Talk about getting off on the wrong foot. A Plant High School (Tampa, Fla.) tight end broke the Florida Gators’ 2006 BCS National Championship trophy over the weekend at a NIKE football camp.

I kid you not.

Orson Charles, who is being recruited by Arkansas and at least 10 other schools including Florida, bumped into the “handcrafted Waterford crystal trophy” outside of UF coach Urban Meyer’s office this weekend. The poor guy declined to talk about breaking the Gators’ crown jewel to a local TV crew, as did his head coach, according to a report.

The trophy has a reported value of $35,000.

Don’t worry, the trophy was insured and the Gators actually own two of the beauties. Florida officials have a replacement crystal ball on the way.

Maybe the 6-foot-3 blue-chipper was just preparing for his days of damaging the Gators program as a Razorback. Gotta start somewhere. Orson just went for the throat right from the start, didn’t he?

Filed under: SEC Football, Arkansas Football by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: April 16, 2008 at 3:59 pm