Jim McElwain has been picking up recruits left and right this weekend, but it hasn’t exactly been the smoothest weekend off the field.
Florida wide receiver Alvin Bailey has been arrested for failing to appear in court. On May 8th, 2014, Bailey was cited for driving a car with a suspended driver’s license. Almost exactly one year later, this past May 4th, Bailey was cited again for the exact same thing. He was then ordered to appear in court, which he did not do; hence the warrant for his arrest.
Bailey was arrested this afternoon a little after 3:30pm, and booked some 90 minutes later. As of this publishing he remains in jail on $5,000 bond.
UPDATE: Court records show that Bailey posted bond at approximately 10:00pm tonight, and has been released from jail.
Bailey’s just adding to the troublemaking parade. Late last night, I learned that Adam Lane and Caleb Brantley were cited for walking out on a restaurant tab a few weeks ago. Neither crime is particularly malicious, but neither crime would have been committed had the involved players utilized even a grain of common sense. Like I said about Lane and Brantley, Bailey isn’t exactly the world’s most brilliant human being for this petulant display of come-and-make-me, but it’s not worthy of crucifixion, either. He did something stupid. Or a few things stupid. He needs a good talking-to from Jim McElwain, and a little extra conditioning on the side, but no real heavy punishment should come from this.
I will say this: I pray for the day when I can be breaking positive news stories instead of ones like this, with Gators getting in trouble. And so I call on the Gator student athletes to follow Coach McElwain’s most prominent message: just do the right thing.
