Georgia football players and their cars have been involved in at least 10 reports of traffic-related moving violations in Athens-Clarke County since Jan. 15, when a player and team staff member were killed in a reckless driving incident allegedly tied to racing, according to records obtained by ESPN.
Players have also been involved in at least 60 additional moving violations — including speeding, distracted and reckless driving, and disobeying traffic signs — since the beginning of the 2021 academic year, according to ESPN’s analysis of 911 calls, police reports and court records from Athens-Clarke County. About 30 of those incidents have occurred since last summer, when coach Kirby Smart said police met with the team about the dangers of street racing.
The results of ESPN match those of a study released on Friday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which discovered that since Smart took over as head coach in 2015, police had penalized Georgia athletes with traffic infractions almost 300 times. While ESPN’s study concentrated on Athens-Clarke County and ignored nonmoving violations like seat belt and parking penalties, the AJC’s report included minor crimes like not wearing a seat belt along with traffic violations from other counties and states. However, the analysis reveals a pattern of reckless driving that persisted even after a teammate and staff member died, frustrating Georgia coaches, administrators, police, and communities.