Boston College Scandal Takes Toll

Suspected but cleared in the Boston College gambling scandal, cornerback Kiernan Speight said he will skip Saturday’s game against Notre Dame because “my heart isn’t in it.”

Speight, who turns 19 on Sunday, said he will return with his family to Washington, D.C., to rest and think about whether he’ll rejoin the team for the season’s last two games.

Boston College suspended 13 players this week for gambling, including two who bet against their own team. Although he was one of five players accused by teammates of gambling, Speight was not suspended, and his attorney said he has been exonerated by Middlesex County District Attorney Thomas Reilly.

“I’ve done everything BC has asked me to do. When the situation took place, I felt like there was no one on my side,” Speight said. “Somebody should tell me how my name was put in. Somebody should apologize.”

Speight was identified in newspapers after reporters watched through a windowed door as Coach Dan Henning and the team’s captains confronted him and three teammates.

Speight suspected he was included in the group because he was close friends with the other three.