When news trickled out last Friday that Boise State senior quarterback Joe Southwick was sent home from the Hawaii Bowl for a violation of team rules, the specifics of the violation were unknown. After returning to Boise, Southwick reached out to the local media to say that he was sent home from the team’s trip for something he didn’t do.
Southwick told KTVB in Boise that he was sent home for “urinating off of a balcony at the team hotel,” but he maintains that it was a teammate who did the deed. After being told he would be sent home, Southwick admits he lost his temper.
"It just turned to finger pointing, and it ended up being three people against one person saying something, and I guess the temper tantrum of one person didn't look good and there was no investigation. This was an absolute rushed decision, probably made in about 20 minutes," he said.
Southwick tried to contact Boise State administrators and even took a lie detector test to try to clear his name. He told KTVB that he would be willing to share the results of the test with Boise State coaches and administrators.
“I don’t want this to turn into me against Boise State. I love Boise State. What they’ve been able to do for me these past five years is life changing. And this situation that occurred the last five days could also be life changing, obviously negative for me,” Southwick said.
“It’s just really important for myself and my family to get this cleared up and show that really the decision makers in place had a rushed decision, there was no process to properly judicate what happened. It’s really disappointing that it came to this.”
The University has not responded to Southwick’s statements and if Southwick is indeed innocent, it would be an unfortunate way for the redshirt senior to end his collegiate career.
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