Justin Blackmon's DUI Arrest A Major Issue For Jacksonville Jaguars

Justin Blackmon has yet to actually step on the field and play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he has already made a splash that will have a major impact on the franchise.

It just isn’t the positive impact that the Jaguars were hoping to get when they traded up to draft him in the first-round of the NFL Draft.

On Sunday afternoon, news broke that Blackmon was arrested in Oklahoma for an aggresive DUI.

Blackmon was pulled over for driving 60 mph in a 35 mph zone and blew a staggering 0.24 when he was administered a breathalyzer test. A figure that is three times the legal limit.

While it certainly should be unsettling for the Jaguars to see their latest top draft pick exercise such poor judgement, they should be even more concerned by the fact that this is Blackmon’s second DUI arrest in the last 20 months.

The Jaguars knew about the first DUI when they decided to select Blackmon, but he obviously convinced general manager Gene Smith that it was a one time mistake that would not come back to haunt him as a professional. In Smith’s tenure, he has placed a value on selecting high character players with no history of run-ins with the law.

Blackmon was Smith’s first attempt at selecting a player with a red flag on his resume, and it did not take long for Blackmon to create a public relations problem for the Jaguars.

While the team will likely not have to worry about losing Blackmon due to suspension for this incident, it should raise a major amount of concern for the health of their young wide receiver.

The Jaguars have had issues in the past with players who have had drug abuse problems off of the field and given the fact that Blackmon has been arrested twice for driving drunk, it is fair to assume that he could have a problem with alcohol abuse.

In the wake of this incident, the Jaguars and Blackmon are going to say all of the right things. While it most certainly is not a crime for a young guy to enjoy a few alcoholic beverages from time to time, it becomes an issue if that person continues to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking a near toxic amount of alcohol.

The more telling number that arose from this situation is not the fact that this was Blackmon’s second DUI, but that he had a BAC of 0.24 when he took his breathalyzer test. A guy of Blackmon’s size would have to put away several drinks to get to that point.

It should be of great concern to the Jaguars that Blackmon appears to have a problem controlling himself when he is drinking. He has clearly not yet matured past his days of being a college party boy.

The Jaguars will now have to babysit Blackmon off of the field to make sure their young star is not an alcoholic.

These are not the kind of headlines the Jaguars hoped Blackmon would be making.