Tar Heel Troubles

(This info was taken from a 2/18 post on the InsideCarolina.com message board)

Tarheels have had lots of problem athletes in football, basketball, and other sports over the years. Most recent incidents include defensive back Jason Horton arrested 12/22/99 and charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, and maintaining a place for controlled substances. Police seized two firearms, 7.5 ounces of marijuana, $3200, and a set of scales. UNC defensive tackle Brian Norwood was arrested for raping an 11 year old girl, three counts of sex offense with a child, two counts of first degree rape of a child, three counts of felony crime against nature, and taking indecent liberties with a child. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 to 20 months in prison. There were plenty of other incidents recently including UNC offensive lineman Jon Hall assaulting and threatening to kill a girl, and 7 UNC football players putting one UNC student in the hospital, they weren't suspended for the bowl game, and were punished with book reports of all things. 

UNC basketball players Ed Cota and Terrence Newby were each charged with three counts of
assault inflicting serious injury and two counts of simple assault for their role in a Halloween brawl in which they along with a number of their friends assaulted 3 UNC students, including hitting one of them while he was down according to a witness, one had to have 18 stitches in his lips, another was knocked unconscious and left with bruised ribs and blurred vision. I don't think they were even suspended at all. UNC assistant coach Phil Ford was arrested for drunk driving in 97while driving in Michigan with a blood alcohol level of .26, he was not disciplined and was instead promoted by then coach Dean Smith who didn't tell anyone at UNC, not even the athletic director about the incident. Ford was arrested again in 99 for drunk driving with a BAL of .24, each incident was about 3 times the legal limit, and again UNC did not suspend Ford who was on the bench for the beginning of the season. This is just the tip of the iceberg for UNC athletics problems. 

from 2/14 ACCnews story by Ned Foster: 

UNC running back Daniel Davis inexplicably "forgot" to appear in court last July for a final hearing on a driving violation. At stake was a 10-day jail sentence that would be "stayed if Davis
completed 50 hours of community service and paid $36 in court costs by Nov. 1." Not only did he
forget to show up for the hearing, he never signed a performance contract sent by Stafford County (Va.) officials "nor completed the required telephone contacts with his probation officer." 

Davis joins an elite group of UNC athletes. In the summer of 1998 UNC football players Ricco
McCain and Varian Ballard also forgot their court appearances and wound up serving jail time. 

Maybe they need to put a chart up in the UNC AD's office reminding people to remind this or that
football player that their due date in court is coming up. Three missed court appearances in less
than two years? 

UNC basketball players Ed Cota and Terrence Newby face a February 24th court appearance if
they can't reach a negotiated resolution with the alleged victims of an assault a few months back. 

UNC has had more problems than probably any other school in the nation. Former UNC football
player Derrick Fenner was arrested for murder. UNC football player Jon Hall assaulted and
threatened a female student, grabbing her neck and throwing her to the ground and telling her he'd kill her if she told the police, etc., it's getting to be so the only strange thing would be if something like this didn't happen on a regular basis in Chapel Hill. Maybe he was inspired by Ndiaye, who choked and threatened to kill someone just a few months ago. UNC really needs to get its act together, why do they recruit so many thugs, these problem athletes are not only making the school look bad, but sports in general. 

UNC athletics has some serious problems, with SATs averaging in the 700s over several recent
years, worst of all top 25 basketball programs, and early departures, and JR Reid and Steve
Bucknall attacking someone in a bar, King Rice attacking a girl, Stackhouse choking Brevin
Knight and getting in fights in the pros, Rasheed Wallace attacking a UK player and not paying
child support, Jeff McInnis attacking teammates with a pipe after going pro early when he wasn't a first round prospect and sleeping with Phil Ford's wife and telling Duke to guard his own teammate Phelps harder so he could get PT, Ryan Sullivan being caught with drugs, Cota trashing Wojo in interviews, Shammond whining in interviews about how he's going to start holding jerseys too and running in tears from the bench because he got pulled from a game, Jamison clocking a Princetonplayer half his size from behind, Bersticker grabbing himself during the only game he actually played in, Okulaja elbowing everybody he can on the court and even a Duke student after the game and sarcastically blowing kisses to opposing coaches, and Makhtar spitting on, elbowing, and lying about Utah players and showing up coach K's family and making choke signs to opposing benches and dumping a tub of gatorade all over the center symbol of NCSU's home court, not to mention the 7 UNC football players, and all that's just in recent years. 

I forgot to mention Makhtar choking and threatening to kill a guy that gave him a ride and lying in court, although I'm sure that's in all of our recent memories. Plus Debbie Keller and another
womens soccer player accusing UNC coach Dorrance of sexual harassment, the school admitted
to inappropriate actions by him. And of course, the 7 football players attacking one fellow student.
And many other things just in the last year. What's up with UNC athletics lately, things just seem
to be getting worse and worse. 

Additional unmentioned incidents in just the last year or two involve Rasheed Wallace attacking
his wife and bruising her neck and blockading a public parking lot and causing a disturbance as
well as being second in the NBA in technical fouls, presumably only to Rodman, who likes to
clown around, King Rice charging into the stands as an assistant coach after exchanging words
with a fan, former UNC football player Jeffrey Hayes using his influence as a former UNC player to defraud 9 local businesses of thousands of dollars, taking money for services that were never performed, former UNC football player Jason Newsom admitting to raping and assaulting a fellow student in her dorm room, and Matt Wenstrom charged with assault and drunken disruption in a Chapel Hill restaurant. Bankrupt alum Lawrence Taylor was arrested for crack, tax evasion, etc. 3 UNC wrestlers were arrested/suspended for starting a fight. Several UNC football players spit on and desecrated FSU's sod cemetary commemorating past victories in front of local TV cameras, before they got crushed again. Oscar Davenport was suspended for an incident for which even his mother was sworn to secrecy by UNC coaches. Makhtar denied issuing an apology to "Brit" Johnson under oath, and said UNC's spin doctors wrote it. 

USA Today had a recent article about all the recent problems involving college athletes, and UNC was prominently featured, but I don't think they knew about even close to half of this stuff. This obviously indicates something about UNC, the type of kids they recruit, ignoring academics and character, and the way athletes there think they can get away with anything and are corrupted by that environment and their teammates. There's probably no other school in the country which  has had nearly as many problems, and that includes Fresno State. UNC really needs to get things turned around, but things have just been getting worse recently, and recruits, their parents and coaches and friends, should really consider the type of program UNC runs. Heels are just completely out of control, a bad influence on others, and are a symbol of everything that's wrong with college sports and sports in general. Mack and Dean knew exactly what they were getting out of, and left behind a huge mess. 

By the way, none of the above is a fabrication, in case any heels want to lie and try to cover it up like their athletic department.

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