Update: Idaho athletic director Rob Spear suspends quarterback for tweeting that Idaho athletic director Rob Spear is “stupid”. And petty and insecure as well.
Chip Kelly got a lot of buzz for saying, in response to WSU coach Mike Leach’s twitter ban, “If you can’t trust a player with twitter, how are you going to trust them on third down?”:
Nice sound bite, but actually the Ducks don’t trust their players with twitter. Last year they hired a guy named Tom Hart, with this job task:
30% Monitoring athlete-agent activity and perform regular surveillance on campus, in the community and in cyberspace for the purposes of NCAA compliance and state law.
And of course talking to a reporter without permission can really get a UO athlete into trouble. Tom Hart’s full contract is here – lots of other interesting responsibilities. UO has refused to turn over his resume, but a commenter notes he has years of state police experience, including SWAT team and anti-terrorism training. Anyone got a photo of him? 10/26/2012.
Dog says
There is a lot of this monitoring going on.
Three years ago I had about 9 members of the starting football team in my class. They were consistently harassing 3 female woman soccer
players in class. I registered my complaint
and a monitor showed up to keep them in line
the rest of the term.
Did Chip just say “educate our kids?” They really should be more careful. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that there is a role for the IAC in there somewhere, recall that MG thinks that random drug testing is an administrative matter. Surely random twitter monitoring is, too. Carry on. Nothing to see here.
Tom Hart is Chip’s old friend and body guard from New Hampshire:
HE IS A RETIRED PORTSMOUTH POLICE DETECTIVE AND SWAT TEAM OFFICER FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. OFFICER HART HAS ACCRUED ALMOST 27 YEARS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPERIENCE AND HAS SERVED AS A POLICE ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR, ANTI-TERRORISM INSTRUCTOR, CRIME PREVENTION OFFICER, AND SPECIAL INVERSTIGATOR TO THE VIOLENT CRIMES UNIT. TOM GRADUATED FROM BRIDGEWATER STATE COLLEGE (BRIDGEWATER, MA) WITH A DEGREE IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION. HE WAS A FOUR-YEAR STARTER AND LETTERMAN ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE (DT & DE) FOR THE BSC BEARS. AS A TEEN, TOM WAS AN ACCOMPLISHED GOLDEN GLOVES BOXER IN HIS HOMETOWN OF HOLYOKE, MA. HART RESIDES IN EUGENE, OR WHERE HE SERVES AS THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT.
I wonder if he has a Lane County concealed carry permit?
Ken Goe has some stuff on Tom Hart and Kelly’s “603 Security Team”
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2011/01/bcs_national_championship_chip_4.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2011/09/oregon_insider_its_a_different.html