WSU freshman football players dismissed for alleged shoplifting

Zaire Webb, a defensive back, and Anthony White Jr., a wide receiver, allegedly tried to steal $225 worth of merchandise

JESSICA ZHOU, Evergreen assistant news editor

WSU football players Zaire Webb and Anthony White Jr. were dismissed from the team after they allegedly attempted to shoplift $225 of products from Walmart.

COURTESY OF WSU ATHLETICS
Webb Zaire

According to Pullman Police Department’s logs, the two were arrested Wednesday evening. Thursday evening the players were removed from the WSU football roster online.

Pullman PD said the two scanned and paid for $50 worth of items in the self-checkout, but attempted to walk away with merchandise worth $225 until Walmart security caught them and called Pullman PD.

They are both freshmen from Florida who announced their commitments to WSU on Aug. 1 of last year and enrolled at WSU in January. White hasn’t played yet as he was likely to redshirt as a receiver. Webb played in all five games, and had one tackle.

In April 2012, five months after joining WSU as its new football coach, Leach dismissed three starters for violating two of his three zero-tolerance policies: shoplifting and smoking marijuana. The third is violence against women.

COURTESY OF WSU ATHLETICS
Anthony White Jr.

He spoke about those dismissals in an August 2012 press conference.

“The evaluation’s really kind of simple,” he said. “It becomes difficult because you see talent walk out the door. But you know, if you run into a situation, …  the first thing is, can I change it? Well, if you can’t change it, then can you tolerate it? … And if you can’t tolerate it, then you’ve got to get rid of them. It’s about as simple as that.”

Reporting by Jessica Zhou