Don't blame the Cougars

Nearly every follow-up story about the fourth arrest in the Tracy Torture Case has opened by saying Anthony Waiters was a coach for the Tracy Cougars youth football team.

But the members of the Cougars want the general reading public to know something: Don't blame the organization for one man's alleged mistakes.

According to members of the team, Waiters, a semipro player in his own right, didn't do anything inappropriate with the Cougars kids and that they were as surprised as many Web site commentators who have said Waiters was "a good guy."

It's safe to say Waiters won't be welcomed back. Even if he is acquitted, his relationship with the looking-more-guilty-every-day Kelly Lau and Michael Schumacher — according to reports, Waiters called Lau his "friend" and was shown in Lau's MySpace pictures as Schumacher's drinking buddy — should be enough to keep him away.