Bling prong? — UNC-CH player’s jewelry supplier dissassociated (Day 111)

UNC Scandal16

The Daily Tar Heel’s excellent coverage of the scandal continued today as they brought us some actual reporting!  Imagine that — the local press actually printing new stuff about a huge scandal rocking the biggest athletic department in the region! Crazy concept, I realize. 

Anyway the Daily Tar Heel posted the above-linked piece explaining that UNC-CH Athletic Director Dick Baddour had written a letter to Florida jeweler Anthony Machado

informing him that he is to have no further involvement with UNC student athletes or “anyone associated with our intercollegiate athletics program.”

The article goes on to recap that UNC players Greg Little and Robert Quinn

received jewelry, which were considered extra benefits. Quinn accepted two black diamond watches and a pair of matching earrings while Little received a pair of diamond earrings.

But Baddour seems to go out of his way to make the point that this particular jeweler was involved with only one player:

“I would go by what’s in the letter,” Baddour said. “The letter says one, so he was connected to one.”

Hmmm.  That is semi-interesting.  Why did he go out of his way to lead everyone to believe that there is at least one additional jeweler involved?  Also, is anyone else noticing that the center of gravity of the agent prong of this scandal is squarely in Miami?  Is that significant?

If you go to the website of Machado’s jewelry business, you can click on the word “Celebrites” [sic] to see a list of NFL players that I guess are his customers.  You can also click on “Earings” [sic] to look at those.  I will let you guys go explore the site for further mistakes if you want.  I will warn you though – the stuff he sells it is the ugliest crap you have ever seen.

The article wraps up by noting that Baddour has already written a similar letter to Chris Hawkins and explains: 

While the letters do establish the University’s stance regarding the individuals, they do not hold any legal power or consequences.

Of course the BIG, OBVIOUS question about this whole thing is WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS JEWELRY???  I seriously doubt that Mr. Machado sent this bling to the UNC players for free.  How would he even know where to send it?  Who is the link between Machado and the UNC-CH players?  A second question might be how none of the coaches apparently noticed the players wearing all of this gaudy stuff — or if they did why didn’t they investigate it?   Or was this type of bling not unusual among the UNC-CH football players?

Stay tuned.

UNC Scandal

16 Responses to Bling prong? — UNC-CH player’s jewelry supplier dissassociated (Day 111)

  1. newt 11/03/2010 at 10:42 PM #

    The DTH has done an admirable job of overcoming their biases as the school paper, but nobody has done an excellent job of covering this story.

    If anybody was on the fence about cancelling their subscriptions to local newspapers, it should now be obvious that you can get better information for free on the Internet. So why support a business that has also treated your school poorly at times? They have done nothing to earn your business in all this.

  2. SavannahWolf 11/03/2010 at 10:46 PM #

    Connecting a few dots, Rosenhaus. And Hawkins. Why was that truckload of furniture coming up from Miami to Durham? The city in which several UNC football stars lived…

  3. packalum44 11/03/2010 at 10:55 PM #

    That’s the most ghetto fugly jewelry I’ve ever seen and the background music made me want to stick knives in my ears. I’m more concerned about these kids’ lack of taste than their morals didn’t the wine and cheese crowd teach them anything about class?

  4. rtpack24 11/03/2010 at 11:13 PM #

    Is the jeweler only banned for 5yrs like Hawkins. Course if Hawkins does time on his drug charges he should be out just in time to head back to campus!

  5. Wufpacker 11/04/2010 at 3:33 AM #

    “Of course the BIG, OBVIOUS question about this whole thing is WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS JEWELRY??? I seriously doubt that Mr. Machado sent this bling to the UNC players for free.”

    Of course the jeweler didn’t send this bling to the players for free, and the obvious question DEFINITELY IS who paid for it. But that doesn’t matter, at least not to Baddour. What matters to Baddour is never having to answer that question.

    C’mon guys, the obvious purpose of this letter (read: ulterior motives) is for Baddour to come out publicly and chastise this particular jeweler and try to make it appear as if it is the jeweler who is at fault AND to imply that he sent the jewelry to the players directly and with no involvement from anyone else.

    Of course that’s what Baddour is doing because if he doesn’t at least TRY to place blame at the level of the jeweler, then he has to admit to the fact that SOMEONE ELSE purchased the jewelry and provided it to the players.

    Why would Baddour want to do this?

    Well, it sure isn’t because of agents…that ship sailed long ago. It obviously has nothing to do with the academic prong. So it seems that by process of elimination we find that the likely reason for trying to place blame on the jeweler, rather than whomever purchased the bling, is because if/when it becomes public knowledge who purchased and gave the bling to the players (and/or why) then it will likely make things a whole lot worse for UNC (ie boosters, coaches, recruiting violations, etc.).

    I fully acknowledge that this it pure speculation on my part, but it does make sense. Stop and ask yourself why Baddour would feel the need to send this letter, as well as why the letter was turned over in a FOIA request when they’ve been stonewalling those for months?

    Speculation or not, I believe he’s trying to direct the public’s attention toward the jeweler and deflect it away from whomever paid for the bling. It’s a pitiful effort quite frankly, and I highly doubt it will work, but I can’t think of any other reason for this letter and then for it’s very quick public release.

  6. waxhaw 11/04/2010 at 6:44 AM #

    I wonder who the agent is for the players that are listed as Muchado’s NFL clients?

  7. packplantpath 11/04/2010 at 7:06 AM #

    My question is, why did this guy let somebody from 1997 design his webpage? Those pictures were of awful quality.

  8. bradleyb123 11/04/2010 at 7:13 AM #

    A couple of thoughts…

    Since the jeweler was thrown under the bus, any chance of getting information from him about who it was the purchased the jewelry? Probably not since that would likely mean the end of any repeat business from whoever it was that paid for it. Unless it was a Carolina booster who isn’t going to buy any more jewelry from that place anyway.

    But the next thought is that Baddour just doesn’t seem very bright. I’m not making fun of the man. I’m being serious. Anyone with half a brain can see right through the stuff he’s trying to pull. Is he that dumb? Or does he think enough of his supporters are dumb enough to buy his B.S.?

  9. packplantpath 11/04/2010 at 7:21 AM #

    “Or does he think enough of his supporters are dumb enough to buy his B.S.?”

    They aren’t dumb, they just drink the kool aide. They are mentally prepared to believe anything that supports their cause. It’s a perfectly normal reaction.

    If DB came out and said that Marvin Austin was actually under mind control of Marvin the Martian, part of the fanbase would pause for a moment to consider if it could be true.

  10. bradleyb123 11/04/2010 at 8:52 AM #

    OK, we’ll go with Baddour being the one that is dumb. 😉

  11. Bubba 11/04/2010 at 8:58 AM #

    I wonder when the N&O will send Toots and Chippy down to interview Machado

    🙂

  12. StateFans 11/04/2010 at 9:17 AM #

    These letters are SERIOUS BUSINESS!! Carolina MEANS BUSINESS with their compliance!!! No truth to the rumor that Orange County judges will now have UNC players start writing these letters as opposed to their standard book reports.

  13. packof81 11/04/2010 at 9:45 AM #

    “I wonder when the N&O will send Toots and Chippy down to interview Machado …”

    Yeah. That gun won’t be smoking for long.

  14. WolftownVA81 11/04/2010 at 12:19 PM #

    I’d love to see the jewler respond with an open letter that something like this:

    Dear Mr. Baddour,
    We send our fine custom made jewlery to the name and address supplied by the purchaser. We appologize if any of your football players, coaches, tutors, etc. have received anything that was not intended for them. If that is the case, please send it back immediately. If they were the intended recipient, suggest you contact those who arranged for and paid for said improper benefits.
    Sincerely,

    Anthony Machado
    P.S. Hope you liked the watch.

  15. newt 11/04/2010 at 12:43 PM #

    The Jewler: “Junk, junk, bill, junk, junk, huh?, junk, bill, bill, junk. Damn I wish I didn’t get so much junk mail!”

  16. leroy corso 11/05/2010 at 2:35 PM #

    The obvious connection to the jeweler and unc players is Chris Hawkins.
    He didn’t just put coke in those peanut butter pepper balls.

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