By Jayar Jackson
Oklahoma University’s head football coach Bob Stoops followed through on his “zero tolerance” promise to his highly touted incoming freshman wide receiver Josh Jarboe last week. Stoops dismissed the troubled Jarboe after a video of him delivering a profanity-laced freestyle rap mentioning guns and shooting began circulating on the internet.
There must be more, right? One month after signing with Oklahoma in February, Jarboe was arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of bringing a gun to his high school and carrying a pistol without a license. Since this was his first offense, the charges were reduced to misdemeanors although he was still kicked out of school.
Jarboe’s pointless rap talked about the trouble he got into with the gun at school and included some elements that must have been relayed to Stoops as being violent and inappropriate, which made up his mind that this guy isn’t going to shape up.This lame reason for dismissing Jarboe smells like a cop out; an opportunity to get rid of the kid for his actual offense, bringing that gun to school. Either Stoops or someone above him changed their mind about allowing his gun charges to slide by with a harsh warning.
A freestyle rap that uses metaphors to describe what many rappers describe is hardly an offense. In fact, forget the gun talk and profanity in the video, Jarboe’s horrific rap skills quickly became his second criminal offense in my mind. His lousy freestyle wasn’t exactly evoking the memory of Tupac, Biggie, and Big L.
The words didn’t clue anyone in on some master plan he has to get his gun and go shooting up campus, therefore not suggesting he’s back to his old tricks of touting a gun around school. If you watch closely, he’s filming his infamous rap session in a campus building with students walking by and clowning in front of the camera in the background. Man, this guy is so dangerous!
He’s an 18 year-old kid, who hadn’t proven his “troublemaker” status at Oklahoma that did something devastatingly stupid in high school after given a great opportunity with the Sooners. Let’s just get it clear though, it wasn’t this rapping that got him kicked off the team, it was Stoops’ second chance to please critics that questioned his decision to keep him on in the first place.