Justin Blackmon gets 2nd DUI? Wow.
Reports are that Justin Blackmon, interviewed in the video below by myself and Julie Buehler, who’s new radio show starts tomorrow on 1010 AM in the Palm Desert Of California, received a DUI. The Tulsa World reports that he was booked in the Payne County Jail at 10 PM on a “complaint of aggravated DUI.”
On The NFL Red Carpet
When I met Justin Blackmon at the NFL Draft in New York, I talked to him three times: at NFL Draft Play 60, on the NFL Draft Red Carpet, and after he was picked as the Jacksonville Jaguar’s NFL Draft 1st Round Pick. On all occasions I didn’t get the read that he was a bad guy, and that’s not what getting a DUI means. I should know because I have my share of them. What it means is the flip side of what Blackmon and I talked about at the NFL Draft Red Carpet: fine restaurants, the symbol of the good life.
In this case, it sadly looks like Blackmon got his second taste of the flip side of the good life in just two years. Moreover, the difference between his and mine is that Blackmon was allegedly way over the limit, whereas I was not but close, and in two cases the police acted inappropriately, failed to show up in court, and the cases should have been dismissed – a key reason why mine were reduced to what is called a “wet reckless.” But the point here is Blackmon’s learning a hard lesson early: to be more responsible for what he does because he’s in the public eye now. It’s also a lesson in how to manage the excesses of life, and fine restaurants are certainly one of those.
The first DUI, the one Justin Blackmon received in 2010, was gotten after he went to a Dallas Cowboys game against the rules set by Oklahoma St. Cowboys Head Coach Mike Gundy, and before a key Big 12 Game against Kansas State. The Tulsa World reports that at a press conference held at the time he said “I’m embarrassed to be in this position. … I look forward to redeeming myself and proving to everybody that this isn’t who I am. I’m not this guy. I’m humbled by this experience and I will grow from it.”
But I can tell you once it happens to you, you think it’s not going to happen again. Then you get a period of real good fortune and forget to watch your P’s and Qs, and it does happen again. You feel like your snake-bit; but the reality is that it’s just the Lord’s way of telling you that you’ve got to keep what’s important in perspective, and it’s not partying and having a good time with the good life that’s most important.
Justin Blackmon’s not a bad guy, but he is a guy who needs friends around him who will make sure he uses a limo and doesn’t drink to excess. Perhaps he will gain those kids of friends among the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Time will tell.