CHAPEL HILL — The ongoing internal and external investigations of the University of
North Carolina football program came to an abrupt end Thursday as the NCAA
acknowledged that both prongs of inquiry, the first into alleged “improper agent
contact and inappropriate benefits” and the second into to alleged academic
improprieties, were both the results of gross misunderstandings.
“Several UNC players,” said Lissa Broome, UNC’s former faculty athletics
representative to the NCAA, “readily admitted to ‘improper academic assistance’ when
being interviewed by NCAA investigators — but we failed to clarify that this was not
assistance received but assistance given.”
Further, when UNC defensive tackle Marvin Austin traveled to a party in Miami,
supposedly sponsored by a registered agent for professional athletes, it had been
assumed that when Austin had said that “a financial contribution was involved,” that
that meant that the agent had funded his attendance at the party. In neither case, the
NCAA now realizes were the original assumptions of improper conduct valid, according
to Broome.
In an exclusive interview over dinner at Provence in Carrboro, the embattled Austin
explained how the misunderstandings arose — and what actually happened.
Austin began by saying, “Jeanine [Editor’s note: This is apparently the previously
unnamed tutor implicated in the investigation into improper academic assistance] was
struggling in her graduate-level English class, and we (teammate Greg Little and Austin)
felt, given all the help she had given us in organizing our study time and properly
allocating our efforts preparing for examinations, that the least we could do would be
to help her in return.”
“Writing comes easy for me, as is evidenced by the 2400 tweets I posted on my Twitter
account before Coach (Butch Davis) asked me to shut it down,” said Austin, “so it was
not hard for me to help her get off the schneid with her writer’s block.”
“Now, we didn’t write the paper for her; we just helped with some ideas and some
clever phrasing,” said Austin. “It is clear from the spelling, if nothing else, that she
didn’t just cut and paste verbatim passages from my work,” Austin said.
“I actually don’t know that much about medieval characterizations of chivalry — but I
do know knights had bling. That I do know about. Greg and I have got the Black Knight
thing going on, for real,” Austin added as he straightened the collar on his meticulously
pressed pink shirt.
As for receiving assistance from current pro and former UNC football player Kentwan
Balmer this summer, Austin said, “I sold two of my nicest gold neck chains to pay for
trainers to work with Kentwan in the off-season. We (Austin and former UNC player
Cam Thomas) just came along to help guide the workouts. Kentwan was struggling
from paycheck to paycheck at the time. If helping a friend is an NCAA violation, then so
be it.”
Austin, as he fiddled with his mesclun and arugula mix, also explained the purpose of
the hundred or so texts and phone calls made last fall between recently resigned
associate head football coach John Blake and Gary Whichard, the agent implicated in
the now discredited accusations against the UNC players.
“A lot of the phone calls between Coach and Gary were to make sure that I didn’t cross
any lines that the NCAA has established for contact between amateur athletes and
their professional counterparts,” said Austin.
“Gary really knows exactly where all those lines are,” added Austin.
Austin said he and Little did make a trip to Miami, but it was a field trip as an applied
component of Austin’s oenological studies, according to Austin. In addition to his
regular full course load in the spring, Austin was enrolled in a correspondence course
in Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration entitled “Wines and Spirits,”
which develops finer aesthetic appreciation for various libations, and which was highly
recommended to him by several former UNC athletes, including football player Julius
Peppers and basketball player Rasheed Wallace.
“I did attend a South Beach affair,” said Austin, “but only while acting as a volunteer
sommelier for this educational event. I personally brought along a full case of wine with
an array of lesser-known Finger Lake appellations, but drank only two small carafes.”
“I know I am a big boy [Editor’s note: The official UNC football roster lists Austin as
6’3″ and 310 pounds] but I’m sorta the opposite of that scrawny little Kobayashi dude
who can eat 50 hot dogs and he’s just getting started,” said Austin as he sipped his
pinot noir. “With me, a couple of tasting glasses of petit chablis and I’m like totally tipsy
and tweeting the stupidest stuff you ever read,” said Austin.
Gary D. Gaddy noticed that the LSU game on Saturday night really went south for UNC
right after Marvin Austin was featured on the screen.
A version of this story was published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Friday September 10,
2010.
Copyright 2010 Gary D. Gaddy
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garygaddy.com 