Several Gator football players have been involved in a serious off the field matter that did not result in criminal charges being brought, but could result in University discipline. The story was first reported by FirstCoastNews.
Two quick disclaimer before I get to the story. One, some of the details you’re about to read, which I will clearly notate, are purely allegations from a less than reputable character, so it shouldn’t all be taken as gospel. Two, while this isn’t a case of crime and punishment in a legal sense, this is a case of such horrendous decision making that lives could have been forever altered if not lost because of it.
The story goes like this. The relationships between several Gator football players and a Gainesville gambler named DeVante Zachery, nicknamed Tay Bang, turned sour. It reached a boiling point on May 28, when Florida players confronted Tay Bang en masse, warning “we coming back strapped” before leaving and then following through on their promise by returning wielding rocks, frying pans, baseball bats and what appeared to assault rifles.
UF police were called to the Keys Residence complex to break it up, and when it was all said and done, Kadarius Toney and Kyree Campbell were referred to UF’s Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution department for brandishing what turned out to be airsoft rifles- a fact that was unknown at the time and could have potentially caused disaster due to this not being known- and Tyrie Cleveland, Emory Jones, Kemore Gamble and Rick Wells were also sent to the metaphorical principal’s office for lying about the incident to the police.
The police report also made a point of noting, multiple times, that the cops didn’t really believe everything about Tay Bang’s story.
It gets weirder, though. C’yontai Lewis told police that he and Tay Bang were good friends while Florida was winning, but once the 2017 season came off the rails, Tay Bang began referring to the team as “garbage” and whine about losing money that he bet on them to win. Objectively speaking, this feels like a good point to terminate a friendship. Which Lewis apparently did, although either he or his teammates obviously maintained contact with him since then- and the failure to not do so may have helped incite the madness that followed.
Because while the May 28 incident was the main story, it was far from the end of the conflict. On America’s birthday, the two parties evidently decided to orchestrate their own Fourth of July fireworks show. A fight broke out near the Rain Night Club in Gainesville that reportedly ended with one of Tay Bang’s friends knocking Tyrie Cleveland unconscious. Tay Bang denied being at the scene and declined to tell the Gainesville Police who actually struck Cleveland, adding that the assault caused him for fear for his life.
Perhaps most troubling of all was a seemingly unrelated July 22 incident, in which Toney was pulled over and a rifle was discovered in his car- a real one. Toney claimed that he had it to protect himself from the locals. Now I’m just spitballing here, but by “locals,” I’m going to guess that he might have potentially meant Tay Bang and his goons. Toney did not face consequences as a result of this stop.
And then to cap it all off, Tay Bang claimed that he provided two Gator players with discounts on rental cars. That would be a big no-no that the NCAA will pursue to the fullest extent possible if true, and could potentially lob an ugly dark cloud over the program if the claim is deemed to be somewhat credible. In terms of possible ramifications, that little nugget is actually the most potentially damaging thing to come out of this… again, if proven to be true. I’m not publishing the names of the two players because I don’t find myself particularly inclined to believe a man who calls himself Tay Bang for a billion different reasons, but if it is true, Florida suddenly has a whole different mess on its hands.
It’s again worth pointing out that no criminal charges will ensue from this story, at least not as of this publishing. But now that more facts are out, let’s take a second to consider just how stupid of a decision these players made.
Brandishing what looks like a weapon in the state of Florida after displaying hostile behavior and intent to do damage (which the players vocalized by saying “we coming back strapped”) just might be the single dumbest thing a human being can do without breaking the law. It doesn’t matter that Campbell and Toney did not actually possess guns; all that matters is that it looked like they did. Had Tay Bang (or one of his cohorts) shot the two players dead in their tracks, it’s completely conceivable that he would not have been charged with a crime due to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” statute and the lives of Toney and Campbell would be over before they finished college. It’s a terrifying thing to imagine, but it could have so easily happened that it’s completely appropriate to point out the worst case scenario that could have arisen from it.
I’ll admit that for a couple of days now, I wrestled with the dilemma of whether to write about this story or not and give it even more attention than it already got. In addition for wanting to wait for more facts to come out, I initially didn’t want to write about it because the players involved- and I cannot stress this enough- did not commit a crime. Plus, they’re kids, or at least sub-25 year olds, which science dictates is the age at which the brain fully matures. Raise your hand if you never did anything stupid as a kid. Lots of times when a kid does something dumb, grounding, suspending or even firing him from a job can be accomplished without creating more ink about the kid that lives on forever. Now imagine you did that same dumb thing you did as a kid, but you played Division I Football. Your name is now in the paper, easily accessible to anybody who wants to look at you for a job or anything else, and it never goes away. I wrestled with that same dilemma with the Caleb Brantley and Adam Lane bowling alley story, but ultimately chose to write about it because they broke the law and their names would already come up in arrest records.
But issue here isn’t that the situation was criminal, it’s that it was potentially life-threatening. The absolutely insane levels of stupidity these players demonstrated is a lesson that others must learn from, and the players themselves would be wise to learn from. Hopefully they do, because if they don’t, their life paths do not look very bright. I wish each and every one of them the best as they attempt to grow and learn from this situation.