Second Chances, Forgiveness, Not Applicable for Everyone

This is good news. Well, it’s bad news, but for me it’s good news.

I’ve never believed in second chances, at least not when you do something this unethical. Now I have a second story to back me up.

No, I’m not talking about Michael Vick. Sure, what he did was wrong, bad, evil, sure, but it never once made me question if he were human. Sick, demented, yes, but at least a little bit human. Just a little bit.

But Jamar Hornsby is not human. At the very least, I wish he were not. I don’t want him in my species. I don’t want him on my planet.

That may sound harsh, that may sound evil, but it’s not. Not after what he has done.

Hornsby had quite a few run-ins with authority even before he stole a dead girl’s credit card and tried to use it. Quite a few.

He was a five-star recruit out of Sandlewood High School in Jacksonville, Fla. in 2006 when he signed a letter of intent to play football at the University of Florida. He was heavily recruited by almost every major school in the country and almost committed to Michigan. The Wolverines even offered him the coveted number one jersey, the same jersey worn by legendary receivers Anthony Carter and Braylon Edwards.

He could play almost any position: wide receiver, safety, cornerback, heck, the scouts thought he was big enough to even be a dominant linebacker. This boy could play.

Somewhere, everything went wrong.

As a sophomore, Hornsby was suspended five games for selling his ticket allotment to make money.

“I know I’ll never do something like that again,” he said.

And he never did. Everything he did was nothing like that.

In April 2007, Hornsby was arrested for throwing a man onto the hood of his car during a fight.

The University still was willing to give Hornsby a third chance.

That’s when he decided to leave the human race.

On October 12, 2007, just after midnight, Michael Guilford and Ashley Slonina died instantaneously when Guilford’s motorcycle hit the meridian at extremely high speeds. Guilford was 19 and Slonina was 20.

Guilford had gained some minor notoriety the previous December and January for his exploits on the practice field.

A walk-on for the University of Florida, Guilford spent all his time as the scout team quarterback. In the lead-up to the 2007 BCS National Championship Game against Ohio State, he played the role of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Troy Smith.

Slonina was a longtime friend of Hornsby.

Somehow, Hornsby ended up with her credit card. Okay.

One day after she died and Hornsby’s teammate died, Hornsby decided to use that credit.

He used it 70 times, totaling up over $3000 in charges.

One day after his teammate died. One day after his friend died.

There are many people I’m willing to forgive. Many. I’m willing to forgive the men who murdered my grandfather; I’m willing to forgive the cowards who took down Columbine High School almost 10 years ago; I’m willing to forgive the soldiers who followed Hitler’s or Pol Pot’s or Pinochet’s every word. Time can heal awful decisions.

But time cannot heal this. At least not to me. If you kill someone who is already dead, you’re just not human.

Take Dave Bliss, for example.

The former Baylor men’s basketball coach oversaw one of the worst scandals ever to plague collegiate sports, if not the worst. Southern Methodist? Nobody died over that.

At Baylor, Carlton Dotson, a Baylor basketball player, murdered his teammate, walk-on Patrick Dennehy. How does Bliss get involved? Dennehy was not really a walk-on.

Bliss gave Dennehy an illegal scholarship. The team had already reached its limit, so Bliss paid for Dennehy to attend against NCAA regulations.

Then, after the media got involved, Bliss ordered his assistant coaches and players to say that Dennehy paid for his education by dealing drugs. He said a dead boy, a boy he was supposed to turn into a man, paid for his education by dealing drugs. He said that to the boy’s mother and stepfather.

I can forgive Carlton Dotson; he made a fatal mistake. I cannot forgive Dave Bliss; I cannot forgive what he did to a dead boy.

Dotson did a human act, a vile, immoral, evil act. But it still was a human act. And time can allow him to be forgiven, even possibly one day by Dennehy’s mother and step-father. Valorie and Brian Brabazon do not have to forgive him if they do not want to, but they have the ability. He does not deserve forgiveness, but that is the Brabazon’s choice.

But what Bliss did is just incomprehensible. I have never seen anything like it; it is not human. And I pray Dennehy’s family never forgives him. Personally, I don’t see how forgiveness is possible.

Jamar Hornsby is no different.

His teammate died. One of his friends died. And the next day, he is using his friend’s credit card so he does not have to spend money. He is stealing from the dead.

That’s not human. That does not deserve a second chance.

For once, thankfully, at least someone agreed. Urban Meyer kicked him off the team. Goodbye, gone, see ya.

But Hornsby still existed.

After playing at a junior college for the past year, Hornsby signed a letter of intent this past February to play football at Ole Miss.

Yes, someone found it moral and dignified to give this monster a free education and allow him into an institute of higher learning, all in hopes of winning at football. All less than a year after the last time he spent a dead girl’s money. And Hornsby wasted no time showing why he did not deserve a second chance.

On March 1, Hornsby was arrested and charged with felony assault and petit larceny after he beat a man at a McDonald’s drive-through with brass knuckles.

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said he will wait until there are more details before he makes a decision on Hornsby, but in all likelihood Hornsby is done at Ole Miss.

Even if Nutt does not make the correct choice, Hornsby faces up to 20 years in prison on the aggravated assault charge and another four for violating the probation he received for using a dead girl’s credit card.

Either way, the lesson has been learned.

Some people deserve a second chance. Some deserve to be forgiven. But when you kill the dead, you’re done. You don’t deserve another go. Only an idiot would give it to you.

Until now, I’ve had Dave Bliss to back me up. Now I have someone who is just as sick.

NFL, take back Michael Vick. Give him another go. If he blows it, fine, he’s done. But give him another chance. Odds are he will blow it. He made a mistake, an evil mistake, but a human mistake.

As long as you are human you can feel remorse.

But don’t ever give Dave Bliss or Jamar Hornsby another chance. Don’t ever forgive them. There is no logically human way to explain what they did.

How either of them could do that to someone who just died is inconceivable. It’s cruel. I want it not to be human.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not.