Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

North Carolina

Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

Sep 27, 2011

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Former North Carolina football player Deunta Williams, who was involved in the NCAA and university investigation into the football program, talked about his experience Tuesday and said he was treated unfairly by the NCAA.

Williams was suspended for four games and paid more than $450 to charity as a result of the NCAA investigation.

Williams spoke as a part of a panel on campus about the First Amendment and the football team as part of First Amendment Day at UNC.

Williams joined a panel of journalists and a professor with first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be the story and said he wanted to make sure the players' voices were also heard.

“You feel like your character, you know I’m saying, is questioned,” Williams said.

Williams said it was frustrating not to be able to speak to reporters because the NCAA discourages talking publicly about investigations.

“When all of this speculation stuff was going on, they told us we could not share anything with anybody. Not your mom, not your dad, not anybody, but at the same time it’s all over ESPN,” Williams said.

Williams said mistakes by some former football players are nothing compared to accusations at other schools, and he said he felt North Carolina was put unfairly under the microscope.

“We’ve got to wake up and really understand that it’s not all about that degree in a lot of senses for a lot of people,” said Williams.

He said that although it wasn't the case for him, some players are coming to schools for the exposure and hopes to make big money in the NFL.

“The famous tweet that Marvin [Austin] tweeted was a rap lyric, and a lot of people didn’t understand it like that. They said, ‘Oh he’s really doing these things in his tweet’,” said Williams.

Williams said that Austin was eventually found to have committed violations and agreed with then-head Coach Butch Davis that restricting football players from Twitter was a good idea.

“It was one episode after another on Twitter, so I think it was a good move for us. Everybody is not mature enough to handle those responsibilities,” Williams admitted.

Some of the reporters on the panel expressed concerns that stopping players from tweeting meant some things might not be uncovered.

Kevin Best, UNC's director of football communications, said the Twitter restriction is just like any other team rule and is part of participating.

Football players at UNC don't have to shut down their social media accounts, but they aren't allowed to tweet as long as they are active. They can, however, have Facebook pages.

Reporter: Erin Hartness
Photographer: Pete James
Web Editor: Erin Summers

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RE: Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

If you think the NCAA treats kids fairly, or anyone for that matter, then you are truly naive.
To illustrate, the NCAA's lawyers coined the phrase "student athlete" in response to a workman's compensation suit where a football player died from an playing injury. His wife filed for death benefits claiming he played football for the school in return for his scholarship. Additionally, the employer provided the uniform, equipment and transportation to the job site. If he did not perform his job satisfactorily, then he could be dismissed by having his scholarship revoked.
No, according to the NCAA. Schools are only about education, and are not professional football entities with professional employees. The athletes are amateurs and thus volunteers. The scholarship was for his education (thus the student part), not to play football. His being an exceptional athlete and his willingness to participate on the team were just traits (athlete part) that helped him get the scholarship, but the scholarship was only for his education. Obviously, if the traits that helped win the educational scholarship did not persist, then the school could logically revoke the scholarship since the student no longer qualified. In essence, they are professional students who volunteer to play sports as amateurs. (The NCAA is an amateur organization.)
This convoluted reasoning has been used in case after case to prevent the schools and the NCAA from having any liability in the cases of serious injuries or even death. If you volunteer, then you cannot hold the school or the NCAA liable. Most of us never realized Marvin Austin was a professional student who happened to volunteer to play football at UNC. So were Dexter Manley and Chris Washburn, who were functionally illiterate when they came out of college.
Duhhh, yup, sounds good to me.
- Posted by genesmith2

We've talked about this before and the reality is that college sports are such an enormous sham that most of us buy into with out eyes wide closed. Williams hits it on the head when he says "itâ��s not all about that degree in a lot of senses for a lot of people."

For the NCAA, enforcement means walking a fine line between catching enough guys that the public will believe they're doing their job and all those athletes out there on Saturday are students on Monday, and turning a blind eye to enough stuff so that the talent in the product isn't watered down.

RE: Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

The ABC crowd really cracks me up. You guys are long over due for a "reality check". It's not just UNC, as much as you hate to hear it. The NCAA is already on campus at Miami, OSU, Auburn, etc etc. They will soon be on campus at South Carolina ($48k in hotel benefits since Spurrier arrived mentioned in their letter of inquiry). They will be on d00k's campus checking out K's calls and limo rides. NSCU is on their radar too, with the RW calamity (I can't wait to hear what comes out of a scorned players mouth when he is finally allowed to speak).

And that is the juxt of Williams' point here...he was accused but forbidden to speak out during the investigation. He's not claiming he was framed, or that he didn't do what he was accused of doing. He repaid what the NCAA deemed he had "accepted" and even still had to miss games. The whole time, he could not tell his side or defend himself. In all other facets of our society, one is "presumed innocent until proven guilty"...yet the NCAA is judge and jury with these kids, and will not allow them to speak or confront their accuser publicly.

This isn't an "ABC" issue, but an example of what is severely wrong with NCAAA procedures as a whole. Yes, UNC was overly cooperative with the NCAA investigation....like it or not, they have been commended on that. Yet with Auburn (Newton) and Ohio State (bowl game), both schools found loop holes around the same policies the NCAA held UNC to. All in the pursuit of money, no less. So if you don't see the irony and hypocrisy in that, you truly are blinded by hate of UNC.

The biggest point Williams makes is about the ban of Tweeting (1st Ammendmant) not only by UNC, but by the NCAA in general. As has been noted, the Tweet bans likely saved the revelations of other infractions....he meant at UNC, but I would say the ban saved MANY schools trouble. Wasn't it Twitter where the kid revealed K's illegal calls? How many Pack players would have tweeted about riding in RW's nice new Cadillac?
- Posted by douggie64

So many strawmen such little time... But here you go:

1. Nobody's claiming that UNC is the only school to have committed violations. But UNC has invested so much in promoting an image ("The Carolina Way") that when the curtain is pulled back to reveal something else it is more noteworthy than when say... and SEC school is found to have committed violations.

2. You lose a bunch of credibility when you claim that the NCAA will be after Duke for the phone call from Poythress or the limo ride in Chicago or that they will be on NCSU's campus because of RW. The phone call falls into a very gray area as the bylaws would permit it by the letter of the law and I'll happily await how your explanation of how taking a limo to visit a recruit is a violation. Similarly, what exactly with RW is a violation? Keep swinging hard, you might accidentally hit something.

3. The NCAA does not forbid players from speaking out regarding ongoing investigations. If you read the article it accurately states that they "discourage" talking publicly. Williams states that he was told he could not comment but that's hyperbole.

4. The NCAA does not prohibit athletes from using Twitter. That's a UNC football thing. Half of the guys on the UNC BB team are active on twitter (K Marshall is the most interesting).

Other than that, spot on with everything!

RE: Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

looking at the first 5 posts, that's why WRAL is shutting down the Forum posts. Too many people unable to grow up and not be stupid.
- Posted by Cragsdale

Amen. I remember when I was 18 and thought I knew everything and had no cameras in my face or reporters asking me questions. Now as an adult I look back and see I knew nothing when I was 18. It's amazing to see some of the comments people make about these "kids" and yes even though there are some of them as big a car they are still "kids". I would hate to think how I would feel if some of these comments were directed at a kid that was mine and I pretty sure I would exhaust all resources to find out who made them.

RE: Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

looking at the first 5 posts, that's why WRAL is shutting down the Forum posts. Too many people unable to grow up and not be stupid.
- Posted by Cragsdale

If the ABCers put as much time and energy into supporting their teams as they do trying to slam UNC then they might not be getting blown out by substandard competition. They might have more than 1 winning season in the last 4.

RE: Former UNC safety speaks out about NCAA, social media

I think when the wall around K starts to crack it will be one of the largest scandals in NCAA history.

Well, he knows what he has to beat, since Carolina has already laid out the blueprint for him.

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