If there is one thing you can count on with college football fans, or any set of fans really, it’s their collective ability to throw rocks from high atop the perch of their glass houses.

Let’s take a look at the latest example of this, one that Meridian football fans might find familiar: Alabama defensive lineman and former Wildcats standout Raekwon Davis.

Davis, a preseason All-SEC selection, was suspended for the first half of the Alabama-Tennessee game this past Saturday due to an incident that happened the week prior. During the course of the Alabama-Missouri game, Davis was seen on camera throwing several punches at Missouri offensive lineman Kevin Pendleton. As I watched it live, I immediately knew what would happen: Fans of other teams, and perhaps even some Alabama fans, would call Davis “classless” — well, that would be about the nicest thing they would say to him anyway.

I quickly took to Twitter to defend him, because as someone who works as a journalist covering Meridian and Lauderdale County athletics, I had a bit more insight into Davis’ personality than most. Not only did I cover a few games in which Davis played back when he was in high school, but I also had the opportunity to interview him after he signed with Alabama, and I’ve spoken to several Meridian coaches who know Davis better than most.

My point being, I knew those punches Davis threw in the game weren’t indicative of his character. Which meant something had to have triggered it.

Missouri’s mindset going into the Alabama game was clearly to try to physically intimidate Alabama, something Alabama takes pride in doing to its opponents. Match the physicality with physicality. That was obvious by how hard the Tigers tackled for most of the game. Whatever you can say about Missouri, they weren’t intimidated in the game, Alabama was simply the better team.

Sometimes, though, that kind of mindset can inadvertently lead to what I like to call “extracurricular activity” going on during and after the whistle was blown. Sure enough, someone on Twitter went back and looked at the play after which Davis threw those punches. In the clip, Pendleton was matched up with Alabama linebacker Mack Wilson. After Wilson was stomach down on the ground, Pendleton appears to have fallen top of him, and if I had to guess, Davis took exception to that and decided to retaliate. It’s similar to when an opposing pitcher hits a batter, only for that team’s pitcher to plunk one of the first team’s batters in response.

That wasn’t the only instance of Missouri doing something to which Alabama players might have taken exception. Alabama receiver Henry Ruggs was earlier tackled by Missouri linebacker Cale Garrett in a way that is referred to as an “alligator roll.” In other words, as Henry was going down, Garrett rolled his body in such a way that Ruggs’ leg was twisted backward. Ruggs had to leave the game and go to the locker room to get examined.

I’ve long since believed something about football: Either the officials police the game, or it’s going to police itself. One or the other will happen. I haven’t spoken to Davis about those punches, but it wouldn’t be a big leap to think some of the extracurricular activity during the Alabama-Missouri game is what prompted it.

“He’s a big old teddy bear,” Meridian defensive line coach Demetrius Hill, who is close to Davis, told me. “He’s a great kid who is passionate about what he does. He’s really matured quite a bit since getting to college. He has a goal (the NFL) and is shooting for it.”

Meridian head coach Calvin Hampton said what many people don’t understand about football is sometimes things get heated to the point where normally laid-back guys might act out when they otherwise wouldn’t in everyday life.

“Everyone is not perfect,” Hampton said. “In this game, a lot of emotions take shape. I’m not condoning anything as far as throwing punches, but anyone who knows him knows he’s a gentle giant — but he’s a loyal guy. If he sees someone (in harm’s way), he’s going to try to defend him.”

No one is OK with Davis throwing punches, but in a game where physical freaks are flying around hitting one another at high speeds, tempers are going to sometimes flare. That Saban didn’t appear to chew Davis out during the Missouri game and put him back in tells me that was simply an instance of that happening, rather than a regular occurrence for Davis. 

For what it’s worth, Davis later publicly apologized on his Twitter account, and Pendleton quoted the tweet and said “all good” as a response. Hill explained that despite whatever happens during the course of play, it’s almost never personal.

“It happens,” Hill said. “In the heat of battle, on-the-field stuff like that happens every now and then. It’s never meant to go beyond the field.”

Neither Davis, nor Pendleton or anyone else on either team are “bad kids,” “bad apples” or whatever. They’re playing a game where stuff sometimes happens. Saban did what he felt was best in suspending Davis for the first half of the Tennessee, but it’s obvious this was by no means a “final straw” incident for the Meridian native.

Here is where the hypocrisy of college football fans come into play: Everyone thinks that their team is full of choir boys, and everyone else’s team is full of problem guys. That’s why everyone “tut tuts” other teams’ players getting arrested or suspended, while they either double down when it happens to one of their teams’ players, or they go the opposite extreme and demand a player be kicked off the team for something minor, because God forbid they have to hear about it at the water cooler from opposing teams’ fans at work the next day.

That’s why people were likely quick to judge Davis without ever having spoken to him once in their lives. The sooner these folks realize that, no, the players on your team aren’t perfect either, the sooner we can stop judging players based on isolated incidents. 

Drew Kerekes is the sports editor at The Meridian Star. He can be reached at dkerekes@themeridianstar.com.