I never really knew what to make of the City Boyz Inc., which, at least on the Iowa Hawkeye football team, included Dominique Douglas, Anthony Bowman, Arvell Nelson and James Cleveland. Maybe I'm missing someone, but I know these are the guys who put Facebook.com on the map in the world of us 40-something Iowans.
The pictures themselves were harmless. The clothes, the cash, the bottles of booze. They certainly weren't any worse than spring break pictures. The hand signs they flashed through out looked like the international sign for "OK," but they stood for CBI.
Harmless, I thought. Don't judge a book . . .
The pictures surfaced not long after Douglas and Bowman were arrested for credit card theft. Then, Nelson eventually had a traffic charge turn into an arrest warrant.
Today, Nelson and Cleveland were arrested on drug charges. Cleveland's charge is a Class D felony. You can read all the gory details in Scott Dochterman's story here:
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080223/NEWS/310795518/1008/sports
There's more to come here, especially in the case of Cleveland. If it was his prescription, then I would guess the charges would be dismissed. This one is going to take some time and the Iowa football program is going to have to endure yet another round of ugly headlines.
I imagine this will wrap it up for Nelson. I can't see him surviving this, not with last year's fiasco less than a year old.
One City Boy is gone. Douglas has transferred. Two City Boyz were the subject of a cell phone call to Kirk Ferentz during the annual coaches' cruise to St. Something. Cleveland and Nelson are on thin ice, to say the least.
Bowman remains on the team and has a chance to make something of himself at the University of Iowa.
Those pictures have been worth way more than a thousand words.