COMEBACK ROUTE

Peter Warrick has come a long way since he told us, “It’s not like I shot the president.”

He met the enemy, it was himself, and there were repercussions.

Of the footage shot of Florida State’s star wide receiver this year--the spectacular catches, the cutback moves against lock-kneed tacklers--the snippet that will be most remembered was recorded by a surveillance camera Sept. 29, at Dillard’s department store in Tallahassee, Fla.

The pro scouts haven’t asked to see this clip.

It shows Warrick and a teammate in cahoots with a store clerk, who accepts $21.40 in exchange for $421.38 in clothes.

This was not an Our Prices Are Insane!! blowout sale.

This was illegal.

The stupidity of the act has yet to be fully explained but, really, what thief sets out expecting to get nabbed?

“If I would have known the consequences would be like that, I would have never done it,” Warrick said frankly.

The months since Warrick’s arrest have played out typically in the evolutionary acts of American scandal theater.

Warrick’s arrest and infamous knee-jerk quote were first met with indignation. When he was able to cop a potential felony charge to a misdemeanor, and swap jail time for community service, and return to the nation’s top-ranked team after missing only two games, it was easy to think another athlete was getting preferential treatment.

Warrick then endured a bombardment phase. Fans at Clemson chanted “jailbird, jailbird” at him, so affecting Warrick’s concentration that he dropped four passes. Before the Nov. 20 Florida game, outside “the Swamp” in Gainesville, merchants sold “Heistman Trophy” T-shirts, depicting the outstretched arm of the fabled sculpted trophy man clutching a Dillard’s shopping bag.

It was not enough, either, that Warrick’s arrest justly cost him the Heisman, awarded to the nation’s top collegiate player. The 900-plus voting members made sure Warrick did not place among the top five vote getters--he finished sixth--denying him an invitation to ceremonies at New York’s Downtown Athletic Club.

The snub pained Warrick, but not as much, he said, at his being overlooked for the Biletnikoff Award, awarded to the nation’s best receiver by Warrick’s hometown Tallahassee Quarterback Club.

The honor was bestowed on Stanford’s Troy Walters, a player whom Warrick confessed he had never heard of before they called his name.

“I mean, I can’t even explain that one,” Warrick said. “No comment.”

Warrick knows the judgments made about him are not about football.

“I felt like [the media] were trying to make an example out of me,” he said. “They did a good job. A great job.”

With his reputation damaged, the public’s threshold for punishment sated, Warrick at last appears to be easing into the forgiveness stage.

That’s the way it works in America too.

Friday, Warrick sat on a chair in the Superdome on Sugar Bowl media day and answered wave after wave of reporter’s questions. But there was little hostility in the interrogations, giving Warrick hope that the worst has passed.

“It will go away, eventually,” he said of the Dillard’s scandal. “I’m through apologizing. It’s behind me.”

Warrick’s season has reached an equitable conclusion. His act of foolishness cost him the Heisman, the Biletnikoff, his name, but it seems a fair exchange for what awaits for the balance of his life.

“He’s had to pay a heavy price,” Florida State defensive end Jamal Reynolds said in Warrick’s defense.

Well, not too heavy.

Despite his arrest, and suspension, Warrick was able to return in time to help lead No. 1 Florida State (11-0) into Tuesday night’s national-title game against No. 2 Virginia Tech (11-0).

Warrick finished the regular season with 71 catches for 934 yards and eight touchdowns, added three more rushing scores and returned a punt for a touchdown.

Warrick also will be given the chance to make up for last year’s title-game loss to Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl, in which Warrick finished with one reception.

Warrick: “Tennessee had a great game plan for me.”

And the Dillard’s fiasco?

It has not damaged his potential earnings one red cent, the professional game employing more capitalists than moralists. Warrick, who would have been a top-10 pick had he turned professional after his junior season, has actually improved his NFL stock. He probably will be the NFL’s No. 1 pick next spring, headed to the Cleveland Browns to become a pass partner for quarterback Tim Couch.

Asked how it feels that his off-field problems have not had an impact on his draft status, Warrick said, “It makes me smile.”

The season has certainly taken a turn.

“When I got into trouble, there were consequences,” Warrick said. “I thought I paid my dues to the world, but I guess I didn’t. When I didn’t get to go to the Heisman, it hurt me, but everything happens for a reason. I’m playing for the national championship.”

Last week, in a significant gesture, Warrick’s teammates named him one of three captains for the Sugar Bowl. It marked an unwavering show of support for a player who, in recent weeks, had been left off a lot of ballots.

“Everybody has him wrong,” Reynolds said of Warrick. “He’s no criminal. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes.”

Corey Simon, the Seminoles’ star defensive tackle, has been one of Warrick’s most ardent supporters.

“The reason we elected him captain is because we know what kind of person he is,” Simon said. “No one knows Pete off the field. To make a mistake in life, and then have it totally blown out of proportion? Pete’s a great person, he does have moral standards. And that’s why he’s captain.”

Simon said the scrutiny has been overkill.

“We’re still kids, 18, 19, 20 years old,” he said. “To constantly have to be aware, with so many eyes on us, that’s a lot to put on someone our age. But that’s the price you pay for fame and stardom.”

Warrick, it should be said, is 22 and not a kid, but he has done a good job in getting his name back. He has, for the most part, not ducked the tough questions about his arrest and has said all the right things.

“When I got in trouble, our team stepped it up,” he said. “It showed we’re not all about Peter Warrick. We’re a great team.”

Warrick paid restitution, $597 to Dillard’s and $295 in court costs. He will endure 30 days of community service in the next six months, working 10-hour days with a crew that will clean trash from county roads and ditches.

He said the prospect of prison time scared him straight.

“That’s all people were saying, you’ve got to go to jail,” Warrick said. “I was saying, ‘I can’t go to jail.’ ”

He issued a written apology after his arrest, urging kids to “learn from my experience so you will not have to experience it yourself.”

Also, during all his turmoil, Warrick earned his college degree, in political science.

“I came back to win a national championship and to graduate,” he said. “Those were my two goals. I accomplished one of those goals and I have a chance to accomplish the other.”

This has been the toughest year of Warrick’s life, but also maybe the most important.

“When you’re in the spotlight, you’ve got to do what’s right,” he said. “I know that a lot of kids love me, I know I messed up. I know I’ve got to be a role model.”

In Warrick’s case, it may not be too late.

His decision to come back, dark as it looked in late September, could end in sweet redemption Tuesday night against the Hokies.

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Going to Warrick

Florida State receiver Peter Warrick missed two games because of a brush with the law but still compiled outstanding numbers in nine games:

SEASON

Receptions: 71

Yards: 934

Long: 59

Touchdowns: 8

PER GAME

Receptions: 7.9

Yards: 103.8

Yards per catch: 13.2

Touchdowns: 0.9