McCall Zerboni pinched for DWI/DUI

Is this the first Women's Pro Soccer Off-Field Scandal?

McCall Zerboni of the WNY Flash was arrested for a DUI in Rochester. 3 am on a weekday on the local expressway with a BAC approaching twice the legal limit indicates that she may need to do some soul searching on whether she needs help or not. I wish her the best and I am hopeful that she will never do something like this again.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com...d-driving-drunk?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

McCall Zerboni of the WNY Flash was arrested for a DUI in Rochester. 3 am on a weekday on the local expressway with a BAC approaching twice the legal limit indicates that she may need to do some soul searching on whether she needs help or not. I wish her the best and I am hopeful that she will never do something like this again.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/...news|text|Home

Your link does not work.

If true...

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She just officially re-signed yesterday (via Devo blog yesterday). The Flash were making her the face/name of their off-season marketing. And she'd already developed popularity among fans both in ATL and WNY. Not good at all.

It will be interesting to see how the franchise & the player handle this event. (eta: MLS and other men's soccer teams have had similar situations before. But I can't remember the last arrest in USA women's soccer that was public. There were those that wanted less "good girls next door" imaging...)

I wonder if WPS has disciplinary rules like the WNBA where Zerboni would face at least a 1 game suspension were she to be found guilty (or plead guilty).

McCall Zerboni accused of driving drunk -

http://www.democratandchronicle.com...driving-drunk?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

LB...

Re: Is this the first Women's Pro Soccer Off-Field Scandal?

Are we doing 2 different threads then? Because you started one in the WNY forum. Why? This place doesn't get enough traffic for that, imo.

And your link is just as broken here as it was in the WNY forum.

Try this or you can just go to the main page and do a search. The mug shot is heart-breaking. McCall has always carried herself as a great role model for the kids so I know she'll be particularly embarrassed and disappointed with herself. If she is guilty, it's a mistake on her part, obviously, but I would hope it doesn't do anything to diminish the outstanding work she's done on an off the field. I was happy to see her popularity carry over to WNY and I'm sure her fans and teammates will stand behind her. Hopefully she won't be too hard on herself and will bounce right back up.

Also, I think it's a little more surprising because of the higher standard we tend to expect (and receive) from these ladies. If this were an NFL player, we wouldn't bat an eyelash.

This makes me sad and the mug shot breaks my heart. I am glad no one was hurt due to her driving under the influence. I hope she tackles this head-on; if she does I think she can use this to grow as a person and return to being the role model she is.

She was making an appearance at the Back Nine Grill here in Rochester to watch the USA vs. Honduras friendly on Tuesday night. Abby Wambach's brother is part-owner of the Back Nine. The game was over easily by 10 pm. Bars here close at 2 am and my experience is that last call is 1:30ish. If she went straight back to Buffalo, she would have been on I-490 way before 3 am when she was picked up, so it appears she stayed later.

It also appears she was alone in the car, which suggests she was alone at the appearance. Flash management should not have let her do an appearance at a bar alone.

It is too bad McCall was not sufficiently self-aware to make her own decision to not get behind the wheel. One would hope that by age 25 she would be. WHY would anyone let someone they know drive while under the influence in this day and age?

McCall has all my encouragement and best wishes as she works her way through this set-back.

Re: Is this the first Women's Pro Soccer Off-Field Scandal?

I did because I made the assumption that there alot up BSer's like me. They may not go to the team specific thread.

Link worked for me in IE and Chrome.

You are crabby when you haven't had your allotted daily amount of caffeine.

(haha Threads merged sometime between the time I saw the main forum and the time I clicked on the "scandal" thread. Bonnie's a ninja!)

Would I call this a "scandal"? No, definitely not. It's an adult woman making one bad decision and getting caught. The city should fine her, the league should ban her for a game or two, and (assuming this is a lone incident) everything will be fine again.

If this isn't a lone incident, i.e. this is a symptom of a larger problem, then that needs to be appropriately addressed by getting her the help she'd need.

While I don't like it, most people enjoying drinking, and most of them have been behind the wheel while buzzed/drunk at some point, whether they've been caught or not. Nothing outstanding or shocking here. Yes, I'm relatively cynical about alcohol consumption in the US. Hence why I've never partaken myself.

Now, what would be a scandal would be if we start seeing a string of WPS players having problems like this - that there's a higher proportion of people in the league with a problem than in the general populace. But seeing just one person from an entire league get busted one night for a DUI? Meh.

Best wishes to McCall that everything works out for the best.

Re: Is this the first Women's Pro Soccer Off-Field Scandal?

It worked for me earlier in Safari and Firefox.

..never mind, I'll leave it alone..

There's an ever growing zero tolerance on DUI in society at large. What are the laws in NY? In AZ, conviction for .15 has maditory jail time.

I'm actually surprised that so far the posters here are so laid back about this arrest. Zerboni could have killed some else. Major black mark. And potentially domestic career threatening. For whatever reasons, American soccer marketers/people in charge love the "shiny happy goody two shoes" image to to point of requirement. She's lucky that she & her bosses signed the contract prior to 2am this morning.

eta: I guess my post did read grumpier than intended. It happens. I tried the link in Firefox and it didn't take me to the story but to a "the link you clicked didn't work." page from the paper's site.

Well the Flash already released a statement.


Granted, it's not much of anything but it sounds like it will be handled internally. Doesn't sound like the league has a protocol to follow for this type of incident.

This is very unfortunate. It can't help her chances at a USWNT call-up either.

Most first offenders in WNY get off with a suspended license and skyrocketing insurance increases. Here are the possible criminal implications:

Criminal Penalties

Drivers charged with a first offense DUI in New York face no minimum incarceration required, but do have the potential of being sentenced to incarceration pending the case-specific nature of their case

http://www.drivinglaws.org/resources/dui-dwi/dui-laws-state/first-offense-dwidui-new-york

Some more detail - FROM NYS DMV Web Site.

DWI: Driving While Intoxicated; 0.08 BAC or higher or other evidence of intoxication. For drivers of commercial motor vehicles, 0.04 BAC or other evidence of intoxication.

Aggravated DWI: Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated: 0.18 BAC or higher.

***The newspaper said she had a 0.15 BAC.***

Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving While Impaired by a Drug (DWAI-Drug). Mandatory Fine: $500 - $1,000; Maximum Jail: 1 year; Mandatory License: DWI-Revoked for at least six months, DWAI-Drugs - Suspended for at least six months

Driving While Intoxicated. A court that sentences a person for a Driving While Intoxicated conviction on or after August 15, 2010 must impose a conditional discharge or probation. A condition of the sentence must be the installation and use of an ignition interlock device in any motor vehicle the person owns or operates. The ignition interlock device must remain in the vehicle for at least six months.

Driving While Ability Impaired by Alcohol (DWAI): Mandatory Fine: $300 - $500; Maximum Jail: 15 days; Mandatory License: Suspended for 90 days. (If she can plea to a lesser charge.)

I do not know McCall Zerboni; I am a huge fan of hers. From everything I have read she is a great person. Fortunately, her lack of good judgment did not result in anyone getting hurt. From this seat inside my glass house I will not throw stones at her. I do, however, send her my best wishes.

Zerboni was forced to attend a different HS as a senior because of her previous school's zero-tolerance policy.

If anything, it's fortunate that it's "just" DUI, because impaired judgment behind the wheel involving another party could have hurt/killed someone else. I hope she learns from this experience and seek help. All the best to her.

I knew that McCall Zerboni was a bad girl just by the way her hair looked....


JUST KIDDING!!

I'm sorry she got a DUI(first WPS player to have one?) but it's ludicrous to declare she's an alcoholic. It's very common for young people to go to restaurants and bars and drink and it's a shame they think they are capable of driving themselves back home.

She's lucky she didn't kill someone else or herself while DUI and I guessing judging by the disappointed face in the mug shot she's not eager to repeat this incident ever again.

I'm more concerned over how this will impact her on the team. They aren't going to fire her or anything because of this arrest right? She's a great player and hope she continues to be a great player.

Well it's too late for her to change what happened, but her reaction (AWK indicates she might be releasing a statement), the team's, and the league's is going to say a lot about the character of each one. If she is found guilty, I expect she will accept whatever punishment she is dealt with class and humility. I expect the team as an organization and as individuals would be supportive of her as she tries to atone for her alleged bad judgement and move on. Sounds like the league and union may be in a bit of a gray area, but I'm fairly certain the law and probably the team would give her enough reprimanding that they won't see fit to step in.

It's a bad incident, but I'm sure it will be handled fairly and respectfully. I think this is a good chance for all parties involved to rise above the typical lawlessness and thuggery that infests most of the larger pro sports and show that WPS can handle things maturely. I just don't see them dropping the hammer on her and making an example out of a woman who has been a great ambassador for the sport.

This is almost the last player in the league I would want to see this happen to, but McCall is a class act in spite of this incident. No way this ruins her career.

Also, I know it's tempting to say what could have happened, but we all know the perils of driving drunk. The "she could have killed someone" talk doesn't really help the situation. She didn't, so let's not throw that in her face.

Agreed. I don't condone what she did by any means, but please let's cut out the "she could have killed someone" knee jerking crap. No need to start painting this with a wide brush. It doesn't say much for the Back Nine Grill letting her walk out the door in that condition. The Flash organization deserves plenty of blame here too; sending one of your players to a public appearance at an establishment that serves liquor (especially at one that's over an hour away) and not assigning someone to drive her there and back is poor business protocol and just plain foolish. She was there with the Rochester Outlaws (a local soccer supporter group), who have been to several Flash games and were probably buying her drinks while she was there. All that aside though, it was obviously very bad judgement on her part and she should have known better, especially being a professional athlete with a high profile in the Western New York area. We'll be finding out a lot about how the Flash operates and about her as a person in the coming weeks. I hope this all works out for McCall and it doesn't damage what appears to be a promising career.

Setting aside your unnecessary "lawlessness and thuggery" hyperbole, if Zerboni is found guilty and not suspended for at least one game, then WPS & the Flash will not look good as professional sport enterprises. WNBA suspended Braxton and and Taurasi for two games for their DUIs. A one game suspension is not "dropping the hammer" and she'd best hope the character clauses in her new contract don't mean she can be cut w/o pay.

It's going to be interesting if it was indeed a Flash public relations event. Why would you send your lone soccer player to a bar where a bunch of fans would be there obviously like you said buying her drinks. Also if the bar is over an hour away from where she lives and there was nobody hired to drive her home during the event,that's pretty dumb on the Flash's part. This isn't to say that Zerboni gets off the hook of responsibility but I do think that the WPS teams need to reformat these PR things with their players. I know money is tough but heck, I would have drove her home for free!

Also doesn't help that the bar she went to was owned by Abby Wambach's brother and he didn't bother to ask her if she had a DD.

Are you guys (sisterluke isn't the only one) seriously setting up all these arguments to point that it was somehow the Flash's responsibility to make sure Zerboni didn't break the law? Or the Flash's fault that she did? ffs. WPS clubs don't have enough freaking money to hire marketing or pr folks and you want them to hire a driver for a player? ffs.

Bars close at least by 2am. She was pulled at 3am. She didn't walk out of the bar and into her car. She's a grown @ss woman. This is on her.

There was indeed an event promoted. With that said, the game ended well before 3am, and presumably the bar closed at 2am as required by law in Monroe County. So, it's hard for any of us to guess the circumstances given the stop was after 3am.

As for her, it's obviously a terrible mistake. But, certainly, I think she's paid a considerable price. Luckily not in harming anyone or herself, but sadly, her mugshot was on all four local television stations' websites yesterday morning. It being so very public is difficult, and luckily, it seems like she's the type of person who will apologize, promise never to do it again, and perhaps speak out against it moving forward.

I suspect in bigger markets where WPS teams barely make the paper such coverage wouldn't have been received. In fact, in other cities, this probably could have happened and no one would end up knowing. Given that the Flash get decent coverage here and she got stopped here, it became news and now she's going to have to work and clean things up. Thankfully, she seems very capable of doing just that.

Not that the Flash is at fault for her drinking, or drinking and driving, but it's very easy to sit back sober and say "How dare that person drink and drive!" - but unfortunately, the perp makes that decision not when she is sober, but when she is already drunk, and her decision making is impaired. I don't have sympathy for drunk drivers, but I do have understanding - that they are making these poor decisions when their thinking is already impaired.

On the other hand, whoever set up the PR movement knew they were sending a 24 year old (so that's only 3 years of drinking experience) to a drinking environment, knowing they would have to have someway of getting home. Teams that require their players to make appearances DO have a responsibility to make reasonable arrangements to keep those players safe, even from themselves, regardless of the players' own level of personal responsibility as well.

Doesn't excuse her behavior - she could have chosen to refrain from drinking anything at all (and frankly, that ALSO should probably be part of the Club appearance policy - no drinking at any official appearance event). But I don't think anyone here was trying to let her off the hook - just pointing out that the Flash should probably have done a better job of arranging the appearance.