Former Players "Disappointed"

If you take a look around former Illini player Patrick Rouse's office you can see he's still a faithful follower of the Illini. "I take a lot of pride in my years playing at Illinois," says Rouse, who remembers his winning 2001 football season as if it were yesterday. But lately Rouse has had to take the good with the bad following this team. "It's just a shame to see one or two incidents spoil it for all of them." He says he's disappointed in two football players accused of burglary and two basketball players arrested on charges of driving drunk. "I just want them to behave the right way; the way they should; the way they know that they should," Rouse says. Rouse was on Illinois' football team from 1997 to 2001, so he well-knows the demands of student athletes and the talks coaches often give them. "I know coaches are preaching this to them... Mr. Gunther and Coach Weber." This former long-snapper knows athletes are like any other young adults; they make mistakes. But he wants you to know the mistakes of a few don't represent the whole. "I think sometimes the public sees these stories and thinks that they're a bunch of thugs, and that's not the case." That's a distinction Rouse says is important because the biggest fans often come in the smallest packages. "These kids look up to them and they really are role models whether they want to be or not," Rouse says. "They're the face of the university."