North Carolina refuses to let media talk to players after taking a beating from James Madison

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – SEPTEMBER 07: Head coach Mack Brown of the North Carolina Tar Heels watches his team during the first half of their game against the Charlotte 49ers at Kenan Memorial Stadium on September 07, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

North Carolina suffered one of the worst losses in the history of its football program on Saturday when the James Madison Dukes walked into Chapel Hill’s Kenan Memorial Stadium and trounced the Tar Heels 70-50.

Yes, that’s a football score, not a basketball one. And what’s more is that UNC wrote JMU a six-figure paycheck for the game.

It was a record-setting beatdown, as the Dukes’ 70 points matched the most ever allowed by the Tar Heels in a game. According to the Associated Press, fans booed the Tar Heels as they walked off the field at halftime.

What the AP story – or any other dispatch from any other reporter covering the game – didn’t contain was a comment from any UNC player. That’s because North Carolina refused to let the assembled media talk to players after this home loss.

The reason for North Carolina doing this can be viewed in a few different ways. One could argue that, perhaps, UNC head coach Mack Brown was either one, trying to shield his players from criticism and take sole responsibility for the loss, or two, send a message to his players that they didn’t earn the right to talk to the media after the game. These are both hypothetical assumptions, because reporters were never given a specific reason why players were not made available other than: “Coach Mack Brown’s comments will serve as the only postgame remarks for the Tar Heels today.”

To Brown’s credit, he did take responsibility for the stunning and ugly defeat:

“It can only come back to one person and that’s me. I’ve hired…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/north-carolina-refuses-let-media-231927606.html

Author : FTW Outdoors

Publish date : 2024-09-21 23:19:27

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