It’s something most kids have done, taken something from a store after a parent refused to make the purchase. I did it when I was four or five. I had asked for these monster-shaped erasers at Hallmark. My parents denied the request, so I pocketed a few. The brilliant kid I was decided to play with the erasers in the car on the way home. It ended with me returning the toys, apologizing to the store manager, and a whooping from pops when we got home.

Marcus Peters obviously had a similar experience. He may have been a little wiser than I was and gotten away with it.  But like when I was a kid, this one too ended in a whooping and me in tears.

Peters described forcing the fumble that led to a game-winning field goal as time expired, stating, “I took it from him. You know how you go to the store and you want something, but your mamma tells you can’t have it… I just took it from him.”

I tell you one thing, when he “took it from him,” I was crying like that day my dad whooped me after getting back from that Hallmark. Hey, maybe there’s an idea for a Hallmark card, “take it from him and leave him crying like you just got whooped by your daddy.” I’m not sure if that would be in the motivation or condolences section, however.

By the Professor, aka Tony Dunn