UNT football player alleges racism..

[KFDM COOP]

UNT football player alleges racism..

Defensive back was suspended following sideline incident

10:41 PM CDT on Monday, October 29, 2007

By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle

[email protected]

DENTON – North Texas defensive back Dominique Green filed a complaint Monday with the Texas chapter of the NAACP accusing the North Texas coaching staff of racial bias.

UNT head coach Todd Dodge suspended Green on Sunday following a 48-28 loss to Middle Tennessee on Saturday night.

Dodge declined to comment Monday on why he suspended Green and later declined through a university spokesman to talk about the complaint Green filed.

Green said he was suspended after an incident on the sideline Saturday.

"I am suspended indefinitely for saying, 'We are from the hood,' on the sideline," Green said. "[uNT wide receivers coach] Clayton George charged up to me on the sideline and said we didn't need that. I asked him what was wrong and he said we didn't need to say that, so I asked him what was wrong with saying that we are from the hood."

At that point, defensive coordinator Ron Mendoza pulled George away from the confrontation, Green said.

Green, a junior from Lawton, Okla., said he believes the incident had racial undertones and is part of an overall pattern of bias among the UNT coaches.

Neither George nor Mendoza could be reached for comment.

Dodge, the former head coach at Southlake Carroll, hired an entirely new staff after he took over the program in December from Darrell Dickey, who was fired late last season. Two members of UNT's 13-man staff – quarterbacks coach Butch LaCroix and running backs coach Shelton Gandy – are black. That staff includes Dodge, assistant coaches, graduate assistants and football operations personnel.

Ericka Cain, the Texas youth adviser for colleges for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she is in the process of hearing Green's complaint and setting up a visit to UNT to talk to the players and coaches.

"I have yet to receive all of the information from him [Green]," Cain said. "All I can say is that we have received a phone call. We will go through an information-gathering process. We would try to mediate if we find that there is a problem. We would try to educate the coaching staff on what is appropriate. If it went further than that, we would take it to the school's administration."

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said he didn't have enough information to comment on the complaint, but he did speak of his policy regarding racial issues within the athletic department.

"I will never tolerate racial remarks or situations within a team, my staff or this program," Villarreal said Monday. "People who know me know that has been proven time and again. That policy is for players, coaches and everyone."

UNT president Gretchen Bataille did not return a message left on her cellphone or respond to a request for comment left with a university public relations official.

[Guest Nederland Bulldogs]

: Pitiful

[HORNSFAN86]

I hope this does not cause division among the players, that will tear apart a team.