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An Open Letter to Trevone Boykin

This really sucks, man.

By Jamie Plunkett
Tom Pennington/Getty Images

I'm  not really sure what to say. I've got a lot of questions, and a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head.

I was planning on writing one of these after the Alamo Bowl, regardless of how the game ended.

I was going to thank you for being exactly what TCU fans hoped you would be. A great football player, and an even better dude. You were the guy who we could count on, and we needed someone like that after the drug bust and the Casey Pachall saga, after Brandon Carter and Devonte Fields. We needed you to be exactly what you were.

We needed you to be the kind-hearted, fun-loving guy who took care of his business off the field, who realized that football is just a game, and other things matter more, like little Abby Faber and graduating from college.

Does this erase all of that? Of course not.

You still did those things. You still cared about the kids that would run up to you, or the students, or the fully-grown fans who wanted a picture. You understood what it meant to be a part of the #FrogFam, and you still do.

But dude, what the hell were you thinking?

Your reputation is something only you can control. It's 1,000 times easier to destroy it than it is to build it up, and a third-degree felony charge essentially takes a Thor hammer to all the good deeds you've done.

I know you know this, though, because I've seen your mugshot. Your face shows it clearly. You regret it. You regret the choices that led to the fight. That led to you being arrested two days before your final game. That led to the national media listing you with all those guys you helped us forget.

Your face shows that you regret letting your teammates down, the fans down, the school down. That's commendable. We've seen guys in the past who clearly don't regret their decisions, and that's not you.

But none of that changes the fact that you abandoned your team. The guys that bled and sweat next to you for four years. The guys that were looking to you to lead them to a win over Oregon. The guys that looked to you to show them how a man was supposed to hold himself.

Not to mention you let down your fans. The ones that touted your character and your transformation on the field. The ones that paid inordinate amounts of money to watch you play.

You know that, though. It's written so clearly on your face.

We still love you, Tre, for all you have done for this university.

But dammit, we are disappointed in how this storybook ended.

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