As you may already be aware, ace South Carolina signee Jadeveon Clowney, No. 1 recruit in America, took advantage of a rare Friday off from school to make a late night/early morning trip to his future campus in Columbia, where he ran into a brief bit of trouble with local police. But he also encountered a throng of adoring student fans, who reportedly gave Clowney a standing ovation when he showed up at a bar on the main drag at some point after midnight, and quite literally hung on his every move later in the night/morning:
According to whoever posted it, that video was shot just after Clowney had been detained and patted down by police in the parking lot of a bar, the Salty Nut Caf�. But it pretty accurately captures the pro-Jadeveon tenor of the crowd as Columbia's finest went about their search, reports Charleston Post & Courier beat writer Travis Haney (emphasis added):
COLA -- Just touched base with a Columbia P.D. source. Some sort of report is expected to be released later today, but the details of that report ? or even if Jadeveon Clowney's name will be included in it ? are not clear.
I will spell out the specific details at that point, but the preliminary indication is that officers were following a tip about an individual with a gun in the area and the 6-6, 240-pound Clowney fit the description.
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All the while, as I mentioned earlier, young bar patrons became increasingly angry - and violent, in some cases. The report is expected to detail objects, including bottles, being thrown at the officers as they searched Clowney.
Clowney himself also attributed the search to a case of mistaken identity in an interview with The State: "They stopped us and said we fit a description. They said some guy called and said he got robbed and said you had a gun. He said we fit the description." Which ?�given that we're talking about a 6-foot-6, 240-pound, dreadlocked giant whose face has been plastered all over local and national media for the past two years, and whose presence in the Five Points had already drawn a crowd this morning ? seems rather … unlikely. (If there is another 6-6, 240-pound, college-aged kid lumbering around town, Steve Spurrier might like to have a word with him once the whole "robber with a gun" thing is cleared up.)
Considering he claims he did nothing wrong, wasn't arrested and hasn't been charged, though, whatever official report emerges from the melee is still very unlikely to include Clowney's name or affect his status with South Carolina in any way. Now: Back to those books, son.
UPDATE, 5:06 p.m. ET] Just to drive home the point that frisking, cuffing and other forms of suspicion do not equal guilt ? or else, you know, just for laughs ? Steve Spurrier invited the Cola police chief to slap a pair of cuffs on the head coach before the start of the Gamecocks' spring practice session this afternoon. I think it's safe to say he's not taking Clowney's night on the town too seriously.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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