It was a simple answer to a simple question.
Earlier this month, an undercover Fort Worth police officer sat in the front seat of a Chevy Impala in the parking lot of a Hooters restaurant having just finished off a $300 drug deal with TCU safety Devin Johnson, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The officer, according to the affidavit filed in connection with Johnson’s arrest, asked Johnson about a recent drug test given to the TCU football team.
According to the affidavit, Johnson responded, “What can they do? Eighty-two people failed it.”
Johnson, 21, and linebacker Tanner Brock, 21, along with teammates D.J. Yendrey, 20, and Ty Horn, 21, were arrested as part of a sweep Wednesday morning that saw 16 students arrested on suspicion of selling drugs. According to affidavits, Johnson and Brock told undercover officers a majority of the team likely failed the drug tests that were ordered by head football coach Gary Patterson on Feb. 1, the same day the program signed 23 high school recruits to national letters of intent.
According to Brock’s arrest warrant, he said of the test, “I failed that b—- for sure.”
He told the officer he wasn’t worried about it because there would be “about 60 people being screwed,” the affidavit said.
Brock told the officer he talked about the test to Horn, who said Horn looked at the Frogs’ online roster earlier in the day and figured only 20 players would pass the test, according to the affidavit.
Patterson and athletics director Chris Del Conte did not address the drug test in statements released Wednesday. Efforts to reach them for comment Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.
According to a post on the university’s website, the claims by Johnson and Brock could not be verified “simply because they were made in the context of a drug buy.”
Brock, of Copperas Cove, and Johnson, of Oklahoma City, Okla., each were arrested on suspicion of three felony counts of delivering marijuana, according to the warrants.
Yendrey, of Edna, was arrested on suspicion of six counts of delivering marijuana, two of which are misdemeanors and four of which are felonies, according to warrants.
Horn, of McGregor, was arrested on suspicion of a misdemeanor count of delivering marijuana and a felony count of delivering marijuana in a drug-free zone, according to warrants. Under Texas law, the university campus is considered a drug-free zone.
Brock, the team’s leading tackler in 2010, started at linebacker for the Frogs in the season opener at Baylor last September but injured his ankle and ended up missing the rest of the season.
Yendrey, a junior defensive tackle, and Johnson, a junior safety, saw significant playing time last year, both playing in all 13 games.
Horn, a redshirt sophomore, saw playing time in a backup role at offensive tackle before being injured late in the season.