Last week, one of Auburn's best basketball players was arrested for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, attempting to elude a police officer and resisting arrest.
In our society, athletes, celebrities and public figures are held to a higher standard.
Perversely, in the culture of tabloid news, many live vicariously through the lives of their favorite stars, watching and waiting for them to slip up so a barrage of finger-pointing and mud-dragging can begin.
Others hold their public figures to a higher standard, not to have the TMZ "holier than thou" moment, but because they recognize that those who are in the public eye are not just entertainers, they are role models. They represent teams, institutions and schools that are bigger than they are.
This is why the actions of Rob Chubb are so disappointing.
Every student makes mistakes. Some fail classes. Some break dorm rules. A few have run-ins with the law.
Every one of these students faces disappointment from friends and family.
It is not a double standard to say the Auburn community is disappointed in Chubb. As a leading scorer on the men's basketball team, all students and alumni of this University is part of his family.
He has let that family down.
It is one thing to become inebriated on a weekend, particularly after a big win. But to run from the police and to injure an officer in the process is totally unacceptable.
It is not the way an Auburn man, or any upstanding citizen, behaves. Get in the car and go quietly. Cowards run.
Of course, some of the blame must rest with those who surrounded him. Student-athletes are often propped up by their peers as larger-than-life figures. They must constantly be reminded by their friends and family that with their position comes great responsibility.
Actions have consequences. For a team that has been struggling all year, the actions of Chubb following their first real success of the season are all the more devastating. He gave his teammates less than 24 hours to celebrate their first conference win before they were given the news that one of their most valuable players had been arrested.
With the performance of this year's basketball team, a second conference win was certainly not a given, but Chubb's actions will make that next victory even harder to come by.
For a team that has been the bottom feeder of the conference standings for weeks, Chubb's actions have brought national attention to the basketball team for the worst possible reason.
Perhaps the loss of Chubb earlier than expected made an inevitable personnel change for coach Tony Barbee a little bit easier.
Chubb and the other players certainly had to be on notice of being cut for the sake of the program, and the unlawful actions committed last week have more than likely guaranteed Chubb will never wear an Auburn uniform again.
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