The case studies of Stevens and Pharms may be more related than Neuheisel cares to allow, given the pattern of problems with both and the university's willingness to give each young man second and third chances in order to allow their continued presence on the UW football team. At some point, people need to be held accountable. And that time is now for Stevens, whose prior transgressions include a guilty plea to fourth-degree assault following a fight in his senior year of high school in Olympia and a subsequent failed drug test for marijuana while under house arrest in that case. I learned from it. Hopefully people can get to know me before they judge me.
Young adults commit errors in judgment.
Stevens allowed himself to be talked into taking part in a fight in a park that saw a friend of his charged with more serious second-degree assault for using a baseball bat to break another youth's jaw. Wrong place, wrong time for Stevens. If you're in a forgiving mood, the failed drug test falls into the same category, though no one would have blinked hard had the university chosen to rescind its scholarship offer to the then-promising quarterback prospect. Given that prosecutors eventually dropped the case for lack of evidence, Neuheisel had an open door to retain Stevens, who turned out to be an integral part of the Huskies' Rose Bowl season. Stevens' decision to flee the scene, if he turns out to be guilty, is enough to serve as the final straw.