This is an attempt to try to bring some clarity or at least some rationalizations to the Benny Sapp dismissal from the Iowa Football program, if that is possible.

I think the first thing we have to acknowledge and realize is there have been issues and incidents that have taken place that the public (you and me) don’t have any knowledge of, or at best, have only heard bits, pieces and or rumors.

Sapp was recently involved in an incident where he was ‘stabbed’ with a broken bottle outside of an Iowa City nightclub on July 14th. It appeared that Sapp was an innocent bystander.

Then came Saturday night’s (or Sunday morning, whichever you prefer) arrest where Sapp was charged with public intoxication, interference with official acts and disorderly conduct. Sapp plead guilty to the intoxication charge but not guilty to the other two charges.

Iowa’s head coach Kirk Ferentz suspended Sapp indefinitely earlier this week and said the suspension was in direct response to the public intoxication charge only. Ferentz said that he still was looking into the other two charges, which a release from the Iowa Sports Information Department said were open to interpretation.

Then came Thursday and Sapp was dismissed from the team with Ferentz saying the following in a prepared statement:

"I am disappointed to see Benny's career at Iowa end in this fashion, but in light of this past weekend's arrest, and other choices Benny has made during his time as a team member, this is an appropriate action."

What seems to be eating away at some Iowa fans who feel this action was too severe is the ‘other choices Benny has made during his time as a team member’ portion of Ferentz’ statement.

People want to know why Sapp was kicked off the team when they can not look back and remember even the first strike against Benny.

It’s no secret that Ferentz keeps an in house ‘naughty and nice’ list. An example of this was how he handled CJ Jones back in December of 2001. Jones was arrested for OWI and Ferentz subsequently suspended him from the Alamo Bowl. University policy did not demand such a suspension on the first offense.

When questioned about the suspension, Ferentz offered this quote to Pat Harty of the Iowa City Press-Citizen in the Decemer 19, 2001 story Linked Here.

"He's (Jones) an outstanding football player. It's going to be a loss from that standpoint," Ferentz said. "I feel he's an outstanding young man who's made a bad choice or two.”

Bad choice…or two.

I attended a press-conference at about that time where Ferentz was asked about the consistency of his punishments. He said (paraphrasing) that we (the media) do not always find out about everything, but that he (Ferentz) usually does. Those ‘non-public’ transgressions are also taken into account. Thus, Jones was suspended for a game on his first ‘public’ strike when University policy did not call for a suspension at the time.

Back to some fans questioning the severity of Sapp’s dismissal. In the public eye, this would appear to be the first strike against Sapp that we know about.

But let me ask this question: What if Sapp had accumulated a few ‘in house’ strikes between the Alamo Bowl victory and last Saturday night? What if those hypothetical offenses did not make the papers or were not enough to keep him out of spring drills, but they still were added to his in house ‘rap sheet’?

Still not convincing enough? Iowa Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby was quoted in Tuesday’s Des Moines Register by Andrew Logue (Linked Here) as adding more credence to the theory that Saturday night was not Sapp’s first rodeo.

"I would be surprised if Benny Sapp continues to be a member of this football team," Bowlsby said Monday. "I don't want to pre-judge this, but it's not the first time we've had trouble with Mr. Sapp."

There were similar comments in the Cedar Rapids Gazette from Bowlsby regarding Sapp.

I know that some fans will not like this decision due to what they do not know and that the decision will hurt Iowa’s football team this year, in their opinion.

I do know that some of Sapp’s teammates were getting fed up with his individualistic behavior in the Iowa City club scene. Individualistic in the sense that his actions were basically flying in the face of the team concept.

Iowa will survive without Benny Sapp on its football team. Young players like Antwan Allen, Jovon Johnson and Richie Williams were going to get some playing time with or without Sapp. Now, playing time is a given. Sapp started what, seven or eight game as a true freshman?

I got the sense from covering the Iowa Hawkeye football team last year that Jon Beutjer’s departure was a bit of a relief. Fairly or unfairly, he was not perceived as being a good teammate. No matter what you think of the incident between he and Sam Aiello or how it was handled, the perception of the coaches and teammates matters a heck of a lot more than the perception of the fans when it comes to the esprit de corps.

I suspect I will get the same vibration at media day on Friday with regards to the dismissal of Benny Sapp.