San Francisco police say UNM football player Deshon Marman was boarding a flight to Alburquerque, N.M. yesterday at San Francisco International Airport enroute to Albuquerque, N.M., when a U.S. Airways employee was offended because his pants were below his buttocks, but above the knees, and his private parts were outlined in his boxer shorts. When asked to pull up his pants, Marman refused, and he was asked to leave the plane. After 15 tense minutes he was removed from the plane and arrested for trespassing, battery and resisting arrest. Marman's mother explained that that her son had attended a funeral and he was still in an emotionally raw state. She also added racism as a factor. Marman is a JC transfer who just signed as a safety with the Lobos in February.
This past November junior Lobo linebacker Julion Conley was arrested in downtown Albuquerque following a brawl at a nightclub on charges of battery, aggravated battery and public affray. Conley wasn't alone in the incident as sophomore LB Joe Harris and senior WR Bryant Williams were also involved in the fight. In that altercation the football players beat up several bouncers and choked one until he passed out. The football program has a policy that prohibits team members from being in the downtown area, but evidently all three felt they didn't need to follow the coach's rules. All three were suspended indefinately.
That brawl in November was not the first incident involving New Mexico footgball players under Mike Locksley's watch. Another bar fight involving several players took place the year before, in 2009, and it was also in downtown Albuquerque.
Mike Locksley is himself no stranger to irresponsible behavior. Within six months of being hired the coach was embroiled in an EEO lawsuit over age and sex discrimination charges. Withing a year of his hire, in September 2009, the head coach had an altercation with an assistant coach that further involved the UNM and its coach in yet another legal lawsuit. That one is still being pursued in the courts. There is no question that Locksley is viewed as a poor example to his student athletes and has little or no control over his own actions, much less those of the Lobo football program.
And now the once proud New Mexico football program is once again in the national news and once again for all the wrong reasons. The notoriety reflects poorly on the student athletes who came to Universtiy of New Mexico to study and play football for the Lobos. Locksley's leadership is giving the entire New Mexico football program a black eye. You have to wonder when the univeristy administration is going to take action and fix the ailing program.