I jumped into my car yesterday to head out to the Y, only to be greeted by news about the Tyler Bray situation. If you missed it, here's what Wes Rucker has come up with over at GoVols247.com.
There are two separate incidents here. One is solved and not a police matter, and the other is an unsolved police matter that doesn’t seem to include Bray as a direct suspect.
Bray and some other people were at their off-campus apartment on Friday night, and they admitted to tossing some empty bottles and golf balls off their balcony. I don’t know was drinking beer and who wasn’t, but I know there were empty beer bottles and golf balls that were tossed off the balcony. The guys said they didn’t mean to hit anyone’s car, but obviously they did. They claim they were just having some fun and being careless. Bray has admitted to being included in that group.
The first woman went out to her car the next day and saw a crack in her windshield and a dent on the top. She also found a note from a second woman who said she saw what happened to the car. The second woman also called 911 as she was watching the guys throw the bottles and golf balls. I don’t know what happened immediately next, but I know that the guys (including Bray) agreed to pay the damages and move on. The first woman was satisfied with this and didn’t want to press any charges. It’s a college apartment complex. Things happen.
Where things get interesting is this: The second woman found damage on her car in a separate incident that happened during the day on Monday, around lunchtime. She suspected that group of guys was responsible for what she considered retribution, and she went to the police, who took down her story but couldn’t do anything about it because there were no witnesses to the event. The police looked into that situation but haven’t learned much, and Bray apparently couldn’t have done it because he wasn’t at the apartment complex during the only time her car could have been vandalized. This is why Bray’s friends were telling me he wasn’t there — because apparently he wasn’t there for the second incident, the only one that’s a police matter. Bray and his roommate were evicted from the complex for the first incident, and Bray learned that earlier in the day Monday.
On the field, Bray has all the physical football gifts in the world, as evidences in last year's blow out of Cincinnati. But then you hear reports about Bray's football gifts between the ears, where it counts the most. That coupled with rumors that Bray and several underclassmen didn't give their full effort in the Kentucky game last year, not wanting to go to a "lesser" bowl game and then this incident....it makes continue to question if this guy will ever the quarterback he could be at Tennessee.
We've heard so much about how Bray has grown up in the off-season, but then you have a boneheaded move like this one and a lot of questions come back into play. Whether it's fair or not, Bray is the starting QB at UT, he's supposed to be a leader on the team. It's time for him to grow up and start acting like one.
Next Thursday as fall practice starts, the focus won't be on the team and expectations for the year, but instead on Bray acting like a nimrod.
If I'm Derek Dooley, I have to be shaking my head and feeling that knot of tension in my gut get just a bit tighter today. Dooley's future at UT is directly tied to Bray's success on the field this year and how big a step Bray makes. Bray falters, Dooley is gone, pure and simple.
It should be an interesting season....
Labels: tennessee football, tennessee sports
posted by Michael Hickerson at 7/26/2012 08:26:00 AM |
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