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Doc 5: Top five marijuana mistakes -- No. 4 Dorial Green-Beckham

Doc 5: Top five marijuana mistakes -- No. 4 Dorial Green-Beckham

This offseason we will count down various topics from Monday through Friday, bringing you the top five of the important and definitely some not so important issues in college football. It's the Doc Five, every week until we will thankfully have actual games to discuss.

Christians across the world celebrated Easter on Sunday, but some were celebrating another holiday.

April 20, aka “4/20,” has become a de-facto holiday to celebrate the use of marijuana. With 4/20 in mind, we decided to use that as the basis for this week’s Doc 5 – the top five marijuana mistakes.

There are no shortage of college football players running into legal trouble throughout the offseason, many of them for marijuana charges. Any semi-regular reader of Dr. Saturday knows that. Over the years there have been plenty of top players whose marijuana use ultimately led to dismissals that impacted their teams.

Here's number four.

TOP FIVE MARIJUANA MISTAKES

No. 4 - DORIAL GREEN-BECKHAM

A marijuana arrest isn't what ultimately led Dorial Green-Beckham to be dismissed from the Missouri football team earlier in April, but two pot-related incidents likely played a part.

Green-Beckham was a coup for Mizzou. As student at Springfield Hillcrest High School, he was the top recruit in the class of 2012 according to Rivals and he was less than three hours from the University of Missouri.

In the Big 12, Missouri had a reputation for solid but not spectacular recruiting classes. By keeping Green-Beckham at his home-state school, Missouri could enter the SEC boasting the nation's top recruit, a 6-6 receiver with speed and exceptional leaping ability. Plus, DGB could contine to boost Missouri's in-state recruiting efforts. As Gary Pinkel's teams started having sustained success at Missouri, the school got better and better at keeping Missouri's top football players at Missouri's only division one football program.

When Green-Beckham committed to Missouri on National Signing Day in 2012, his arrival was a symbol for a lot of things for Mizzou.

Missouri struggled in 2012 with injuries and went 5-7. Green-Beckham also struggled to get significant playing time at the beginning of the season and was suspended for a game against Vanderbilt in October after he and two other teammates were arrested for marijuana possession in the parking lot at Memorial Stadium.

He finished the season with 28 catches and towards the end of the season started to show the promise that many saw with his lofty recruiting status.

As a sophomore in 2013, he was a key part of Missouri's passing attack, catching 59 passes for 883 yards and 12 touchdowns and drawing attention from Missouri's other receivers. Against Kentucky, he essentially beat the Wildcats by himself, scoring four touchdowns on seven catches in Missouri's 48-17 win.

If Green-Beckham simply duplicated his 2013 efforts in 2014, he was destined to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft.

Instead, his future looks a lot murkier and if he transfers to a different school before he enters the NFL draft, he'll be just the second No. 1 overall Rivals recruit to transfer after Bryce Brown. Green-Beckham was arrested in January on drug charges after police say they found marijuana in the car he was in with two other people. However, Green-Beckham was released without formal charges and there was no evidence the pound of marijuana in the car was Green-Beckham's.

If it's not for those two choices, is Green-Beckham still with Missouri after he was involved in what was reported to be a physical altercation at the apartment of a female acquaintance? Only the Missouri football staff knows, and based off the incident report, Missouri should have made the same decision with or without prior offenses.

However, it showed that Green-Beckham, who entered counseling, hadn't learned from his two previous arrests.

 

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Nick Bromberg

is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!