The Wednesday night incident of two Georgia football players racing on a city street that led to one of them arrested for reckless driving wasn’t the first time this year that Athens-Clarke County police pulled over two Bulldog players after seeing them driving their cars together at a high rate of speed.
Police cited defensive backs Jonel Aguero and Justyn Rhett for speeding after their Dodge Chargers were “cutting in and out of traffic,” going 59 miles per hour in a 40 zone on Feb. 16.
That incident also was on West Broad Street where police said linebacker Smael Mondon and defensive back Demelo Jones were racing this week. Mondon was arrested for reckless driving and both were cited for racing.
“There’s families in those other vehicles,” the officer told Aguero, according to bodycam video. “This isn’t your race track, OK?”
Georgia football players have been arrested or cited for speeding, reckless driving or racing at least 24 times after the Jan. 15, 2023 fatal crash that killed offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandley LeCroy.
Police said excessive speed and alcohol factored into the crash in which now NFL defensive lineman Jalen Carter and LeCroy were racing.
At least 10 players have been arrested or cited for reckless driving, racing or speeding this year.
Defensive back David Daniel-Sisavanh was charged with reckless driving on Feb. 24 when police said a 2021 BMW340 I he was driving south on the I-75/I- 85 connector in Atlanta made multiple lane changes at high speed without using blinkers and led police on a pursuit, according to a Georgia Department of Public Safety police incident report.
An officer contacted Georgia football staffer Bryant Gantt. Daniel-Sisavanh “admitted to staff that he fled from a trooper,” according to a police incident report.
Coach Kirby Smart last year addressed player arrests for driving incidents.
That included wide receiver DeNylon Morrissette who has since transferred to Purdue. He served time in the Oconee County Jail April 26-27 as part of his sentence for a May 2023 arrest for DUI drugs and driving too fast for conditions when he hit a vehicle from behind. He was twice cited for speeding earlier that year in other jurisdictions after going 36 miles over the speed limit.
Smart again addressed driving incidents during spring practice following running back Trevor Etienne’s arrest. He pled no contest Wednesday in an Athens court to reckless driving and guilty to failure to maintain lane and underage possession of alcohol. A DUI charge was dismissed from the March 24 incident.
Smart, athletic director Josh Brooks and local police have talked to players about the dangers that can come with such incidents.
“I think that’s one of the areas that we’ve really tried to target, and I think we do it better than anybody in the country,” Smart said.
Smart and Georgia have not commented about this week’s arrests but are expected to Tuesday at SEC Media Days in Dallas.
The officer who cited Aguero and Rhett brought up the fatal crash last year.
“Janaury, last year, what happened? People died, right?,” he told the players in the video. “What were they doing? “
“Speeding,” Ageuero said.
“Y’all weren’t doing it that dumb,” the officer said.
“Swerving in and out of lanes,” Aguero said
“Let’s not be a statistic,” the officer said. “Because guess who’s going to show up and work that? Me.”
