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As initially reported by Tacoma News Tribune staffers Mike Sando and Sean Robinson, Koren Robinson has been charged with DUI and reckless driving following a May 6 incident, "perhaps foreshadowing the troubled receiver's release from the Seattle Seahawks."Robinson, 25, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the misdemeanor criminal charges filed in Kirkland Municipal Court, and he is due back in court on July 18, documents show.
The Seahawks have yet to comment on the situation, but team sources previously indicated that Robinson had run out of second chances following a troubled four-year run with the team. Robinson has acknowledged as much.
"I know what I've got to do and they're expecting me to do that," Robinson said following an April 30 mini-camp practice. "If not, I know the consequences. ... Either you want to be in the NFL or you don't. And I do. So, I have to do everything I gotta do to stay here."
A first-round draft choice in 2001, Robinson served a four-game NFL suspension for substance abuse last season. Head coach Mike Holmgren benched him for failing to show up at practice one day before an important Jan. 2 game against Atlanta.
As the News Tribune further noted, Robinson's four-game league suspension had stemmed from a positive test for a substance consistent with the party drug ecstasy, sources have said. Further examination raised questions about an alcohol problem for which Robinson agreed to seek treatment.
Robinson emerged from treatment in time to participate in the team's post-draft mini-camp. Following practice April 30, Robinson said he had given up alcohol, his travails having served as a wake-up call.
"I'm not stupid, man," Robinson said at the time. "I'm not going to be one of those people they talk about, 'Oh, he had the potential to be a great player but he let this, that and the third, so many distractions' -- that's not going to be me."
Six days later, Robinson was cited for suspicion of DUI and reckless driving, court records show. Bail was set at $1,000.
New Seahawks president Tim Ruskell appears unwilling to tolerate players with off-field problems.
"We must be held accountable for our own actions, year round," he wrote in a letter to players.
Robinson is scheduled to earn $1.35 million in 2005. Counting bonuses received in past years, his contract counts a little more than $2.5 million against the Seahawks' salary cap and ESPN.com insider John Clayton began reporting as early as Tuesday that Robinson was likely to be released if the team had a shot at signing free-agent pass rusher Peter Boulware, formerly with the Ravens.
It would appear his latest difficulties -- along with the offseason acquisitions of Joe Jurevicius and Jerome Pathon, the positive development of youngsters like Taco Wallace and Jerheme Urban and the arrival of a zero-tolerance exec in Ruskell -- at the very least, put Robinson's future as a Seahawk in even greater question.
Stay tuned. More as developments warrant.