Here are some details
from Phil Ford's arrest in Auburn Hills, according to the News &
Register, as obtained from the state of Michigan under the state's Freedom Of
Information Act:
- Ford had an open bottle of vodka under the driver's seat.
- The arresting officer said he saw Ford pour a liquid out the window
- Ford crossed the dividing line five times
- Ford was too drunk to do a finger count, and couldn't count audibly nor
sequentially. - The officer described Ford as "cooperative, sullen, staggering,
swaying, confused and polite."
It's probably a reasonable inference to assume that the liquid poured out the
window was the vodka, which leads to the next question: was Ford drinking while
driving?
And that leads us to repeat our question from the other day: surely someone
in the basketball office must have known the details of what happened. It
would boggle our mind to think that Dean Smith, who is legendary for keeping
tabs on his former players, would not have known precisely what happened in
Michigan to a member of his staff.Â
So given these unsavory details, we'd restate this: Ford was given a 1998
Buick. Auto companies traditionally debut their new models in the fall.
Ford was either given a car shortly before his arrest, and allowed to retain it
despite a DWI conviction, or, worse, given a car after a DWI
conviction. We'd just like to know if the state or the University has a
policy regarding DWIs and state vehicles and why the car had Virginia tags, and
a few other questions.
No one wants Ford to suffer anymore than he has, and everyone wants him to
put his house in order, but as more details emerge, it's becoming very difficult
to maintain sympathy for a guy who behaves like this. But he's apparently an addict and by definition therefore not in control. A tougher question is what Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge were thinking. If the assertions on GoHeels.com about several unofficial trips to rehab were correct, surely they knew that they might have a problem. The bigger question is who is accountable. Phil Ford is accountable for his own problems, of course, but his problem was certainly known, at least by the time of the Michigan arrest. Someone is responsible for allowing him to continue to drive and someone decided to allow him to keep the car. That person, or persons, has a lot to answer for, and they must go to sleep thanking God no one was killed in either the first case or the alleged second case, when Ford apparently blew a .24 on the breathalyzer.
******
Update
The Daily Tar Heel is now advocating that
Ford be fired.