If there is one thing that should be learned through this entire story, it is that we should hold off and just allow the legal process to play out before jumping to any conclusions. Two days after Yahoo! cited a source to suggest Ohio State running back Carlos Hyde did not strike a woman over the weekend, Columbus, Ohio's NBC affiliate reports a different take on the alleged video evidence. NBC 4 had a reporter diagram what she claims to have seen on video evidence of the incident in question and she claims Hyde did in fact strike a woman.
Here is a brief timeline on the always developing story regarding Ohio State's top running back heading in to the 2013 season…
July 22, 2013: Ohio State blog Men of the Scarlet and Gray reports a "prominent member" of the football team was involved in a rather significant legal situation.
July 22, 2013: Another Ohio State blog, Eleven Warriors posts the police report which labels Hyde as a person of interest.
July 22, 2013: Later that same day The Columbus Dispatch initially reports Hyde had been dismissed from the program, which is what we initially commented on. This was later amended to report Hyde was suspended indefinitely while the legal process takes course.
July 23, 2013: Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson cites a source that claims video evidence shows Hyde did not strike the alleged victim. It should be noted Robinson and Yahoo did not witness the video first hand. Regardless, we took that as good news.
July 24, 2013: NBC 4 reports on the video evidence and diagrams the details and says Hyde did strike the alleged victim.
One thing to be said about the NBC 4 video report is that the reporter is using a little bit of speculative interpretation as she diagrams the scene. Legally speaking, I'm not sure how much that would hold up. She inserts some speculative discussion between who she says is Hyde and the alleged victim. The reporter does note the woman initiates the contact, in which she says Hyde was responding without a punch but with a slap of some sort.
Without seeing the video it would be unwise to assume anything at this point. We don't know without a doubt the man the reporter diagrams in the video is Carlos Hyde or not.
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Kevin McGuire is the host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
