Receiver Runs Wrong Pattern

The troubling case of Marcell Allmond came to a degree of closure over the weekend when the USC receiver learned he’d been suspended from school this semester--and will sit out the football season--for his part in a summertime fight. But in the wake of this punishment, questions remain.

The recent scuffle was merely the latest in a string of violent incidents involving Allmond. Acquaintances and teammates portray him as a good-natured person who repeatedly puts himself in bad situations. Others on campus, however, call him a bully.

A student who says his nose was broken by Allmond in a fight last spring furthermore criticized the suspension as a slap on the wrist from a school known for its football tradition.

“He totally got preferential treatment because he’s a player,” Irvin Lopez said. “Look at his history.... He could do this again.”

University administrators declined to comment because the case remains open to appeal. The man in the middle of this mess wasn’t saying much either. A source close to Allmond said he has learned a difficult lesson.

“His reaction is not one of anger, not one of bitterness,” said the source, who asked not to be named. “This has had an impact on him. There’s a maturing component.”

With police still investigating last month’s off-campus altercation, Allmond could face criminal prosecution. For now, he plans to work and attend anger-management classes, a stipulation of his suspension. He wants to get himself in shape to run track when he returns to school in the spring and hopes to rejoin the football team next season.

It was fall 1999 when Allmond arrived on campus as a prep All-American from St. Paul High in Santa Fe Springs. His talent was evident from the first game, when he gained nine yards on a catch against Hawaii despite having his helmet ripped off. He eventually started three games as a freshman and finished the season with 233 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

That was enough to earn him a starting role as a sophomore, but his season ended after only five games when he suffered a broken leg against Arizona. This fall was supposed to be his comeback, a chance to showcase his skills in USC’s new spread offense.

But all along, there were hints of trouble. On the field, coaches sometimes reprimanded him for such minor offenses as pouting or losing his temper. Off the field, his pattern of behavior was of greater concern.

Late one night last April, Allmond and some friends were at a cafe just off campus when an argument broke out between athletes and fraternity members at adjacent tables. According to Lopez, who was among the fraternity members, Allmond got up from his seat.

“Marcell’s smoking a cigarette,” Lopez said. “He leans over and blows smoke in my face.”

Allmond has said he fought in self-defense. Lopez acknowledges that, as they stood face to face, he knocked the cigarette from Allmond’s hand. But Lopez, a public policy student who had one hand in a cast from a snowboarding accident, says he did not want to fight the 6-foot, 195-pound athlete.

“He broke my nose,” Lopez said. “He took it upon himself to be the bully.”

Said Mike Watkins, another fraternity member at the table: “That’s the way he is. Real cocky. When you see him on campus, he’s always talking trash.”

Several players disagreed with that description.

“He’s not a mean guy,” receiver Kareem Kelly said. “Marcell’s a cool guy, a good person. Gets good grades. I’m sure this is eating him up inside.”

If anything, Kelly said, the altercations point to a problem all football players face when they mingle with other students on campus. Kelly said he is often challenged or otherwise provoked at parties.

“I don’t know what happened with Marcell,” he said. “He was probably pushed to the limit and couldn’t control himself. I’m not trying to justify it. But that’s what happens.... You have to walk away.”

Allmond failed to do that on at least two other occasions.

During a weekend basketball game at the Lyon Center on campus, a source said Allmond took offense at the way a male opponent was guarding one of his teammates, a member of the women’s basketball team. “The guy was roughing her up,” he said.

A scuffle ensued and was reported to university officials.

Before that matter could be addressed, Allmond was partying along the university’s crowded fraternity row and got into yet another argument. In a complaint filed last month with the university and the Los Angeles Police Department, he was again accused of hitting a student.

Allmond denied throwing the punch and gathered signatures from 20 witnesses he said could corroborate his story. Some of the witnesses testified before a university panel that heard the matter early last week. Also part of the hearing were allegations that another player, Frank Strong, was responsible.

Strong denies the allegation, saying Allmond took things too far in the heat of the moment. The teammates have argued over the incident but Strong recently said: “We’ve got class together. I just let it go.”

Meanwhile, detectives from the LAPD’s Southwest Division continue to investigate, looking into several suspects in addition to Allmond.

Concerned about the accumulation of incidents, the university panel heard testimony from a string of witnesses during last week’s hearing, which stretched for hours.

Lopez walked away from the proceeding hoping that Allmond would be expelled from school.

“I’m disappointed,” he said Tuesday. “It’s not like this is the University of Nebraska, where you get slapped on the wrist and get some anger-management classes.”

Allmond, on the other hand, was hoping he would be allowed to rejoin the team this season. Still, he has not expressed any plans to appeal.

In the last couple of days, even some of his staunchest allies have told him the bulk of complaints filed against him required some form of punishment. At this point, they say, the athlete has accepted his suspension, hoping to put his problems behind him.