Tuscaloosa News— Cecil Hurt:
Kenyan Drake's bad decisions are adding up
There are criminals in our society. I don’t think Kenyan Drake is one of them. There are rebels and sociopaths and maybe a few creaking anarchists left over from the Emma Goldman days. I don’t think Drake is one of those, either.
Drake is a young man who makes some bad decisions. As an old man who also makes bad decisions, I can understand that malady without excusing it. Also worth noting: I am not trying to function as part of a 100-man football team, which requires adhering to some pretty strict rules. Drake is a unique talent at running back, blessed with off-the-line explosion that wouldn’t have been out of place among the July 4th fireworks on the river. But Drake’s promising career has moved ahead by fits and starts, seemingly hampered as much by his own off-the-field issues as the crowded Crimson Tide backfield.
Nick Saban has described those Drake issues as “nothing big,” but as an accumulation of minor frustrations in terms of fulfilling his responsibilities.
The popular question among Alabama fans at the end of last season was “Where’s Drake?” But while nothing has been released officially, logic suggests the same question — “Where’s Drake?” — had been asked by Saban and his staff, too, in relation to team meetings, or classes, or mandatory study halls.
His last brush with Saban’s authority came just before A-Day, when he and Altee Tenpenny were held out of spring practice for a day for what Saban described as “not doing what they were supposed to do” academically.
The latest incident, while non-academic, fits squarely into the “not doing what he was supposed to do” category. According to the official version of events, Drake crossed a yellow-tape police barrier into a crime scene investigation, even after being told he could not go into a parking lot and retrieve his car.
Again, I understand inconvenience, impatience and immaturity can lead to poor choices, but this is something you just don’t do. Law enforcement was examining the scene of a shooting incident. Their work could possibly lead to saving someone’s life, if they arrested a shooter. That’s infinitely more important than getting your car and going home, and the adult thing to do is hold tight until the police get done. But of all Drake’s talents, holding tight hasn’t been one that he has displayed.
Taken individually, Drake’s transgressions, known and assumed, don’t seem to make him a menace to society. But Saban, when he gathers information and decides what to do, isn’t simply going to take things individually.
Drake has been in the doghouse for so long, it seems, that he should have just purchased a dog condominium and saved on rent. He seems certain to stay there, and lose depth-chart traction at the most crammed-with-talent position on the team. But I am less certain that Saban is actually going to evict him.
If it were only a petulant moment that led to Drake’s arrest, permanent banishment would seem like more punishment than would fit the crime. But there are two factors that no one can determine except Saban.
First, just how much Drake frustration can he bear? Second, how much of a statement does he want to make about the slippage in “attention to detail” that caught up with Alabama last season?
I don’t think Drake is a criminal, or a rebel. But will he be an example? That decision rests with Alabama’s head coach
Marquavius Burnett @Marq_Burnett 
