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UGA football program rallies when players accused of abusing women
When University of Georgia football players such as Adam Anderson, left, and Jamaal Jarrett, right, were accused of wrongdoing, head coach Kirby Smart, center, rallied to support them. (Compilation)
Caption
Credit: Compilation
NEWS
By Alan Judd, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3 hours ago
Athletes often remain on team despite sexual assault, domestic violence allegations
In a single weekend, a 16-year-old University of Georgia football recruit broke curfew, drank with potential teammates in an Athens bar and ended up in a police station, under investigation for sexual assault.
Georgia signed him, anyway.
The school’s response to Jamaal Jarrett’s misadventures during a campus visit last year illustrates how its national-champion football program rallies to support athletes accused of abusing women, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows. In case after case, the newspaper found, strong on-field performance appears to excuse bad off-field behavior.
When a top defensive player was jailed on a rape charge, head coach Kirby Smart let eight players go to court to seek their teammate’s release, the player’s lawyer said. This show of solidarity occurred even though the alleged victim worked part time for the football program.
A player charged with recording a sex act with an unconscious woman remained on the roster for a full season until he transferred. Others have stayed with the team while accused of transgressions that ranged from threatening or attacking their girlfriends to sexual assault.
In Jarrett’s case, previously unreported, a team official appeared at the hotel where the incident occurred and spoke with police officers minutes after the accuser called 911 to report a sexual assault. The official later sat with Jarrett during a remarkably friendly interrogation at the Athens police headquarters, where the detective investigating the sexual assault allegation spoke of “my beloved Bulldogs.”
The detective eventually decided not to charge Jarrett. By then, a month had passed since the defensive lineman had accepted Georgia’s offer of a football scholarship.
The football program’s handling of sexual and domestic violence allegations emerged in a review of dozens of court cases and police investigations. The Journal-Constitution identified 11 players during Smart’s tenure who remained with the team after women reported violent encounters to the police, to the university, or to both. In some instances, particularly those involving domestic violence, the police either filed no charges or prosecutors allowed players to plead guilty to lesser charges.
The exact number of accusations involving Georgia players is unknown. Many cases result in no police investigation, but rather are handled through a confidential campus disciplinary system.
The newspaper’s findings echo its recent report detailing how the team’s permissive culture has enabled dangerous, often lawless behavior by its players: reckless driving, street racing, drunken driving and excessive speeding, among other offenses. That behavior came under scrutiny after a high-speed car crash in January killed a football player and a member of the team’s staff and led to criminal charges against star defensive lineman Jalen Carter.
Jarrett, now 17 and a freshman at Georgia, did not respond to a request for an interview.
In a statement, the UGA Athletic Association defended its handling of accusations against football players, saying it neither tries to influence police investigations nor seeks special treatment for athletes. The association said its coaches suspend players who face “any credible allegation of sexual violence or assault” while their cases are under investigation.
“The University of Georgia and athletic association consider any allegation of sexual assault or domestic abuse to be a very serious matter, and we take swift and appropriate action in response to allegations when warranted by law enforcement or internal investigations,” the statement said. “This policy is applied universally across our university community to students, student-athletes, staff and personnel. Student-athletes are subject to the exact same disciplinary process as other students, and in addition, face further athletic program disciplinary measures, which can include suspension and dismissal from the team.”
Coaches did not rescind Jarrett’s scholarship because the police did not charge him, the athletic association said. However, coaches and association leaders had been unaware that Jarrett consumed alcohol and broke curfew, the statement said. Such violations of athletic association policies “could be subject to penalties,” the association added, without elaboration.
Across the country, football players account for a disproportionate number of campus sexual assaults, according to a 2019 report by USA Today. At Division I schools for which data was available, the newspaper said, football players made up 1% of the student population but accounted for 6% of those found responsible for sexual misconduct.
When Mark Richt was Georgia’s football coach from 2001 to 2015, he routinely dismissed players accused in sexual and domestic assaults, including two in a single off-season. Some of those players went on to become key members of rival teams such as Alabama and Louisiana State. Richt also asked his wife and the wives of other coaches to speak to the team about respecting women, and he championed a rule adopted by the Southeastern Conference in 2015 that barred players who commit sexual or domestic violence from transferring between SEC schools.
But women who have alleged violent misconduct by football players during Smart’s tenure say their cases reflect the skewed priorities of the team and its coaches amid unprecedented on-field success.
“Winning is their only objective,” Jarrett’s accuser said in an interview. “It’s no longer about building guys up with good character. It’s no longer about building a good work ethic. It’s just about winning.”
‘Wholesome’
At 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 350 pounds, Jarrett is a fearsome presence on the football field. On Twitter, he calls himself a “certified run stoppa.”
A 20-year-old Georgia woman said she saw something more in Jarrett: a sweet, handsome young man with whom she felt a genuine connection.
She was a college student who lived and attended school outside Athens. He was a junior in high school, one of the top-rated prospects in North Carolina, whose campus visits and scholarship offers provided fodder for websites that meticulously document the college recruitment of teenage boys who play football.
She spotted him the first time in January 2022, when both visited Athens to celebrate Georgia’s first national football championship in four decades. She followed him on social media, and they began corresponding through direct messages and texts. Jarrett’s official recruiting visit that June coincided with her plans to visit a friend in Athens, and she booked a room in the same hotel where the university hosted football prospects and their families.
Three days before the visit, Jarrett sent her a series of texts that made clear he expected to have sex with her. One consisted only of an emoji that represented oral sex.