If I had to do the same again

I would, my friend, Fernando…

If I have to have that miserable effing Abba song running through my head, you’re all going down with me.

Some deep recess of my mind dredged that song from the depths after Fernando M. Diaz, made sure that he was never coming back to the Pitt football team.

Diaz, who grew up in New York City, participated in preseason drills in August before leaving the team for personal reasons. He had wanted to return for spring drills, but Pitt coach Todd Graham said Wednesday he is no longer welcome.

“He will no longer be a part of our program,” Graham said.

Honestly, I know I should be aghast at the details and it reflecting on Pitt, yada, yada, yada. But, if this happened somewhere else I would be laughing and snickering quite a bit, so what the hell.

The suspect, Fernando M. Diaz, 20, of Bronx, N.Y., was taken into custody after a cruiser on routine patrol at 1:56 a.m. had to stop on Atwood because Diaz was standing in the middle of the street yelling at someone in an adjacent parking lot and refused to move. When he saw the police car, officers said, he responded “What the [expletive] are you going to do, hit me?”

He became belligerent and yelled at them, police said, and a crowd gathered. A man who said he played football with Diaz told him to “shut his mouth” and accept the citation for being publicly drunk, cautioning him that former Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt was not there any more and new coach Todd Graham would make an example of him.

Police said Diaz, a redshirted freshman offensive lineman who was trying to get back on the team, refused to calm down and twice tried to walk away.

Once the citation was written, he told police he wouldn’t accept it and began to walk away again, ignoring orders to stop. He fought with officers who attempted to cuff him, swinging at them with closed fists and with an arm on which one handcuff had been fastened, police said.

They contained him only after shooting him four times with a Taser.

Diaz clocks in at 6’2″, 280 pounds. He was charged with drunkenness, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, underage drinking and obstruction of a highway. For these efforts he earned Pitt 6 points in the Fulmer Cup. I know, technically not part of the team yet, but I have no problem with this since he likely would have if this hadn’t happened.

Besides, tasered 4 times. Shame he didn’t show that kind of determination and focus last August. Pitt really could have used that help on the O-line.

I do love the unidentified friend/football player who tried to warn him. Whether sober or otherwise, he clearly was smart enough to see what would happen to Diaz if he didn’t pull himself together. At least one player showed some brains.