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If you went to college at a school with a football program, there’s a solid chance you ended up crossing paths with at least a few members of the team over the course of your weekly travels.
In my experience, you don’t have to be intimately familiar with the entire roster to spot a football player on campus; it’s pretty hard to miss the linemen that are typically absolutely massive human beings, but more often than not, the biggest giveaway is the team-issued sweatsuits, jackets, and other pieces of apparel (typically emblazoned with a name and number) a lot of guys preferred to wear to classes.
Getting access to that swag is just one of the many perks that tend to come with being a college football player, but it appears it may also have been the downfall of a (now former) defensive back at UCF based on a story that recently surfaced.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, the Golden Knights have officially dismissed Justin Hodges from the team after the DB was arrested in connection to a home invasion that occurred in Orlando earlier this month.
The outlet reports the incident in question transpired on the morning of January 9th, as the unnamed victim told officers who arrived at the scene that “several unknown Black males with masks and firearms barged into the apartment, battered him, threatened him with their guns in an extremely violent manner, stole his phone and recording equipment, then left the building.”
The Orlando Police Department launched an investigation and ultimately ruled Hodges was one of the men in question. They believe the invasion was linked to his relationship with the victim’s ex-girlfriend (who has also been charged for her purported role in orchestrating the robbery), who had apparently previously returned to the apartment where the incident occurred wearing clothing that belonged to a “new male friend.”
How did they reach that conclusion? Well, the man who was attacked allegedly threw those clothes out of his window before one piece was retrieved by officers who noted it was “an item issued to Hodges by a local university athletic team” (the police report states they also identified the ex-UCF player while reviewing surveillance footage).
That’ll do it.