Update:
The comments I have received on this post lead me to remind us all that the incident wasn’t publicized by the Oregon State Athletic department, which in its defense has a “no comment” policy on player’s legal issues. It only came to light after the Corvallis Gazette-Times unearthed the police report.
Please remember to keep your comments based on the correlating post. The reply boards at The [Five] are not a forum for rumors, gossip, or non-sports material. There are plenty of other venues available for that type of conversation. Feel free to go after those webfeet to the South, but do it with some class. Any comments not meeting these standards will be removed. ***
It is now widely known that junior safety Francis “Al” Afalava was arrested earlier this month on charges of DUII and failure to perform the duties of a driver. Head Coach Mike Riley has yet to make any public statement on the incident.
Afalava, who will be a senior and a likely starter next season, was apparently driving intoxicated when he plowed his vehicle into a Corvallis bus stop early in the morning of February 9th . However, the episode was not widely reported until yesterday.
The Oregonian is reporting that Riley is on vacation this week, so I would expect to hear a suspension announced upon his arrival.
A suspension would likely come in the form of missed games next next season-and this is February, but the team’s response is likely to be compared with UO’s response to Luke Bellotti’s DUII’s. A bus stop could just as easily be a pedestrian, and this can’t be a just a slap on the wrist.
Agreed. For all the talk about UO its time OS put our money where our mouths are.
Steve,
OS already is a step ahead of UofO by not hiding one, or even two similar arrests.
Riley has done the right thing in other disciplinary situations why would he stop now? Riley is going to make a decision based on facts, based on policy, based on data from the police department and the player. Why would this one incident define Riley’s character? It doesn’t and it won’t. It would be poor character for Riley to base his decision on the writings of talk show hosts, bloggers, and the opinions of fans.
Character is an all day, everyday deal.
Suspect character? Check the AD at the UofO.
If someone showed a repeated pattern of poor character traits I could see where you’d say..ok, the next incident will further define coach X character as being weak.
Mike Riley and his staff have shown nothing but excellent character during their time at Oregon State. Maybe you missed the piece on an Oregon State coach donating a kidney to another coach’s wife.
With that said, there is no comparison to oregon v. Oregon State. Oregon States incidents get reported, Oregon State disciplines its players that run astray, and the wives of Oregon State coaches conduct themselves with class. Oregon didn’t act until forced, and after multiple offenses by the coaches son, and the coaches wife showed a characteristic of someone who has suspect character…
OS Football – THE BLACK AND ORANGE DON’T FADE
Michael,
I never used the word “define” anywhere in the post, so I’m not sure where exactly that’s coming from. The point is that every incident like this brings an opportunity for Riley’s staff to do the right thing.
Nothing I wrote was critical of Riley in the slightest way. As always, thanks for the comment.
CE
Yea, whatever happened to this case? Has there been anything else?