Lessons on Drunk Driving for UT Football Players

Brooks Schuelke

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The big news in Austin today is obviously the Texas-Oklahoma football game. And as even the most casual fan knows, our footbal team has had more than its share of legal woes this year. But Mack Brown has found a hopefully effective way of teaching the team about the dangers of drunk driving. His method:

So after Texas players Henry Melton of Grapevine and Sergio Kindle of Dallas were charged in separate Driving While Intoxicated cases in June, Brown did more than suspend them three games each.

He required them to spend time with Joyce Adejumo. She in turn introduced them to her son, Mitchie Mitchell.

Mitchie had died in January - after being paralyzed since 1989 in an alcohol-related car crash. The driver was his biological father, who was convicted of drunken driving after placing the 3-year-old in the front seat during a weekend visitation.

"At first, they were attentive, but they seemed like, 'Well, you know, this is something I have to do,' " Adejumo said of her initial late-July meeting with Melton and Kindle. Then she showed them a slide show that included graphic photos of the crash and ensuing-years snapshots of wheelchair-bound Mitchie.

"All of a sudden, I got two guys who were very, very attentive and very remorseful," Adejumo said. "And very grateful that they had not injured anybody."

Hopefully, these stories can help not only our players, but other young drivers be more careful about their driving habits.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.