Arkansas' Jeremy Sprinkle Got Suspended From The 'Belk Bowl' For Stealing From Belk...When He Had A $450 Gift Card

Deadspin- Arkansas tight end Jeremy Sprinkle will miss his final college football game after he was suspended for his team’s matchup against Virginia Tech today in the Belk Bowl. The school announced the suspension prior to the game’s 5:30 p.m. kickoff. Head coach Bret Bielema released a statement, but did not specify why Sprinkle was being benched:

​"Jeremy’s suspension has been known by our staff and players for several days so we’ve had a chance to prepare our game plan accordingly. Throughout his career and this season as a graduate student-athlete, Jeremy has displayed numerous times the qualities we want to represent our program. “We have standards within our family that must be upheld on a daily basis and unfortunately he failed to do that in the last week. Jeremy’s suspension isn’t drug, alcohol or violence related but one that will cause him to miss his final game as a Razorback."

According to SEC Country, Sprinkle tried to shoplift at a Belk store during a shopping spree competition. The Razorbacks received $450 gift cards as their bowl gifts; earlier this week, players had 90 minutes to spend the money at a local Belk. Sprinkle is alleged to have taken “items worth more than the allotted cost available.” The report said that Charlotte PD wasn’t called to the scene, and the tight end doesn’t appear to have been charged with anything.

According to the Charlotte PD, these are the items Sprinkle attempted to steal:

• $55 black Ralph Lauren shirt
• $45 Saddlebred tandoori spice marl collared shirt
• $16 Saddlebred blue strip classic fit boxer
• $45 Saddlebred grey collared shirt
• $18 Nike black crew socks
• $12.99 SB Tech black XL shirt
• $38 Nautica tan wallet
• $30 Saddlebred brown wallet

::Googles Belk::

::Comes to the quick assumption that it's essentially Nordstrom-Lite::

::Immediately forgives Jeremy Sprinkle for his quick bout with Kleptomania::


Let me get this straight...the way a kid acts in a candy store is so readily accepted by society that it became it's own saying, but I'm supposed to get mad at a college football player for not being able to budget properly when let loose in a department store? Sounds a bit hypocritical if you ask me. Especially after giving a bunch of guys who "didn't come to play school" an arbitrary hard cap like $450 when they have no experience being able to handle their own money (hope the NCAA was wearing a jacket in case they are human enough to feel the chills from that shade).

Plus, I'm no expert on complimentary shopping sprees, but I do know that they are either supposed to have a money limit or a time limit, but never both. Color me shocked that some fuzzy calculations went down when you gave a bunch of SEC athletes merely an hour and a half to look through an endless array of items and do the math necessary to make sure they fit within their financial constraints? I bet Jeremy Sprinkle didn't even intend on stealing. He just got to the front of the line with about 3 minutes left, had entirely too much shit in his hands, and completely panicked when he saw the register jump into the 400's. Of course he started stuffing new boxers under his current boxers. What else was he supposed to do? Take that long, depressing walk back to the rack and risk rolling in late with the clothes that he actually could afford?

I blame this free-for-all atmosphere more than I blame an indecisive tight end that was trying to spruce up his wardrobe after finally being lightly compensated for 4 years worth of efforts on the football field. That's mostly because I went last second Christmas shopping at Macy's and was downright astounded by the total after it was already too late. However, it's also because I would imagine thousands of pissed off procrastinators having a retail induced anxiety attack doesn't even create as lawless of a scene as a full team of college football players swim-moving their way through traffic trying to leave no cent unspent before the two minute warning. 'Belk' - much like the NCAA -  basically made Jeremy Sprinkle resort to morally compromising means to get what he deserved by creating a situation that surely looked like mass looting from a North Carolina soccer mom's perspective. In my estimation, Arkansas should at least flip the bill for the wallets he's never needed while getting paid for his services in nothing more than classes he's undoubtedly slept through.