The TCU football fallout stemming from Wednesday's campus-wide drug bust might not be over.
Tanner Brock (Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire)Four players - linebacker Tanner Brock, safety Devin Johnson, tackle Ty Horn, and defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey — all were arrested and dismissed from the football team, but the affidavits of their arrests suggest drug abuse throughout the entire program, not just those four players.
In the arrest affidavit for Tanner Brock, the undercover officer who was buying from him stated that Brock told him coach Gary Patterson held a surprise drug test on Feb. 1 and that there "would be about 60 people being screwed." Brock told the undercover officer that Horn looked through the roster and found just 20 players that would pass the drug test.
In the arrest affidavit for Johnson, he told an undercover officer regarding the drug test, "what can they do, 82 people failed it."
On Wednesday, police said they were not sure whether other football players were involved or whether they'd be charged. Chancellor Victor Boschini seemed confident football's involvement was limited to those four players.
"I don't think it's a football problem," Boschini said.
Gary Patterson (Sarah Glenn/Getty)However, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram cited a source saying that a high-level recruit told Patterson he would not attend TCU because of drug use by players. That's what prompted Patterson to spring the pop drug test — on National Signing Day of all days.
The results of the tests are not known and TCU does not have to share those results since it's a private university and the drug tests were not NCAA mandated.
The school said in a statement that the words of the former players couldn't be trusted.
"The comments about failed drug tests made by the separated players in affidavits cannot be verified simply because they were made in the context of a drug buy," the statement said.
Patterson said in a written statement that he did not know about the activities of his four former players and that drug use has never been tolerated under his watch.
"Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU's student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff," Patterson said. "I believe strongly that young people's lives are more important than wins or losses."
Despite protests that TCU football doesn't have a drug problem, it's clear that this story is not going away until some evidence backing up those statements can be produced one way or the other.
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Fist bump to Fort Worth Star-Telegram for being all over this story.
Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham
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