Update: I did not know about this when I wrote the post below.

Hmmm.

Former National Football League running back Lawrence Phillips was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Sunday after he allegedly drove a stolen car into a throng of boys with whom he had just played pickup football at Exposition Park in Los Angeles, police said.

It took me a moment to parse "suspicion of attempted murder" as "We think we're going to charge him with attempted murder but aren't sure yet." It also took me a minute to place the name because the lede does not include the description "Former Nebraska Cornhuskers running back." According to the LAPD, Phillips was playing pick-up football with a group that was mostly teenagers, couldn't find some of his belongings afterwards, and accused them of taking his stuff. So he drove into the group.

Phillips' alleged behavior Sunday added to his long string of brushes with the law, including at least five arrests for allegedly assaulting women. He was wanted in San Diego on felony charges stemming from two alleged attacks this month on a girlfriend. In one incident, he allegedly choked her into unconsciousness, authorities said.

An apparent difficulty controlling his temper also shortened Phillips' once-promising football career. Several NFL and Canadian Football League teams cut him for insubordination, clashing with coaches and other disciplinary problems.

As a player for the University of Nebraska, Phillips was a standout talent who helped the Cornhuskers win two national championships in the 1990s - earning him a first-round NFL draft slot despite having a criminal record even then.

That was the moment that I think Tom Osborne jumped the shark. Phillips was convicted of felony assault on his girlfriend while he was playing for the Cornhuskers, but Osborne couldn't win championships without Phillips, so he kept him on the team.

I believe in second chances and even more. I don't think Phillips should have been kicked out of college, or prevented from playing in the NFL, or anything like that. But if you're at a state school on scholarship and you're convicted of felony assault, then yeah, you're off the team. If using drugs or cheating is grounds for disqualification, then felony assault is as well. I believe in redemption, but believe me, I also know that actions have consequences.

That's why I thought Bob Stoops did the right thing last year when he kicked Dusty Dvoracek off the OU football team after he hit one of his friends so hard that he had to have facial surgery. Stoops was "concerned" after that, but within a day, the media had uncovered that Dvoracek had committed similar unprosecuted assaults in the past in Texas. That was enough - he was off the team.

And yet, a few weeks after the 2005 Orange Bowl, Stoops reinstated Dvoracek. I can already hear the non-Sooners throwing charges of hypocrisy at me, but I think the situation is a little bit different. Phillips was convicted of felony assault. Dvoracek was not convicted of anything, because he was not tried, or charged, or even arrested. Dvoracek has made atonement; Phillips seems not to care who gets in his way. As Berry Tramel put it:

Risky move by Stoops. Dvoracek could make his coach and his school look bad. Real bad.

But it’s a risk worth taking. I think I know where Stoops is coming from, and it’s not plugging the middle of his defensive line.

Not that that’s not a by-product of Dvoracek’s return. Dvoracek is a run-stuffing tackle who will help patch an OU defense that loses seven starters off the Orange Bowl team.

But this is deeper. This is Stoops not willing to throw someone away. Dvoracek’s football career is not at issue. The NFL beckoned had OU and the NCAA cut all ties. Chances are, Dvoracek could have made good money next autumn in the pros.

Dvoracek chases something more precious than football. The return of his good name.

Dvoracek walks campus with a crimson A. For alcohol. Or anger. Or attitude. Take your pick. He lives with a past that he knows has besmirched what could have been an upstanding legacy. He knows that without redemption, his Oklahoma days will forever be shamed.

“I want to show them that their trust in me is deserved,” Dvoracek said in a statement released by OU.

Statements are easy and shallow. But the actions of Dvoracek last September were not. He wrote letters to various people associated with the program, people he let down but people who would never have a say in his return. Dvoracek thanked them for all they had done for him and apologized for his actions.

More people than just Dvoracek’s assault victims will shake their head and say, just another athlete getting off the hook.

But athletes are no less worthy of redemption than the rest of us.

Dvoracek was a senior. He underwent both anger management and alcohol counseling, but Stoops would not let him back on the 2004 team. He then asked OU to apply for a medical hardship waiver so he could come back and play one more year if Stoops would have him. Stoops agreed to consider reinstating him if he got the waiver, so OU prepared it and submitted it to the Big XII. It was denied. Dvoracek appealed to the NCAA and won, and a few weeks later, Stoops reinstated him.

Dvoracek tore a bicep in the Red & White Game this spring and was to be out for 4-5 months, but he's now listed at #1 on the depth chart. He got his second chance, and I think he'll make good on it. You have to wonder where Lawrence Phillips would be today if he'd received actual discipline when he first started hitting people.

It's not often I quote Engadget on here, but they have the news:

It’s officially the end of an era — Bob Moog, inventor of one of the first widely adopted electronic musical instruments, the Moog synthesizer, died yesterday at his home in Asheville, North Carolina. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in April of this year. There is no public memorial planned, but fans and friends are invited to send remembrances and wishes to www.caringbridge.com/visit/bobmoog. His family has established the Bob Moog Foundation in his honor, dedicated to the advancement of electronic music.

Read.

I was watching Forbidden Planet in widescreen format recently. IMDB reminded me that, back in 1956, the Musician's Union was completely opposed to anything synthetic - so much so that it prevented MGM from crediting the couple responsible for the movie's music as "composers." They were listed as providing the "electronic tonalities."

Moog wasn't involved in that, but the 2004 documentary Moog is all about his effect on the world of electronic music. I think I'll try to find it.

(Via engadget.com.)