Domestic violence is a pathetic plague upon our society.
Charges of domestic violence are a serious red flag, especially when they come in bunches, innocence presumed or not. It’s left to the court to determine their veracity.
When red flags are waved around a football talent, a former Utah running back good enough to have rushed for over a thousand yards and 21 touchdowns in a single season, garnering All-Pac-12 first-team honors, on the brink of a possible NFL career, they go beyond a tragedy — pending the court’s decisions — straight into a wall of waste.
I do not know about Tavion Thomas, at least not about the charges he faces of three felonies for allegedly threatening a girlfriend with a knife, denying her proper possession of her car keys and her phone and threatening her that if she called for help, she would be “dead before the police arrive.”
What I do know is that he was recently booked into the Salt Lake County jail, where he remains, being held without bail. And that twice before over the last six months Thomas has been accused of being violent, a threat to women. And that his girlfriend earlier this week told a judge he should be released, needing treatment for bipolar and borderline personality disorders. The court may have agreed with the last part, but not the first, not right now. That’s a matter of record.
What else is a matter of record is that Thomas is a skilled back who can flat run the football. And that when he’s OK off the field, he can be great on it.
Anybody who watched him during his first season at Utah, season before last, can attest to that. In a program that has featured more than a few fantastic running backs through the years, Thomas looked as promising as any of them. And, as mentioned, that’s saying something.
The 2022 season was his for the taking. He could have been an undisputed star. And given his physical abilities, the 1,106 yards he gained the previous year, and Kyle Whittingham’s tendency to feed gifted backs, there was ample elasticity in imagining what the next numbers would have been, could have been. And that’s just at Utah. The NFL beckoned, too.
Yes, it was.
Smack dab in the middle of his preparation for the coming NFL draft, Thomas has been charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping in the course of committing unlawful detention and two counts of aggravated assault. Penalties attached to those alleged crimes, if found guilty, could lead to multiple years in prison. For full details, read Kevin Reynolds’ report in The Salt Lake Tribune.
No matter how it turns out, it is a sad story, a story of so much promise now cluttered with so much complication. If Thomas needs mental health treatment, medication, counseling, get it to him. If he needs incarceration, get it to him. If he needs both, get it to him.
Tales like this tear an objective observer apart. Mental health issues are real and deserve attention. But allegations of, among other crimes, pulling a knife on a woman, taking her phone and car keys away, preventing her from escape in a threatening situation deserve consequences, too.
Either way, football suddenly seems a minor flick on the radar screen for Thomas when it could have been the major focus, a triumphant one, even. And perhaps it will yet be exactly that. I’m no judge, no jury. Still, even presumed innocence by itself doesn’t open up a clear path for the running back now.
Justice of one kind or another stands in front of whatever comes after that, whatever it is — football opportunity, football stardom, football money — acquiesces for the time being to the decision of the court.
Complication has indeed eclipsed promise.
And those who once cheered for Tavion Thomas, who screamed their guts out for his grand achievements on the field, who appreciated his talent and effort and success, now are left in a cloud, not knowing who to cheer for.
They only know what to cheer for … healing and, uh-huh, justice.
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