Commenting on a player who's name I can barely spell

I feel I have to comment a bit on the Ryan Perrilloux situation. It is always a shame when a promising football player goes off the reservation and acts the idiot, but quite frankly, it seems to go with the territory. While we may never understand this young man's motivation, I'm not really sure that we are required to.

Richard Pittman at Geaux Tuscaloosa has this post that, I think, strikes just the right tone:

I've read a lot of very strong opinions on this situation lately, mostly in the vein of "kick him off". People are saying he's a bad kid, a distraction to the team, a potential cancer, etc. This is all well and good, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but there are some important things to keep in mind.

Pittman goes on to describe several reasons why we should not be so quick to judge Perrilloux or the actions of the LSU coaching staff too harshly. I think that is right.

LSU Tigerbait has a number of links to mainstream sports media articles and blog posts that have advice for Miles. For example, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated:

While there's certainly nothing wrong with giving a guy a second chance, clearly Perrilloux is far beyond that point. LSU fans have become fed up enough to call for the quarterback's head on Tigers fan sites like DandyDon.com, where the site's namesake wrote Wednesday that "a good 90 percent of [his] e-mails are in favor of Les Miles dismissing Perrilloux from the team."

Well, that's it, then. We put it to a popular vote among the fans, what a great idea! Not. Pelican State Sports has this:

I think it safest that LSU fans accept the notion that Perrilloux may never take another snap as a Tiger. And truth be told, he probably shouldn’t. He has had numerous chances, and somehow his name keeps coming up in bad situations. I don’t know what he has done this time, but I am going to get ready for the idea that Jarrett Lee will be the Tiger starter next year.

Perrilloux has had numerous chances to get this right, and he has obviously failed. But I'm not sure that abandoning a troubled young man is necessarily the best thing. It may be, depending on the circumstances, but Les Miles apparently isn't ready to give up on him. We do have to remember that Perrilloux is not just a piece of meat that runs fast and can throw a football.

But the bottom line is, Perrilloux is not a first-time offender, and there comes a time at which you just have to let a guy go who hasn't made a good-faith attempt to take advantage of second chances. The "You can lead a horse to water ..." truism comes to mind.

Whatever happens, I feel bad for the young man and hope Tiger fans will give Miles a chance to sort this out. It's too bad, but it is an all too familiar situation in college sports these days.