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A recent investigation into the North Carolina football program has turned up concerning wrongdoing. Players have been cited for driving related infractions at an alarming rate.
Questions have now been raised about Bill Belichick’s compliance. The school’s silence proves one of two things.
Pat Welter of WRAL News broke the story this week. It was published days after a loss to Wake Forest dropped the Tar Heels to 4-6.
In the piece, Welter uncovered 41 traffic offenses dating back to last October relating to reckless driving and speeding. Many were attributed to star players recruited by the new staff.
Washington transfers Khmori House and Thaddeus Dixon combined for nine speeding and five reckless driving citations.
Khmori House… has accumulated five speeding and four reckless driving charges within a short span.
On two of the citations, the law enforcement officers noted House’s Dodge Charger “must be too much car for him,” and that his repeated infractions are no longer a mistake, but a behavioral problem.
Thaddeus Dixon, another University of Washington transfer, received four tickets for speeding and one for reckless driving. On Feb. 22, Dixon was cited for reckless driving, going 93 in a 50-mph zone.]
North Carolina football is in disarray.
Reports of locker room chaos circulated earlier this season. They made claims of favoritism, unfair treatment, and potential NCAA rules violations.
Soon after those stories were made public, a defensive staff member was suspended.
To this point, that is the only team punishment that we know of. There have been no player suspensions, which raises concern with light being shed on driving citations.
House has played in all 10 games and is the defense’s leading tackler. Dixon has missed time, not for disciplinary reasons, but with injury.
Gavin Gibson, another player with four speeding infractions, has played in all 10 games.
WRAL reached out to the program for clarity. It got back nothing.
UNC has yet to implement effective measures to curb such behavior. WRAL asked football officials if any driving safety classes are required, whether players are required to report when they get tickets and whether any player has been disciplined for trouble on the road. We gave the school two days to answer those questions. UNC acknowledged WRAL’s question but chose not to respond.
Is Bill Belichick compliant?
North Carolina was silent on the football infractions. It led many to ask whether or not the head coach knew about the driving related offenses.
Was he compliant in keeping things under wraps? That is unclear.
Rival NC State was also included in WRAL’s investigation. It, too, was asked about safety classes, reporting, and discipline.
The school was much more transparent.
We asked Wolfpack football about any intervention efforts, whether players were disciplined for driving infractions and whether players were required to report when they get pulled over. Spokeswoman Annabelle Myers responded almost immediately, saying no driving awareness training is provided to players, and they are not required to tell the team when they are ticketed.
NC State admitted that players were not required to inform the team of speeding tickets. The Tar Heels could’ve done the same. They opted not to, providing cloudiness as to their head coach’s knowledge of the situation.
North Carolina’s silence proves one of two things. Bill Belichick does not know what’s happening in his own house, or he values winning over all else.