Linebacker / Nose tackle Josh Brent has been charged with the intoxicated manslaughter death of his friend and fellow Cowboy, Jerry Brown. 

Brown, a player on Dallas's practice squad, and Brent had been teammates at the University of Illinois. 

The accident which lead to Jerry Brown's death occurred at about 2:20 AM this morning in Irving, Tx. The vehicle, driven by Brent, was speeding when it hit a curb and flipped once. Brown was unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead at a local hospital. Jerry Brown had signed with the Cowboys on October 24 of this year, but hadn't been placed on the active roster.

A cautionary note. The tendency among the public is to automatically assume Josh Brent is guilty since someone died after the wreck and the Irving police were quick to release a statement through their spokesperson that Brent had been charged after officers conducted field sobriety tests on him following the wreck. Also, Brent had pled guilty in 2009 to a DWI.

However, field sobriety tests are notoriously inaccurate even when given properly under optimal conditions and, in this case, clearly Josh Brent had just been in a violent accident. The manuals used to train police in giving field sobriety tests even state that when they are given properly with no other influences they can be inaccurate in 30% of the cases. That means 3 out of 10 people charged based on these tests may not be intoxicated.