North Dakota might not be the first place you think of when it comes to sports crime, but if the players up there maintain their recent pace, we might soon be listing the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux alongside such infamous programs as the University of Miami Hurricanes and the Florida State University Seminoles. The latest UND mishap (we'll cover the football team's bumbles at some other time) involves hockey player Matt Frattin and former Fighting Sioux Joe Finley, who were arrested for hurling so much stuff out of a residential garage that traffic had to be halted on the streets of Grand Forks.
| LEADER BOARD TOP TEN 1)ERIC NAPOSKI (EX-PATRIOTS) | film noir–style murder-for-hire plot | 96 2)JOPIERRE DAVIS (EX-HAWAII) | multiple rape counts | 92 3)LAZARE ADINGONO (CANISIUS, EX-URI) | beating four-year-old child with belt | 91 4)DAVE MEGGETT (EX-GIANTS, PATRIOTS) | channeling Cecil Collins, multiple sexual assaults | 90 5)DONTE STALLWORTH (BROWNS, EX-PATRIOTS) | DUI manslaughter | 88 6)JOHN STEPHENS (EX-PATRIOTS) | forcible rape | 80 7)EVERARDO DANIEL ORDONEZ AND GUSTAVA GIALIL BACA MARCOS (EX–MEXICAN LITTLE LEAGUE) | kidnapping a perfectly nice person | 75 8)LUIS RAY PENA (TEXAS LUTHERAN) | robbing Little Caesar's with a shotgun | 71 9)BRANDON MONROE AND JOURDAN ELLISON (NORFOLK STATE) | conspiring to pick up dudes and rob them at gunpoint in a motel room | 70 9)KIRK SNYDER (EX-NBA) | invading home of married dentists, beating them with fists and alarm clock | 70 *** MATT FRATTIN (UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA) | throwing lawn mower into street | 14 QUINCY CARTER (EX-COWBOYS) | just flaming out generally, DUI, failing to appear | 43 |
It seems this was Finley's house, and items thrown on the street included plates, glassware, a lawnmower, and a kitchen table. The two men, when finally caught, reportedly said they "routinely destroy each others' stuff." Finley was accused of giving false information to police, while Frattin was hit with a charge for fleeing the scene. All the charges are misdemeanors. Frattin, the UND's third-leading scorer, may see his scholarship reduced. He will also have to attend counseling.
In perhaps the least surprising statement to appear in a newspaper this year, police said "alcohol played a role in the incident."
Fourteen points for these goofballs. Does hockey rule, or what?
ANOTHER ONE BITES
Always tough when you see a once-prominent athlete take that next step downward in his post-career existence. You know: when he goes from being a guy who gets busted once for a DUI to being a full-blown Todd Marinovich type — a guy who is constantly in trouble for something, a guy who gets arrested even while out on bail after an arrest a week before.
It's a select club. And Quincy Carter, former quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, is now entering that territory.
Carter's career started to go downhill back in 2004. The Cowboys went into camp with four quarterbacks: Carter, baseball flop Drew Henson, the then-recently signed Vinny Testaverde, and third-stringer Tony Romo. Carter apparently expected the team to cut Romo and keep him around. Instead, he was cut himself, with the Cowboys saying he failed a drug test and generally could not be trusted.
Carter played a couple more games as Chad Pennington's backup in New York, then flamed out. He bounced on and off teams in all sorts of places, from the CFL to the Arena League and beyond, and each time ended up leaving because of marijuana-related arrests and/or drug problems. This year, he had several run-ins with the law, including a DUI and a probation violation. In June, after hooking on with what looked to be his last-chance team, the Abilene Ruff Riders of the Indoor Football League, he was busted again for failing to pay a bail bondsman. He then blew off a big game on July 4 and got cut.
Now Carter has yet another warrant out for his arrest, this time for failing to appear at hearings for marijuana charges and the DUI. Give him 43 points total for the DUI and the rest of his latest antics — something tells me we haven't heard the last of Quincy in these pages.
HANDS BACK ON DECK
Speaking of Florida State, it behooves us here, in the interest of fairness, to report that Seminoles wide receiver Richard Goodman has had charges that he threw a chair in a bar fight — a toss that broke a woman's face — dropped. The state attorney's office announced last week that it would dismiss the felony-battery charge against Goodman due to lack of evidence and the fact that there was "no reasonable likelihood of securing a conviction" against him.
This is good news for Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, who lost an improbable number of wideouts to arrests, off-field trouble, and injury. Now, he gets at least one back, as he announced last week that Goodman "will be reinstated to the team immediately."
Matt Taibbi can be reached atm_taibbi@yahoo.com.
