ishmael-zamora.jpg

Baylor sophomore wideout Ishmael Zamora caught 9 passes for 132 yards last season as a freshman for deposed coach Art Briles. He has been charged with a misdemeanor for violently beating his dog, seen in a video submitted to police last month by a Baylor coed.

(AP photo)

I don't understand mistreatment of animals. And I wouldn't allow anyone caught doing it to remain in my organization.

That includes if I was a college football coach making half a million for a year for an interim gig at Baylor and one of my team's top receivers was caught on video viciously beating his dog.

Especially if I had the leeway Jim Grobe does.

I mean, Grobe stepped in at Baylor basically to help out his old friend Grant Teaff when the former coach Art Briles and its president Ken Starr resigned earlier this summer. He arrived amid a string of rapes and sexual assaults by the school's football players that went unaddressed by the university.

Grobe could take any action he pleased at this point. He's only there to keep the seat warm for the next guy. He has carte blanche to do what he likes and if anyone doesn't like it, what're they gonna do, fire him? He doesn't care. He was already retired to a roomy country home in Georgia when Teaff called.

But, no. Grobe is apparently going to let Ishmael Zamora stay on the team. I don't understand it.

I can't grasp how you can allow someone like this to stay within your walls.

Zamora stands 6-4 and weighs 220 pounds. He was caught by cellphone video, submitted to Waco police reportedly by a Baylor student on July 5, taking a belt to his dog with every ounce of his strength. The dog cowers and yelps in pain and fear. The clip, obtained and aired by KXXV (Channel 25) in Waco, is below. If you watch it, be prepared.

Seeing something like this builds a rage within me like nothing else. I realize many don't possess the same gene. They don't get it. It's just a dog, right?

Well, the way I see it, pets don't have the capacity to protect themselves. They trust us implicitly. They can only hope we treat them with kindness. They are like children - helpless.

I have a love for dogs that transcends that I have for most humans. They have pure souls. Their love is without qualification.

We've had German shepherds most of my life. We just had to put down our big, goofy Rocco four weeks ago today because of canine cancer. July 22 was a dark day and we aren't close to over it. He was an irreplaceable part of our family.

Anyway, when I see dogs being mistreated, I act. I have threatened strangers with bodily harm in public places. I have aided a neighbor's neglected dog and taken him to the vet myself.

If I was in Jim Grobe's place right now, I would turn out this young man yesterday. He would be gone. There is no explanation. No "teachable moment." No "made some bad choices." He's out. He can learn how to be a human being on someone else's dime.

But so far, Baylor has done nothing but trot out public-relations drivel. Grobe, who is known in the business as a good guy and served for eight years as chair of the American Football Coaches Association's ethics committee, has mainly just given it a lot of stern rhetoric. He told The Waco Tribune this afternoon:

"We're not going to tolerate it. [Zamora] is going to be disciplined by a bunch of people. The city is going to get a piece of him, and the university doesn't take it lightly. There will be some sanctions from the university. From an athletic department standpoint, we'll do some things.

"We haven't decided exactly what we're going to do. The thing all of our players understand there's no guarantee you're going to get on the field just because you're a good player. Just because you're a good player doesn't mean we're going to overlook bad behavior."

But I'll bet they do. Baylor needs a wideout in its ample rotation. Corey Coleman (74 catches in 2015) left for the NFL. Zamora is a big, rangy fast guy from Houston who'll get lots of snaps.

And after all, he issued a statement of apology:

"I'm sorry for my actions. I've owned the dog for 20 months, he's perfectly healthy and I love him very much. In the moment, I lost my temper trying to discipline him. I've been through training with a dog trainer to help me learn new potty training tips."

Training tips? I'd love to give Zamora some training tips. But I wouldn't. I'd just show him the door.

Animal cruelty isn't something you should have to be trained not to do. It's a blackness of the heart. Anyone who would take a belt to a dog with such violence has a root sickness that needs more than therapy. Maybe he was mistreated himself and, if so, that's sad. Many animal abusers have been.

But I'm afraid I wouldn't be the right therapist. If I'm the boss, my treatment regimen for Zamora would be handing him within the hour a one-way bus ticket out of Waco.

Not that the place has shown to be any bastion of humanity. But today, it would be brighter by one soulless individual.