Linebackers can't drive

It hasn't been a good week for linebackers behind the wheel.

First, North Carolina State's Nate Irving, one of the best linebackers in the ACC, apparently fell asleep while driving near Raleigh at about 4:40 a.m. Monday morning and crashed his car into two trees. Irving suffered a broken leg and a collapsed lung and has been charged with careless and reckless driving. It appears that he'll fully recover from his injuries, but his status for the season is unknown.

Fortunately for Irving, he didn't hurt anyone else or damage any property ... which is more than Texas outside linebacker Sergio Kindle can say:

Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle was treated for a concussion after crashing his car into an Austin apartment building last week while he was either sending or receiving a text message, his attorney said Monday.

Yikes. The school estimated the damage to the building at just under $9,000, but no one was injured (remarkably) because the students who live in the room Kindle crashed into weren't home at the time. And in a bizarre string of events, Kindle pushed his car back into the street, went home and went to sleep before reporting the crash the following morning.

The police haven't charged Kindle with any crime (because the crash was reported in a "reasonable" amount of time) and Texas has indicated no pending punishment, which is more than a little surprising. See, this could be mistaken for a young guy panicking and doing something stupid, but Kindle was arrested on a DWI charge less than two years ago and was suspended for the first three games of the 2007 season.

Dr. Saturday sums up the situation nicely:

So we have a legal adult with a history of reckless driving who loses control of his vehicle in a densely populated area with potentially tragic results and ... no harm, no foul?

Word.