A few weeks ago, news of legal troubles for former Gators linebacker Antonio Morrison came across my timeline.
After his arrest, he was brought to a behavioral health facility where he allegedly threatened to strike multiple workers with a chair and punched one worker before being subdued with a stun gun.
For someone who came to Florida – and left for the NFL – with so much promise, it really is a stunning fall.
The enduring image for me of Morrison as a Gator was the hit he delivered in 2012 as a true freshman against Florida State QB E.J. Manuel. The violent hit dislodged the ball from Manuel, Florida recovered and running back Mike Gillislee took the ball to the house on the very next play for a 37-yard TD that put Florida ahead for good.
Looking back at that play, it was a helmet-to-helmet hit that not only knocked the ball out of Manuel’s possession, but knocked him out for the next series. It didn’t appear to faze Morrison at all, but it is absolutely the type of hit that would have gotten Morrison tossed in today’s game because of targeting.
Morrison was that type of player, never afraid to come flying into a play to make a tackle. And back in 2012, the expectation wasn’t only that a middle linebacker was going to make a hit in just the way that Morrison did here but a coach would’ve said this was a “textbook” tackle.
Indeed, ejections didn’t become codified at the NCAA level until the following year. And I’m also not entirely sure what Morrison could have done to make the hit on Manuel any different. It’s one of the things that infuriates people about the targeting rule, even to this day.
While he was an All-SEC linebacker, Morrison also had a history of bizarre behavior while at Florida. That included an arrest for punching a nightclub bouncer and another arrest five weeks later for barking at a police dog.
The dog incident was one that gained Morrison notoriety around the country and was one that my buddies and I had a good laugh at because nobody was harmed, the charges were eventually dropped, and it seemed like something an amped-up and (potentially) inebriated college student would do.
But that was before Aaron Hernandez was accused and convicted of murder. It was before Hernandez’ brain was examined and had one of the most severe cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) ever discovered, especially striking for a patient who died at just 27-years old.
And it was before Anthony Morrison – Antonio Morrison’s father – told Carmel police that he “believes his son suffered a concussion three years ago and that football is the cause of his son’s recent problems.”
I’m not laughing anymore.
In that same story, it says that court documents indicate that the NFL paid to relocate Morrison’s girlfriend and two children to Florida because of Morrison’s violent behavior. That was three years ago, or around 2017. In the 2017 season, Morrison had 109 tackles for the Indianapolis Colts. In the 2018 season, he had 48 tackles for the Green Bay Packers.
So the NFL thought Morrison was such a significant risk that it paid to separate him from his family but continued to allow him to play.
It’s impossible for me, or anyone else really, to say whether Morrison has been affected significantly by concussions. The fact that his father says he changed after a concussion is pretty damning evidence, but even it it’s true, that doesn’t absolve him of his erratic behavior.
Except….does it? I mean, if his brain isn’t working right, is he responsible for his actions?
I highly doubt that the personnel at the behavioral health facility did anything significant to set Morrison off. Likely he just isn’t interested in or perhaps even capable of being “treated” for what he doesn’t see as an illness. But that’s often a problem for people who have mental health struggles, and Morrison’s agent has confirmed that Morrison struggles with multiple mental health issues, concussions or no.
All of this leaves me significantly conflicted.
I suspect that the NFL’s policies and procedures for helping someone with Morrison’s struggles are woefully ineffective. I suspect that Florida’s contribution to any help that Morrison might need is likely relatively small.
And even if both the NFL and Florida teamed up to help Morrison in a significant way, I’m not sure there’s much they could do.
It feels wrong to dismiss Morrison as someone else’s problem. After all, I – and many of you – were celebrating when he dislodged that ball from Manuel, at the same time that he was potentially doing significant damage that is now becoming visible to outsiders.
Yet football players – more now than at any time before – understand the risks that they are undertaking when they decide to put on the pads and that the game cannot be played fully safely, at least not yet. And I’m not sure there’s really anything that we, as fans, can do.
The game has risks. We love the game. The players are adults who can decide whether they want to pursue this as a career, just as someone in the military or any other risky career can make that decision as well.
But one thing I do think we can do is throw broader support towards the targeting rules that the NCAA has instituted.
I get it. The reviews are interminably wrong. The rule is not always equally applied. And the ejection can have significant effects on the results of the game.
But in 2019, targeting penalties decreased 32 percent from 2018. And anyone who has watched a player like tight end Kyle Pitts make a catch over the middle knows that he is no longer in danger of getting blasted when such a play is called. That is progress.
It doesn’t address the concerns that many have with sub-concussive hits, or that football is a collision sport. But it at least removes – or greatly reduces – the traumatic concussion that often comes on the giant hits when the offensive player doesn’t see it coming. And perhaps just as importantly, it protects the defensive player who is delivering the hit as well.
I sincerely hope that Antonio Morrison gets his life together. I hope that he gets the help he needs and that his legal troubles are associated with things outside of his relationship to football. And if he is struggling because of the game, I hope that the NFL and Florida have resources in place to help.
I pray that these recent events are a blip in a long life that turns into a story of overcoming struggles to come out better on the other side.
All I know is that these recent news stories make me sad. He was someone I rooted for every Saturday. He was someone who I lauded for throwing his body around. And that play against Manuel still sticks in my mind as a good football play where Florida got the ball because Morrison “rung Manuel’s bell.”
But the problem is, ringing someone’s bell just isn’t a good football play anymore.
I’m someone who hasn’t always liked the targeting rule or the way it has been applied. But next season when the referees throw the first targeting flag, I’m not going to moan or complain about its ramifications on the game.
I’m going to think about the quote from Anthony Morrison.