This is a clip from last week’s premium Flipping The Field, which a few people asked us to break out into its own section on the free feed. It’s a deep dive into some new reporting from ESPN and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Georgia’s frequent and essentially program-sanctioned driving violations, which extend well before the tragic street racing incident that claimed the lives of one Georgia player and another support staffer, Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy, and which have carried even beyond January’s tragedy.
In the five months since, Georgia has accumulated “10 more reports of traffic-related moving violations in Athens-Clarke County”, after running up a tally of “at least 60 additional moving violations – including speeding, distracted and reckless driving, and disobeying traffic signs – since the beginning of the 2021 academic year” per ESPN’s reporting. The AJC reported that since Kirby Smart’s tenure began in 2015, there have been nearly 300 such violations.
As the stories carry on, new characters emerge through the retelling of various violations – all of whom are connected through Georgia’s in-house fixer, Bryant Gantt. Jalen Carter, a first-round pick for the Philadelphia Eagles, is reported to have a pair of citations for violations in the weeks and months before his involvement with the January street racing accident (which is said to be minor, though he was on the scene and took a no contest plea to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing). He was fined for both incidents, though it seems more likely that those charges went to Gantt, who has “contacted court officials on 82 separate legal matters involving players between 2016 and 2023.”
“(Gantt’s) name appears on several police reports obtained by ESPN, including two for Carter, often with a notation that he has paid a fine or has been asked to be notified of law enforcement’s interaction with players,” the ESPN report continues.
Other incidents involve halfback Kendall Milton, who was “cited for four moving violations in Athens-Clarke County since July 2021 – three times for speeding and once for “failure to maintain lane/improper driving on road.” One month after his teammate and a program staffer were killed, a car registered to Milton was found at the scene of “street racing, revving engines, burning rubber and doing doughnuts on Barnett Shoals Road, the same road where Carter and LeCroy were reported to be racing.” A car registered to cornerback Tykee Smith was reported for driving recklessly and swerving between lanes on the same road in March, though there’s no record of a citation for either event.
The full reporting is worth your time, though we do our best in this segment to lay out the most important notes of a story that, outside of a few places, just is not getting anywhere near the attention it is due.