Maryland linebacker Rick Costa was arrested early Saturday in College Park and was charged with one count of first-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault.
According to charging documents obtained Tuesday, an officer noticed a fight at the Cornerstone Grill and Loft at about 2:25 a.m. Saturday. Two bouncers informed the officer Costa and two other men were attempting to enter the bar after being told it was closed.
After being asked to leave, Costa "became combative, striking [the bouncers] in the face," prompting another to intervene only to be shoved away.
The officer proceeded to identify himself and observed Costas was intoxicated and disorderly. Costa then "became belligerent and punched the [officer] in the right side of his eye, causing a severe face injury." The policeman defended himself with pepper spray, and other officers soon arrived to arrest Costa.
Just heard from Prisbell that linebacker Rick Costa, who has started twice and played in all nine of the Terps' games this season, has been suspended indefinitely because of an off-campus incident. Costa is second on the team in sacks (with three) and tackles for losses (with seven). He has been in on 22 tackles, 11 of them solo, this season.
Great. Those "two other men", by the way, are rumored to be Jeremy Navarre and Dan Gronkowski. Imagine if all three had gotten into with a cop. There would've been some major trouble in the locker room.
Granted, Maryland has a much better track record than nearly any other school when it comes to this kind of thing. The last incident like this was on Halloween in 2005. Derrick Fenner, Drew Weatherly, and Marcus Wimbush were suspended for one game for a bar fight (if I recall correctly).
Luckily, most of the LBs are getting healthy now. Wujciak, Philistin, and Moten are almost completely recoverd from their injuries, so Costa would be used in a strictly backup role. It's not a crisis, but I never like seeing Maryland players in the news for stuff like this.