Well Played Ray-Ray (Not Really)

Miami Hurricane junior safety Ray-Ray Armstrong was suspended the first four games of the 2011 football season for his involvement with rogue booster Nevin Shapiro, returning to action game five, UM’s then-biggest game of the season at Virginia Tech. He’ll now miss Miami’s biggest remaining game – a road showdown with Florida State this Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee.

Armstrong is suspended for this weekend’s Canes / Noles showdown and UM officials are checking to see if NCAA rules were broken due to a student athlete having dinner with someone who owns a public relations firm that works with professional athletes.

Armstrong dined on South Beach at Prime 112 this past Sunday night with Arielle Washington, owner of a boutique firm called Double Coverage PR. The news went public as both Armstrong and Washington shared their thoughts on the dining experience with the social networking community via Twitter. (Their comments have since been removed.)

The relationship status between Armstrong and Washington remains unknown. Meanwhile the University of Miami is trying to determine whether Armstrong accepted an extra benefit, which would declare him ineligible.

An AP report this evening shared these events and the most disturbing tidbit might be the fact that some ‘experts’ have Armstrong pegged as a likely early-entry candidate for the 2012 NFL Draft.

A back-up strong safety who’s played five of ten games this season and hasn’t looked stellar or played up to potential, and we’re talking NFL money. Unreal.

It’s situations like this that keep first-year head coach Al Golden up at night.

Is it understandable that a college athlete would want to grab a Sunday night dinner with a lady friend? Sure. But that’s just part of the story. The bigger question; why the name-dropping and online boasting? Especially from someone who already hurt his team by missing a third of the season due to the $788 taken from a booster years back?

Four games remain and Florida State was six days away. Was this really the time for fine dining at a South Beach hotspot? The 49-14 win over Duke was impressive, but hardly deserved this type of celebration.

This ‘me first’ instead of a team-first mentality absolutely has to go. Save the fancy dinners and big nights out for the off-season.

Actually, Saturday December 4th would be a great night for a quiet dinner as the Canes will be nowhere near Charlotte, NC and the ACC Championship game.

Kick back, order up a bone-in filet and some scalloped parmesan potatoes while watching Virginia Tech play in their sixth conference title game since joining the ACC back in 2004, while Miami sits home never having sniffed an invite.

Priorities, fellas. Honestly. – C.B.

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