It appears that a whole bunch of TCU football players were scoring pot and possibly cocaine, ecstasy and prescription drugs as well. And four of them boosted their athletic scholarship funds by going into the dope dealing business.
TCU FOOTBALL: 4 PLAYERS CAUGHT IN DRUG DRAGNET
Fox Sports
February 16, 2012
FORT WORTH - TCU football players told undercover officers that drug use was widespread among the team, according to affidavits released Wednesday after the arrest of 18 people on drug charges.
The details disclosed in their arrest warrant affidavits are a blow to one of the most respected programs in college football and one that was expected to contend for the Big 12 title this year in its first season in the league.
Police say four players - linebacker Tanner Brock, defensive lineman D.J. Yendrey, offensive tackle Ty Horn and cornerback Devin Johnson - sold marijuana to students and football players. They have been kicked off the team.
The 18 people arrested - 15 of them students - were caught making "hand-to-hand" sales of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and prescription drugs to undercover officers, police said.
Brock was being held on $10,000 bond at the Mansfield city jail. Johnson and Horn were being transferred to the jail on Wednesday, and Yendrey had not been arraigned.
Police said they had yet to determine if other football players were involved or would be charged.
The documents say coach Gary Patterson sprung a surprise drug test on the football team on Feb. 1 and that Brock later told an undercover officer there "would be about 60 people being screwed" as a result of the test. Sources said Patterson ordered the drug test after a recruit told him he wouldn't attend because of drug use by players.
Patterson: 'I am mad'
During a drug buy, an undercover officer asked Johnson about the surprise drug test.
"What can they do? Eighty-two people failed it," Johnson said.
Patterson and athletic director Chris Del Conte declined numerous requests for interviews.
TCU spokeswoman Lisa Albert said the school tests its student-athletes for drug use on a regular basis.
"The university is refuting these comments (in the affidavits) because these comments were made in the context of a drug buy," she wrote in an email.
A statement by Patterson indicated he didn't know about the six-month investigation that led to the arrests early Wednesday.
"As I heard the news this morning, I was first shocked, then hurt, and now I am mad," Patterson said. "Under my watch, drugs and drug use by TCU's student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Our program is respected nationally for its strong ethics, and for that reason the players arrested today were separated from TCU by the university."
Brock, a junior who led the team in tackles during the Frogs' 13-0 Rose Bowl season in 2010, was sidelined after the 2011 season opener with an ankle injury. He was poised to take TCU's defensive leader mantle in 2012.
Yendrey, a defensive tackle, started 18 games the last two seasons. Johnson had eight career starts. Both started in December's Poinsettia Bowl and would have been seniors next season.
Horn would have been a junior. He started against SMU in 2011 and had played in 11 games, including the bowl.
Clear sailing until now
TCU has received almost universal positive press as Patterson has built the program into a perennial power. The Frogs are 47-5 over the last four seasons, including 11-2 in 2011.
Eighteen of 19 seniors on the 2011 TCU roster have already earned their degrees or are on track to graduate by May.
Last year, TCU was highlighted in a Sports Illustrated article as the only Top 25 team in 2010 with no players on its roster with criminal records. The article stated that TCU and Oklahoma were the only two schools in the Top 25 that perform criminal background checks on their recruits.
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