Virginia Tech Receiver Blows a .33 BAC, Gets Arrested, Blames Beamer

You know it’s a good article when this sentence appears in the body:↵↵⇥He wasn’t looking to get in to any trouble, he said, but he ended the night in handcuffs.↵↵Story of my life, Ike. Story of my life. Ike Whitaker, the Virginia Tech WR in question here, has had an erratic career at Virginia Tech: lack of production on the field, an alcohol-related arrest as a freshman, and now this extremely ill-advised interview following an arrest for public intoxication where Whitaker blew a .33 BAC. It’s an impressive number, but not nearly as impressive as the fact that a) the reporter didn’t stop Ike from burying himself eyeball-deep in self-justifications, and b) that Whitaker really doesn’t seem to think any of this is his fault.↵↵In fact, as Chas points out at Fanhouse, Whitaker seems to be blaming the suspension imposed by Frank Beamer for his headfirst plunge into Drinkyland and the public intoxication charge.↵

↵↵⇥I was talking to the cops, explaining to them how hurt I was that I had been suspended ... So I’m explaining to the cop that honestly I’m mad, I’m frustrated and the way I dealt with it was going downtown with some of my friends and trying to enjoy myself as much as possible. And then I got a drunk in public.”↵↵“As much as possible” is right. Whitaker weighs 220 pounds, meaning just getting to .33 takes (according to our crack team of physiologists) somewhere in the neighborhood of eight-to-ten drinks per hour. I’ve been drunk for months at a time in my life at around 200 pounds, but never, ever have I been able to keep this kind of pace, not even in my most glorious Peter O’Toole bender phases. Whitaker’s a bigger guy, but the instant reflex to go and put down that much booze in that little time certainly should ring alarm bells. That’s a drinking problem firing up on the launchpad, ready to go if I’ve ever seen it.↵