Clemson University wide receiver/ track star Joe Craig will miss just one game as a result of a violent physical altercation earlier this year with his ex-girlfriend, Clemson track athlete Marlena Wesh.
According to police reports, Craig and Wesh had a dispute at a pool party in late May that resulted in Wesh gashing Craig’s arm with a “six-inch razor equipped with a serrated blade.” Craig responded by beating Wesh repeatedly with a metal towel bar – leaving both athletes battered and bloodied when the cops arrived.
Craig was suspended immediately from the Clemson track team as a result of the incident – but it took the football program two weeks to suspend him. FITS own Jordan Dominick reported on this incident a few months ago, in case you want more details.
Tigers’ head coach Dabo Swinney announced the one-game suspension on Wednesday, telling The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper that Craig was “a young guy who got caught in a bad situation and responded the wrong way.”
“He’s learning there are consequences for your actions,” Swinney said. “I think he’ll learn from it greatly. I think he already has. He’s done all the things he’s needed to do from the university standpoint.”
Hmmmm-kay.
Craig will miss the Tigers’ 2011 season-opener against Troy on September 3 – but his light suspension means he’ll be available for Clemson’s critical early-season stretch against Auburn (Sept. 17), Florida State (Sept. 24) and Virginia Tech (Oct. 1).
So … what are your thoughts? Does Craig’s punishment fit the crime? Vote in our poll and post your thoughts in our comments section below …
Loading ...UPDATE: Looks like the pressure got to Swinney. After practice on Thursday, the Tigers head coach announced that Craig would be suspended for three games. That means he will be eligible to play against Florida State on Sept. 24.
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By Perry Mason August 25, 2011 at 9:44 am
This boy and Col Cock Lancaster would get along nicely.
By antonin scalia August 25, 2011 at 10:16 am
Should he have put himself in a position where he needed to defend himself? Yes. Should he punished for actually defending himself? No.
It’s not as if he just up an attacked her with a towel rack. She cut him pretty bad and he protected himself. He should be punished for putting himself in that position, but certainly not defending himself (against a razor blade and not just a girl). Missing most of actual practice and a game seems about right to me. I doubt he even plays in subsequent games following the suspension. Also, that’s already more practice time and game time than Garcia’s missed after 5 suspensions.
By antonin scalia August 25, 2011 at 10:17 am
The first “yes” should be a “no”.
By CNSYD August 25, 2011 at 10:32 am
antonin, the real purpose of this story was to slide Sic Willie’s story on Wingo off his sports “front page”. Such a shit storm was stirred up by the Wingo story Sic Willie had to find something quick to get attention off of it.
By Petey August 25, 2011 at 10:32 am
Should have pushed the bitch down the stairs.
By BigT August 25, 2011 at 10:46 am
Bottom line: Dabo Swinney, like any other coach, is paid to win games. If the justice system allows this student his freedom, it should not be Swinney’s job to please all the A-holes who will be blasting him for losing…
Personally, I don’t think Dabo can win, with or w/o this player..so it is a moot point…
But the media is a hypocritical bunch of A-holes, so there is no reason to listen to them.
By Poor Richard August 25, 2011 at 11:15 am
@ Big T… son, you are one sorry sack of shit. Crawl back into your hole lowlife!
By crackahasscrackah August 25, 2011 at 11:42 am
Antonin Scalia is right. Missing all of fall camp means this kid may not see the field much at all this year. With the arrival of Watkins and Peake and the stepped up play of Hopkins and McNeal, Craig really needed to be at camp.
And of course you ARE allowed to defend yourself from knife-wielding, pissed off women. But for better or worse college athletes are public figures who (usually) held to a higher standard than the average student (Stephen Garcia notwithstanding).
By Silence August 25, 2011 at 12:39 pm
If it’s serrated, it’s not a razor blade.
By Are you serious? August 25, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Really? Do you ever report the correct facts? Dabo said AT LEAST a one game suspension. He most likely will be suspended for 3 games unlike some players who get suspended from involuntary workouts like that other school. Check your facts!!! The punishment hasn’t even been handed down yet from Dabo!
By gccmod August 25, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Wtf? Craig and his new hoe went to this girls apt. They tried to gain entry without her permission. She reached out and cut him in self defense. Should have shot his ass. The the police allowed the “CU Crack coaches” to drive them to the hospital and convince her not to press charges against the coward. They of course told her she would also lose her sacholarship if she did. Of course noon beat reporter wants to find the truth because they are too busy making up lies about a hard working g kid like Scott Single.
By CNSYD August 25, 2011 at 3:15 pm
gccmod, thanks for providing information directly from the sworn testimony from the trial. I was afraid you would just repeat stuff from news accounts and fan websites by people who were not eye witnesses.
By V-n-MTP August 25, 2011 at 3:31 pm
The power of FITSNEWS knows no bounds. Craig is not going to miss multiple games per what I am hearing…..
By V-n-MTP August 25, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Should be “now” going to miss multiple games….
By fitsnews August 25, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Ha! Yeah they may make him miss the Wofford game, too.
Troy and Wofford.
Oh well if he really got set up I guess Troy and Wofford are enough punishment. And Todd Kincannon makes a point about Craig’s response being measured in his view …
“If some chick came after me with a six inch razor blade, I’d respond with a .38 special.”
Good stuff …
-W
By CL August 25, 2011 at 3:52 pm
CNSYD,
It is pretty cute to use the lack of sworn testimony as a defense. Of course there will be no trial testimony, because in Clemson a brutal assault by a football player is a “nothing to see here” situation. Well, that’s not quite right. They did make sure to call the coaches to come in and clean up the mess.
Without any charges from Mayberry’s finest, the only testimony we have (or will likely ever have) are the statements recorded in the police report. Ms. Welsh told the police that her and Craig had an argument earlier in the day, and that Craig “showed up” at her apartment. She indicated that she was “fearful for her safety” and used the razor to defend herself. So based upon the only evidence available, it was Ms. Welsh who was defending herself from a lunatic wielding a metal rod at her door.
Even if you disregard her statement and accept on faith (since there is nothing else to support such a judgment) that she cut Craig without provocation, he still committed assault. The police report says that after he was cut, Craig hit her over the head with the metal rod, knocking her to the ground and neutralizing any threat. Yet he continued to beat her while she was on the ground, beating her so severely as to cause blood splatter all over the walls.
Not to go all lawyer on you, but that is absolutely not self-defense. That is assault, even for football players. At least it is outside of the Clemson city limits.
Here is the police report, if you do not believe my summary:
http://media.orangeandwhite.com/media/static/JoeCraigPoliceReport2.pdf
By JC August 25, 2011 at 4:16 pm
FITS is one to talk…
By Crooner August 25, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Report says she was fearful for her safety so she opened the door and cut him. Probably better to keep door shut.
By wha? August 25, 2011 at 5:10 pm
CL, if you read the report, the “victim” clearly states that she cut him first, and he responded by pulling her towel rod off the wall.
By CL August 25, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Wha?
She says she was afraid of him and cut him in self-defense. It actually does not detail how he came to have the metal rod with which he beat her repeatedly.
It is interesting how willing you guys are to criticize her response (e.g. opening the door) but have no harsh words for the guy who beat a woman over the head repeatedly with a metal rod (and came back for some more but was unable to get into her apartment again and just gave her door a beating for good measure).
By Politics Rocks August 25, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I’m a close follower to Clemson athletics and I’ve never even heard of this kids name before …. who cares. He was wrong for going over there but obviously the girl was pretty crazy, that’s why neither decided to press charges.
By CNSYD August 25, 2011 at 5:58 pm
CL, the police report recorded what each party said. Its “accuracy” can not apparently be verified by any witnesses. The police did not see it occur. Which party said that Craig continued to strike Ms Welsh? Was that cross examined under oath? Did either party press charges against the other? No. So what do you expect the court system to do in that case? The situation was handled by the university’s student disciplinary system. The football coaches waited until that was complete before taking any action. Mr Craig had previously been disciplined by the track coach as the events occurred during track season. Whatever discipline was given Ms Welsh is not known by me as in most instances a female track athlete is not “high profile” in the minds of the media.
By Ben August 25, 2011 at 6:02 pm
I think any athlete that gets physical with a female should lose his scholarship.
Joe Craig went to this female’s dorm room after a heated conversation – and he took a towel bar with him. He didn’t take a towel bar with him because he likes towel bars.
He should ahve called the police if she had hurt him. No place for him to take something to be used as a weapon to an apartment. She could have shot him and claimed self defense.
I realize a lot of Clemson fans are going to defend him- just like USC fans defend Garcia. But it’s misplaced.
By CNSYD August 25, 2011 at 7:27 pm
As I told you guys earlier today, Sic Willie has done an excellent job diverting attention from his Wingo story by posting this one.
By Billy Bob August 25, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Well, that’s a much harsher penalty than ‘indefinite’ suspension of Garcia and Mangus and others!!
By Ben August 25, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Billy Bob
Garcia wasn’t involved in a physical altercation with a female. Mangus made a fool of himself, but didn’t injure another person (other than his own name).
So different situations entirely.
By CNSYD August 25, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Seems Sic Willie is wrong again. Craig will be suspended for three games. Sic Willie already made fun of the first two games (Troy and Wofford) but seems he is ignoring the third game which is Auburn. I believe Auburn beat USCe twice last season.
By CL August 26, 2011 at 9:57 am
CNSYD,
As I said before, we will never get to the bottom of what happened because Clemson police are more concerned about protecting the football team than protecting the public. They should have charged based upon the obvious evidence of assault and let the prosecutor decide how to proceed, which is what would happen everywhere outside the city limits of Clemson.
But that ship has sailed. What we do have is a woman, a Clemson student, who was obviously beaten repeatedly with a metal rod (based upon her injuries, the bloody rod, the damage to the door from said rod and the pieces from where it was ripped off the wall) by a CU football player. None of that is even up for debate as far as I can tell, yet you bend over backwards to try to come up with mitigating circumstances to justify his behavior (which have been invented by CU fans, since there is nothing in the report to support them). It’s you that has prejudged, based upon nothing more than your blatant homerism, the accuracy of her statements and ignored the obvious physical evidence of him beating her repeatedly.
By the way, Dabo releases a trial balloon with the “at least 1 game” stuff, then ups it to 3 when he gets blow back. Just like how he waited until this became public to even suspend Craig (which was never done with McDaniel when there were charges filed). What a disciplinarian. If you beat a woman, you will get as little punishment as I can get away with from a PR perspective. That will show his players he means business.
By CNSYD August 26, 2011 at 5:01 pm
CL, perhaps you were asleep during the “women’s movement”. Women wanted be treated just like men. Well now the law treats them equally. For example, a woman can be guilty, for example, of CDV just the same as a man.
So I assume, based on your depth of study, that Craig must have cut himself, such that he had to wrap a towel around his arm due to the bleeding, so he could claim that she cut him first. That about right? Further, anything that is said in his defense is “homerism” or just plain lies. Anything the female said is God’s honest truth. Is that correct? Of course you got all your information from sworn cross examined testimony, right?
BTW, McDaniel was not arrested in Clemson, so the Clemson police had nothing to do with his case. Also the Clemson city police are not involved in the Craig non case either.
I assume you were at whatever press conference where Dabo allegedly stated what action would be taken in regard to Craig. Otherwise you would be merely passing along hearsay. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know exactly what he said.
IRT the length of time between event and punishment in football, I previously explained that to you but I guess I will have to do it again. The situation was being handled by the university’s student disipline system as it was not a court matter as neither party pressed charges. Dabo was awaiting the outcome of that prior to taking action. Why wait? Because coaches have been sued in the past (I know of one specifically at Clemson) for punishing an athelete BEFORE a case was adjudicated.
Now the female was a scholarship athlete also. What actions have been taken against her? Perhaps that passed by your notice.
By CL August 26, 2011 at 9:55 pm
CNSYD,
I love the condescending tone accompanying such ridiculous propaganda. The cops did not need anyone to press charges. I was especially interested to learn the women’s lib movement was about destigmatizing violence against women. With that type of nonsense, I do not need you to explain anything to me.
The cops had all the evidence they needed to charge and did not need either party to express a desire to press charges, as any attorney will tell you. But that is all beside the point when discussing Dabo’s (lack of) action. Dabo is not a judge, and you are just lying to yourself when you say that nothing could be done until any legal proceedings were completed. This is football, not a courtroom.
The Q. Richardson situation is instructive. He was accused by his girlfriend of assault. He was suspended on day 1, and he was transferring to another school within 2 weeks. I guess he should have transferred to CU, since they are a bit more understanding of violence against women.
My last comment, since it is pointless to even bother with someone so closed minded.
By CNSYD August 26, 2011 at 10:09 pm
CL, my sentiments exactly. You are closed minded.
By DabosBraincell August 28, 2011 at 6:34 pm
After this all got out i told all my players that they had to stop their relationships inside the team so nothing like this would happen again
By Peecock August 31, 2011 at 8:11 am
Ready to edit the title? There never was a 1 game suspension planned. What suspension did jarriel king get for assault and kidnapping charges?