There are two sides to Trevone Boykin.
There’s the Tre who knelt on the field at Iowa State to speak with a young Cyclone fan at midfield who was dealing with some difficult medical challenges, inspiring a fan base to raise tens of thousands of dollars for her medical expenses.
There’s the Tre who was sent home ahead of what would have been his final collegiate game for getting in a bar fight and clipping a cop with a misplaced fist in San Antonio, forcing Coach Gary Patterson to put him on a Greyhound back to Fort Worth.
There’s the Tre who was known for being the last to leave any event, taking the time to greet every fan and sign every autograph for a kid waiting to meet him.
Then there’s the Tre of the last several weeks, when the former TCU quarterback, and current Seattle Seahawks backup, has been seen hanging out with Johnny Manziel precluding a pair of arrests for public intoxication and parole violation.
Trevone Boykin is only 23 years old. Those of us past that stage in life can likely remember what it was like to be 23, fresh out of college, still immature, and a little reckless. But most of us weren’t high profile people during that time. See, the thing is, Trevone Boykin doesn’t get to be a dumb kid, and therefore his mistakes don’t get written off as being the acts of a typical 23 year old. Instead, he’s a young man with immeasurable opportunity in front of him that might waste it all due to bad decisions and bad choices as far as who he surrounds himself with.
Boykin is in the perfect spot in Seattle, playing for one of the most well-loved coaches in the league, a man who has that title because of how much he takes up for his players. He’s the backup to a player that is the best possible example of how someone with his skill set can succeed at the highest level. He has a chance to develop during his rookie contract and become a very well paid backup or possible starter in the NFL.
But instead… he might be out of the league before fall camp kicks off.
When Gary Patterson made the decision to put Trevone Boykin on a bus home from San Antonio, it wasn’t the best decision for his team. But Patterson has always made it a point to try and drive home the life lessons along with the wins, and his star quarterback was no exception.
“You’re not just teaching him, you’re teaching the other 120 guys that are on your team, that they understand all your actions have a reaction, and you have to learn from it,” Patterson said. “Let’s just say that nothing happened, but he’s bragging that he jumped curfew and he went out and played a great game. Then I’m going to have the same problem next year.”
That was his moment – his one chance to do something dumb, take his punishment, and learn his lesson. But Boykin clearly did not get the message. After a successful rookie campaign, he came back to DFW, hung out with Manziel, got arrested for public intoxication as a passenger in a vehicle that backed over several people and into a bar in Dallas. That was a parole violation, so Boykin had to surrender himself in San Antonio Thursday, where he was released on bond once again.
While these crimes aren’t of the worst variety, they show a pattern of bad judgement and are more than enough to get a backup kicked out of the League – just ask Johnny. I don’t think Trevone Boykin is a bad person, but he certainly knows enough to know enough, as they say. It’s time for Boykin to grow up and focus on the side of Tre that made him one of the most dynamic and likable players in college football both on and off the field.
We are all allowed to make mistakes, but we all suffer the consequences for them, too. If Trevone doesn’t take this last chance to learn a lesson, he won’t have an NFL career to distract him much longer.
