ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Out of Bounds in Fullerton

On the playing field, football players can be penalized for unnecessary roughness. So how many incidents of off-the-field violence involving football players will it take before Cal State Fullerton recognizes that it has a problem and gets serious about discipline?

In 1988, several team players were involved in the beating death of a Marine outside a Fullerton bar. The district attorney’s office decided not to prosecute because it found that the incident was an “excusable homicide.” But after team coach Gene Murphy included a rule in the team playbook declaring local bars off-limits, the players involved were soon back playing football.

A second incident two months ago resulted in the suspension of two players from spring workouts after they were involved in a fight inside a campus pub. Then last week, one player was shot by an off-duty Pasadena police officer. The officer said he was trying to break up a fight outside a bar and ended up being gang-tackled by bar-hopping football players for his efforts.

The players’ game is football, but the rules of baseball should apply here. Three incidents are like three strikes. Clearly, the guidelines and disciplinary action taken to date have not been strong enough to deter Cal State Fullerton players from getting involved in extra-curricular sparring matches.

The latest should be enough to prompt some expulsions from the team at last. And how about a strong message from the university administration that if the coach can’t keep his players in line, then he’ll be out, too? Ultimately, it’s the coach’s job to set the standard for his team. True, he can’t always control what his players do off the field, but he can say what conduct is off-limits for students wanting to participate in his sport. There have been enough examples around the country of college football programs tolerating thuggish behavior from players. It not only hurts their victims but their university’s reputation as well.