Former TCU football player Jacob Fields has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury following a locker room altercation with a teammate on August 13. Fields, a safety who transferred to TCU in the offseason, surrendered to Tarrant County, Texas police on Sunday.
Days after the fight, Fields was dismissed from the TCU football team for violating team rules. The victim of the assault was identified as wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma, who later posted about the incident on his Instagram account.
In the wake of the reporting on the incident by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, TCU's athletic department revoked the media credentials of the newspaper's beat reporter covering the Horned Frogs. TCU athletic director Mike Buddie stated that the credentials were pulled because the coverage resulted in threats to the victim and his family. Buddie claimed that an unnamed source provided inaccurate information, which advanced a narrative that endangered the student-athlete.
The Star-Telegram's sports editor, Jim Barnes, asserted that the paper did not identify the athlete and that Ezukanma identified himself in a now-deleted Instagram video. Barnes added that TCU officials have not defined the criteria for restoring the revoked credentials.
The decision to revoke the newspaper's credentials drew widespread criticism from journalists and fans. The presidents of both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Football Writers Association of America released statements condemning the move. The TCU football team played its season opener against North Carolina in Ireland shortly after the credential revocation.