Gophers don't always play well with others

A marauding mob that included Gophers football players decided early Sunday morning that there was a young man located in the 700 block of 15th Avenue SE that needed to receive a pummeling. The brouhaha found its way into three police reports and Gary Tinsley, a sophomore linebacker from Jacksonville, Fla., was detained for a time.

Tinsley had left the scene of the fight and was apprehended a couple of blocks away. As a character reference to himself, according to the reports, Tinsley told the cops that this was the first time he had been in handcuffs.

Tinsley had been seen by two officers swinging a board in the middle of the confrontation. Later, the assault victim was not able to finger Tinsley as an attacker. The university cops were dealing with a high volume of calls, so they decided to cite Tinsley for fleeing police and alcohol consumption by a minor rather than take him to jail.

This turned loose Tinsley to celebrate what was now a doubleheader victory -- at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon, and against a proud member of Augsburg's Fighting Auggies at the residence on 15th Avenue SE.

According to the police report, an Augsburg football player called police saying several Gophers football players were on their way to assault him. The reason was unknown, although it could not have been taunting over gridiron exploits, since the Auggies are 22-53 in the MIAC in this decade as compared to the Gophers' 28-45 in the Big Ten.

Augsburg football coach Frank Haege was contacted Wednesday and asked: "Which one of your players was beaten up by Gophers and friends Sunday morning?"

Haege: "I don't know."

Haege: "I don't know anything about it."

Final question: "Might you have to suspend a player?"

Haege: "I don't know anything. I hope not."

Here's an interesting twist on the Sunday morning brawl: Apparently, this was not the incident that caused coach Tim Brewster to give two-game suspensions to defensive end Cedric McKinley and defensive back Tim Dandridge earlier this week.

That raises the possibility of another post-Northwestern "incident" that has yet to surface. We can only hope McKinley and Dandridge were not in a group of Gophers that decided to take on Augsburg wrestlers, or there could be a few guys trying to untie themselves from knots as they prepare for Saturday's invasion by the Wisconsin Badgers.

In February, Whaley pled guilty in Hennepin County District Court to assault in the fifth degree and obstruction of the legal process. He was placed on two years of probation.

That incident occurred last Halloween. It was after midnight when Whaley tried to enter the Element Nightclub in Minneapolis' Warehouse District. He was underage and stopped by a security person at the door.

Whaley's reaction was to throw a punch that struck the security guard in the face. A police officer who had been talking with the bar manager pulled away Whaley by grabbing "onto the back of [his] dreadlocks."

The manager and the security guard said all they required was for Whaley to leave. As Whaley departed, the cops warned him he would be arrested if he returned to the club.

Soon, the same cops were flagged down by Element security. They observed Whaley in the face of the security guard he had punched.

"Whaley was fighting to get away so hard that, as officers [tried] to gain control of him, we both fell into the street on Hennepin Ave. [and into] gridlock traffic ..."

The struggle included three Taser stuns. Eventually, he was placed in handcuffs and taken to jail. On Wednesday, athletic director Joel Maturi said he was satisfied with Brewster's discipline toward Whaley, even though it didn't include public revelation of a suspension.

Whaley is in good standing now, which was convenient for Tinsley if the linebacker needed advice on how to bounce back from a handcuffing.

Patrick Reusse can be heard 5:30-9 a.m. weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP. • preusse@startribune.com

U player cited on two counts