When Georgia Football Players Are Accused Of Crimes, This Fixer Shows Up

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Followers of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's recent reporting on Georgia football know one name all too well: Bryant Gantt. According to Georgia's website, his official title on coach Kirby Smart's staff is "director of player wellness," though a cursory glance of his bio denotes some, shall we say, non-traditional skills for a member of a college football staff. Previously, according to his own official bio, Gantt worked for 19 years at a law firm in Athens as a legal assistant, investigator, and process server, and his duties include "providing advice and counsel to student-athletes." It seems he has been providing a lot of those services recently.

Let's begin with an AJC story from Feb. 3 by reporter Alan Judd. It covered the night a fatal car crash killed football staff member Chandler LeCroy and player Kevin Willock. (The Ford Expedition driven by LeCroy had been racing another vehicle, driven by Jalen Carter, a standout defensive tackle since drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.) As Judd reported, it was not a police officer who called the Athens police chief to tell him what had happened. It was Gantt. Judd's report called Gantt "an employee of Georgia’s football program who frequently intercedes when players run afoul of the law." Everything you need to know about how Gantt's job works is on display in the following dispatch conversation, first reported by the AJC:

“Bryant Gantt, who is on the coaching staff, is on his way out there,” [Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry] Saulters said about 3:10 a.m. Jan. 15, less than half an hour after the crash. He told the dispatcher to let officers know Gantt was coming, “so they can talk with him and kind of tell him what’s going on.”

“And he does what, exactly?” the dispatcher asked.

“He takes care of all player relations stuff,” Saulters said. “He’ll be out so they can talk to him.”

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