I’ve mentioned Ian Williams’ draft diary at the South Bend Tribune before, but you really should be checking out his updates as he preps for the upcoming NFL Draft.
This week, Ian checks in as he works on getting his 40-yard dash time down, where I’m guessing he’s trying to find a way to clock in at sub 5.0, no easy feat for a guy that weighs over 300 pounds. (As Ian mentioned, it’s all in your start...)
Between training in Chicago, taking his first business class this spring, and getting prepped for piano class, Williams also had some very level-headed commentary on Michael Floyd, and his future with the Fighting Irish football team.One of the great things about being back up here is seeing all of my old teammates. I talk to a lot of them, including Michael Floyd.
What happened to him (arrested for drunk driving early Sunday morning and subsequently indefinitely suspended from the team) was a tough incident. I wish that upon nobody.
I actually was in town the night that it happened. I actually called him a couple of hours before everything happened, and I’ve talked to him since.
He says he’s learned his lesson. He’s looking to get back into the spotlight and show people that’s not really him, because that’s not Michael Floyd.
We’re all in college, we all make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. He’s learned his lesson. He’s looking to move forward and get past this moment.
I hope Res Life (Notre Dame’s disciplinary arm) lets him do that. Res Life is tough. I remember when I was getting recruited, people were telling me don’t be scared of the laws. Res Life is what you should be scared of.
I just hope they give him a break. It’s a one-time offense. He’s truly sorry. It’s not like he was doing it on purpose. I don’t know why he was doing it, but I know it wasn’t like, “Oh. I’m Michael Floyd. Nothing will happen to me.” I just hope they give him a second chance.
As an athlete, you know what you’re getting into with the spotlight. And you can take it two ways.
We do what we do, knowing our lives are going to be public, everything we do is going to be public. That’s kind of a side effect of being an athlete, playing basketball or football or whatever.
You can take it and run and do something good with it or you can take it and run and do something bad with it. It comes down to how you perceive it and how you want to take it on.
I just want to let everyone know that Floyd is a great kid. He will get past this and will be great this season. Don’t worry about it.
One of the problems with sports media and the current state of our culture is that we’re forced to make snap judgments. Black or white, right or wrong. There’s no room for gray or degrees of fault. At every level, what Michael did was wrong, and now he’s left it up to the university, and after that, head coach Brian Kelly, to decide what the proper punishment is for one of the team’s best examples and leaders. (That didn’t change after one bad Saturday night.)
As someone that’s watched Michael Floyd play football since he was a ninth grader and as someone who doesn’t even try to hide his prejudicial preference for all things No. 3, it’s hard for me to be someone who argues for anything other than giving Floyd a second chance.
Driving drunk is a terrible mistake and something someone like Floyd, who turned down millions of dollars to return to school, should know better not to do. Yet he’s spent the last four years of his life at Notre Dame, a pro-alcohol school and before that CDH, another place where students seem to only struggle with the alcohol bug. It’s easy to get indignant as a fan that realizes how privileged. Yet there’s no reason not to think that Floyd don’t deserves a second chance, and if he makes it through Res Life, and into the fall semester, he’ll be back on the field.
Until then, we’ll just have to find out...