people!
 
RobHowe said:
I'm still wondering how it's possible.
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Chickens not Hawks.
 
Fryowa said:
I think he’s talking about football game day experience regarding the cops. Not so much the overall “party reputation.”

And also I think being “labeled a top party school” is, while not untrue, a bit loose. What’s the criteria...total OWIs? Beer bong component sales? STD rates?

I’m being facetious but you get the idea. Show me any big public university and I’ll show you thousands of 18-22 year olds getting blackout wasted and spending their student loan leftovers on weed. Every school, every weekend. To say some are way worse than others is like pissing in the ocean.
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I believe the criteria is that you have to have at least three drunk women mud wrestling prior to kick off to be officially declared a party school...the shame meter must reach zero. :) Your assessment is pretty spot on...go to any game on Saturday, especially night games, and it's a shit show of drunk students...it's somewhat tradition that has been passed down generationally. It's a learned response to the college game day experience. I've been to the Georgia -Florida game several times...in the SEC, it's not a party school until there are stripper poles in the tailgate area. True story...I saw a few at "The Largest Cocktail Party".
 
HawkGold said:
This whole thing is an argument that will never reach an agreement. There will always be drinkers, social drinkers, drunks, non drinkers (for various reasons), those whose families generally drink responsibly and those that don't. It can be time of good family time while at the same time, so me childhood abuse and there will most always be alcohol involved. Fetal alcohol issues impact up to 5% of the population. Depending on your side of the coin you can see the behavior as childish or terrible. You can see the police as fun stoppers or not doing enough. Rob did a fine article led to dialogue.

The questions that remain. Why was James treated differently. Why is public intox treated the same as drunk driving. If a drunk football player plowed into Mary, would they still be on the team. All fair questions.

Life is messy.
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He would be off the team if he plowed into anyone, reguardless if it was Kirk's wife or not.
 
It's funny, I thought most drunk driving would go away once we got to reliable self driving cars in the future.

But in all my assumptions, I did not ever think about 3 drunks trying to ride on a scooter.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Lucked into a club ticket for OSU and had a blast, but the run-of-the mill games sure don't have the buzz they used to. Maybe I'm just getting old.
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It's not your age. You keep nodding off from all those Vicodins.

Don't sweat it; everyone loses the thrill as their tolerance gets higher. Just remember to keep taking that Dulcolax, a guy popping as much as you can get pretty stopped up.
 
People start out thinking they won't get caught this one time. Not proud of it, but I use to think that. The wise ones realize that's a stupid way to look at it, and get a ride (or walk home, but that might not be prudent anymore).

By the way, a frickin' moped? wtf Wirfs.
 
Very disappointing news, all around. 1 could see anywhere between 1-3 games. I would also guess plenty of workout punishment and likely some community service. This will all be on top of whatever legal consequences there may be.

Tough deal. Hopefully it works out.
 
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