Michigan Boots Former SoFla Star Over Cocaine Deal

We blame Eric Clapton lyrics

By JANIE CAMPBELL

Updated 5:56 PM EDT, Mon, Aug 10, 2009

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Former Plantation American Heritage quarterback Justin Feagin was a busy boy during his short stint as a University of Michigan Wolverine. Too bad none of it happened on the football field.

Feagin, a rising sophomore who ought to have been a good fit for Michigan's spread-option offense, was dismissed from the team in July for the all-purpose "violation of team rules." Among those, according to a report yesterday in the Detroit Free Press: a $600 cocaine deal gone wrong that ended in a dorm room fire and a student facing 10 years in prison.

Man, Rich Rodriguez is strict! That's downright subtle by South Florida drug deal standards.

According to police reports accessed by the Freep, a student named T.J. Burke supplied Feagin with cash, which Feagin sent back to a person in Florida he identified only as "Tragic" in exchange for an ounce of cocaine. The blow never arrived, which is one of the things that tend to make drug dealers very, very angry.

In Burke's case, it prompted him to fill a bottle with gas and start a $14,213 fire near Feagin's dorm room. Surveillance photos from campus police led to Burke, who in turn led to Feagin. He admitted his role in the deal to police and was dismissed by the football team the same day.

But that wasn't all. In a move that probably rules him out of the AHHS alumni newsletter forever, Feagin also admitted that during the time he led American Heritage to a state championship, he was dealing.

“I have admitted to people I know that I used to sell drugs in Florida,” Feagin told investigators, according to police reports the Free Press obtained under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.

Feagin told police that he also had been arrested for battery and trespass “on two different occasions” in Florida and that “nothing ever came of either situation.”

Burke...told police “it was common knowledge that Feagin sold marijuana."

For now, it appears the promise made by Feagin's outstanding senior season (1,420 yards, 19 touchdowns passing; 1,313 yards and 25 touchdowns rushing) will go unmet, though clearly he fulfilled the scouts' assesment of "versatile." Feagin had hoped to transfer to Appalachian State, but, according to ESPN, the school is now pretending they've never even met before.

Hey, Appy State: let he who hasn't been involved with a person called "Tragic" and a bottle bomb cast the first stone, alright?