Last week SFN pointed out the Leslie McDonald-Iceburg Mouthguards NCAA violation (refresh your memory here), which was just the latest in The Flagship’s increasingly-long list of NCAA violations.
Today, The Flagship, ever the harbinger of accountability and institutional control (pretty much the backbone of The Carolina Way), sent a nasty “cease and desist” letter to Iceburg Mouthguards (WRAL):
The university has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Iceberg Guards about rising senior guard Leslie McDonald, who until recently had been listed on the company’s website as a user of its products. It’s the second off-court issue involving a UNC player the school has faced this offseason, following leading scorer P.J. Hairston’s June arrest on a misdemeanor drug charge while driving a rental vehicle.
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NCAA rules generally prohibit athletes from endorsing or promoting a company or product.
“We sent a cease-and-desist letter to Iceberg regarding Leslie McDonald,” said Steve Kirschner, UNC’s senior associate athletic director for communications. “They took his name off their site as a customer last week.”
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Kirschner said the school has no official relationship with Iceberg to provide mouth guards or services to UNC athletes, nor with the two men — Spencer Howard of Durham and Lee Gause of New York — who formed Iceberg Holdings LLC and are listed on incorporation documents filed with the North Carolina secretary of state’s office. Howard is an oral surgeon who graduated from UNC’s School of Dentistry, while Gause is a dentist who earned his undergraduate degree from UNC.
A request by The Associated Press for a copy of the letter under the state’s public records law hasn’t yet been granted. The school has declined an AP request to interview McDonald, who made at least one post on social media about wearing a Tar Heel-themed Iceberg mouth guard in a game last season.
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On Feb. 21, two days after the Tar Heels won at Georgia Tech, a photographer whose work is featured on the official UNC athletics website tweeted a photo of McDonald wearing a distinctive mouth guard featuring the school logo as well as the argyle pattern that trims the team’s uniforms.
McDonald tweeted in response that it was “made by Iceberg.”
Alex Gause, Lee’s brother and a UNC graduate who works as a dentist in the same practice, tweeted the photographer and McDonald that the mouth guard “looks great! Custom made via IcebergGuards 4 anyone who’s curious.” He also linked both his and his brother’s Twitter feeds in the post. Lee Gause retweeted his brother’s post.
The school has declined to say how McDonald acquired the mouth guard. Iceberg’s website shows customized mouth guards — including one endorsed by former UNC player Danny Green — ranging from $150 to as much as $1,500.
That’ll show ’em!
