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Brown, Staff Focused On Taking Care Of Players

Immediate concerns for Mack Brown have been the health of his players and their families while meeting their needs.
Immediate concerns for Mack Brown have been the health of his players and their families while meeting their needs. (Jenna Miller. THI)

Mobilizing a football program that includes 85 scholarship players, plus walk-ons, coaches and a large administrative staff doesn’t land on the national radar right now, but it’s a daunting task in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic that is affecting nearly the entire world.

That quickly became Mack Brown’s reality a couple of weeks ago when COVID-19 turned the nation upside down forcing closures of nearly every regular part of American life. For the Hall of Fame football coach, though, his concern right away extended beyond immediate family and included his Tar Heels family.

The players, staff and everyone at North Carolina associated with the program became a priority for Brown, director of athletics Bubba Cunningham and UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. And it’s really been on them, as the NCAA had no actual plan in place, so UNC has acted in accordance with in-place NCAA rules and with interest in making sure the players are properly taken care of and have their needs met.

“There really hasn't been through the NCAA, as far as I know, but Kevin Guskiewicz, Bubba Cunningham, our compliance office, Rick Steinbacher, Corey Holliday, they've been superstars,” Brown said, noting former players of his at UNC from the 1990s, Steinbacher and Holliday, who work at the school.

“I will say that the number one concern of all of those people has been the health and well-being of our student-athletes, period.”


With the players away, Brown and his staff are working to make sure they are okay.
With the players away, Brown and his staff are working to make sure they are okay. (Jenna Miller, THI)
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UNC was officially on spring break when the school decided to close nearly two weeks ago, so the players were also gone. They were scheduled to start spring practice March 17, but instead of getting ready for 15 practices, culminating with the spring game April 18, the players living in dorms packed up their stuff and moved out. Most of the Tar Heels who live in off-campus apartments went home, though a few chose to stick around Chapel Hill.

Where were they? How would they get home? Are they healthy? Are their families healthy? Are they taking care of themselves? And so on.

Significant questions during an unprecedented time.

“We've got our trainer, Luke Ross and his staff, have talked to all the kids,” Brown said. “Our coaches are reaching out to the kids daily cause I've asked them to make sure that they over communicate as I said earlier. So right now, everybody seems to be healthy.

“We've told them we're concerned about families, like Jacolby Criswell getting back to Arkansas. He's actually staying right now with John Copenhaver (in Georgia). So, we've got some really unique situations right now where families are taking care of each other and people are reaching out. But as far as we know, everybody's healthy and like I said, I'm proud of the way they’re trying to fight through this.”

And the players’ needs are also being met.

Brown praised Cunningham for how he's taken care of the players' needs.
Brown praised Cunningham for how he's taken care of the players' needs. (THI)

“We were able to get their scholarship checks to them immediately,” Brown said. “Their rooms have already been paid for, but they get money for their meals and they're not here, so we had to get those checks to them immediately. And that's a hard thing to do to find them where they are.

“The campus asked that anyone living in the dorm come back and get their stuff out of the dorm. So, some of them were able to come back and pick up their checks, but others had to have their checks sent to them.”

Online classes and online workouts started Monday and when the Tar Heels return to campus and can begin some semblance of normalcy is unknown at this time. But until then, UNC, Brown and his staff are committed to adjusting and making sure the players are properly taken care of.

“It's been more about them than even money right now because the financial situation for athletic directors and athletic programs are going to change through all this,” Brown said. “And it's going to put a tremendous burden on a lot of them. We're lucky to be at a place where Bubba is still standing up and doing what's right by these kids. And I'm very, very proud of him for that.”

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