After trading its role as the main story in Florida football for that of a rather prominent subplot to the Gators’ heartbreaking 35-28 loss to LSU, the Will Grier situation is back on the front lines with an interesting twist- one that elicits strong hope from Florida fans.
The Grier family has hired the law firm Morgan and Morgan to handle his appeal, a team that includes Clay Townsend, the father of Florida punter Johnny Townsend and a UF graduate. That itself is an interesting tidbit, but what’s more telling- and important- is that soon after being put on the case, one of their main attorneys felt confident enough to tweet out a bit of reassurance to Florida fans:
“@MattMorganESQ: We’ll be handling the #WillGrier appeal. Rest easy #GatorNation”
Of course, this could just be meant to draw attention to the case, although law firms’ namesake representatives don’t generally come out with such a public declaration to “rest easy” if they don’t truly believe to have a strong case. There is the fact of the matter that Matt Morgan deleted that tweet, which is why I had to grab a manual RT screenshot, but my original thought holds- he would never have put that out there if he wasn’t confident he’d win the case.
It is worth reminding people, though: this appeal is just meant to reduce Grier’s suspension to the point where they’d get him back next season. Grier missing the rest of 2015, no matter how far the Gators go, is a foregone conclusion.
Now I’m totally aware that at this point, Florida has to move on from Will Grier, and shift focus to supporting Treon Harris and the current group of Gators players that are actually out on the field. Clamoring for Grier’s reinstatement rather than showing support for Harris and the Gator football team as a whole in a time where they could really use it doesn’t do anything to help matters. Trust me, I get that.
But Grier got a horrible deal as a result of a mistake he made out of foolishness rather than immorality. So he too deserves our support. And so now we as Gator fans owe it to him to give it to him as the appeals process continues.
