So there's apparently more to the Russell Shepard story than just living with a female football staffer this summer and pocketing off-campus money. Shepard was rendered ineligible for the season-opener for compliance-related issues, and everyone presumably looked back at this original story and said, "Oh, must be about the girl", and that was the end of that.
Well, not exactly. Shepard apparently can't keep his mouth shut. Shepard reportedly talked to a teammate prior to an NCAA meeting in violation of whatever gag order the NCAA had put on Shepard, Scott Rabalais of the Advocate reports. This is in violation of NCAA Bylaw 32.1.4, which states the following.
32.1.4 Cooperative Principle. The cooperative principle imposes an affirmative obligation on each institution to assist the enforcement staff in developing full information to determine whether a possible violation of
NCAA legislation has occurred and the details thereof. An important element of the cooperative principle requires that all individuals who are subject to NCAA rules protect the integrity of an investigation.A failure to do so may be a violation of the principles of ethical conduct. The enforcement staff will usually share information with the institution during an investigation; however, it is understood that the staff, to protect the integrity of the investigation, may not in all instances be able to share information with the institution.
Therefore, Shepard is getting suspended for that. Shepard could miss multiple games, which puts even more pressure on the true freshman wide receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, Jr. to step up in his absence and contribute along with Rueben Randle. And Shepard still hasn't received his punishment from the NCAA for the original investigation, so it's very likely he'll miss multiple games as a result.
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