Ohio State receiver C.J. Saunders was arrested Monday night in Columbus.
According to Eleven Warriors, the sixth-year senior was taken into custody about an hour before midnight after a citywide curfew starting at 10:00 p.m. was instituted in Columbus amid mass civil unrest in America following the death of George Floyd. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
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He was hit with a misdemeanor charge of violating curfew. It’s not known at this time if Saunders was participating in a protest or if he was just out and about when police stopped him.
He had previously participated in a protest Monday. Saunders will be back in court Thursday.
“This is all of us against racism. This is all of us on the same team.” -C.J. Saunders said at #kneelfornine pic.twitter.com/NpcgR7Llj4
— Keaton Maisano (@002kfm) June 2, 2020
As a betting man, I’d bet this charge gets reduced or dropped before long. The last thing Columbus wants from an optics standpoint is charging a football player with a curfew violation, especially if he was peacefully protesting.
That’s not a great look for the local police at all.
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At the same time, if Saunders was arrested because he was protesting, then that is only going to help him in the locker room.
The Buckeyes have been incredibly vocal during the ongoing crisis in America, and his teammates would probably respect the hell out of him if that’s why he got cuffed.
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All the way around, it’s not a super serious charge, but an OSU football player getting arrested for a curfew violation is a sign police are taking the situation seriously.
We’ll see what happens to Saunders, but I 100% expect this to go away before proceeding through the court system.