After a troubling string of events related to Troy student athletes, the school has decided to beginning a new drug testing program. All student athletics at Troy University, including football players, will be subjected to drug tests within the next 30 days.
On the surface, this seems like a rather dramatic decision following the death of Jadarius Garner, who was killed after being struck by a vehicle on a local highway and a pair of significant potential troubles with the law by others. Former player Dimitri Miles has been charged with murder and freshman Taylor Diggers was previously charged with manslaughter in a separate incident.
Troy athletics director John Hartwell’s intent is to cut down on troubling incidents in the future for all student athletes. Perhaps drug testing is one measure to take to cut down on various potential problems, but is this a cure for the types of incidents the players listed above were found in? It does not seem like it, unless there is more to the story.
Enforcing drug policies is always a good thing though, and keeping players out of trouble with drugs and potential addictions cannot be criticized. But this is not going to be the single measure to prevent players from getting in to a number of off-field issues. We will see how successful this effort is over time.