For the fifth day in a row, a college football player has made news for the wrong reason, with Iowa State the latest school forced to deal with an off-field issue.
According to the Des Moines Register, linebacker Matt Tau’fo’ou was arrested very early Saturday morning and charged with a drunk driving offense. The junior was pulled over by campus police because his “driving was consistent with that of someone who was possibly driving while intoxicated” ISU deputy police chief Rob Bowers told the paper.
As a result of the arrest, Tau’fo’ou has been suspended indefinitely.
This is Tau’fo’ou’s second arrest since joining the team in 2009; in September of that year, he was charged with misdemeanor theft after lifting a wireless computer adapter from a campus bookstore.
In 2010, Tau’fo’ou started two of the five games he played in.
Driving under impairment (alcohol or other drugs) kills: more than 3 people under the age of 21 die each day in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. (Source: NHTSA/FARS, 2010). On the average someone is killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash about every 50 minutes in the U.S. Tau’fo’ou needs help. He has more than 1 problem. We hope he will receive effective counsel and a program to help him make better decisions, especially those decisions that could cost someone their health or life, including himself. We understand the school/team has suspended him indefinitely. This is a decision they felt they had to make. However, we hope they will follow up with counseling, but even improve on this by helping to prevent this from occurring again by providing preventive counseling or pre-emptive counseling programs. Come on Iowa State, Iowa, USC, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, LSU, and all, if you don’t have these programs in place now, then get them for your student athletes and everyone else!
@ southernpatriots
Well said!
cubano76: Thank you. You are very kind. We have communicated with SADD and MADD to in turn communicate with Iowa State. We hope they will offer their counseling services to them and that they will be accepted. Thank you again.