Antoine Turner has defeated all the odds and landed a spot on the Boise State Football team, but during the break between the end of the semester and the start of summer school he finds himself in a situation where he has no place to stay. And although people have offered to assist Turner, Boise State is making sure there are no NCAA violations in the process.
Turner, who was born in Louisiana and lost his mother to cancer at the age of four and never had a good relationship with his father, left home at an early age. For many years he lived in different homes until hurricane Katrina hit and everything turned for the worse.
Antoine lost his home and his uncle during the disaster and turned to running drugs for gang members to survive.
“Nothing was really normal anymore. New Orleans wasn’t New Orleans anymore,” Turner said, adding “I didn’t really have the mental stability to lead a normal life.”
“They had some big guys running New Orleans’ streets, and they’d ask me to take this from point A to point B,” Turner explained. “It would be anything from narcotics, weed, anything they just put in my bag. Sometimes I wouldn’t even look because I’d be scared.”
“I’d do that just for protection so I wouldn’t get hurt. So my family wouldn’t get hurt,” he said.
When the gang members found out Antonie had a future in football they made sure he wouldn’t miss out on it because of his association with them.
“They may be thugs and they may be gangsters, but they actually cared,” Turner said. “They kind of like gave me a pass. They just said ‘look man, you’re going to be good. Anytime you have a problem, you let us know. You’re going to be alright around here.’”
Turner did not have the grades to go to a NCAA school out of high school so he went to California to play ball at Fullerton Junior College.
“I thought I was going to get away from my problems, but they just had started.”
“I went homeless. I went from 290 to 220-pounds,” Turner said.
“I ain’t never really had no blanket or nothing like that,” Turner explained as he recalled the park bench he once slept on. “So I could either lay across this or I would sit (with my arms folded) and lay my head down. I constantly wake up, look around, make sure everything was good.”
“About a year after I came out here, I actually couldn’t take it no more. At one time I had the feeling of suicide,” Turner said, filled with emotion. “I couldn’t fight no more.”
Antoine found refuge with the family of his girlfriend, who gave him a place to stay until he moved in with his uncle, but because of subsidized housing rules he finds himself homeless again. So, for the few weeks between the the end of the semester at Fullerton and June 6th when summer school starts at his new school, Boise State, Turner has no place to stay.
When this story was aired on local news station KTVB, Broncos fans understandably wanted help out their future football player, but they were met by a statement by a school compliance officer about possible NCAA rule violations.
We need to make it clear to your viewers and Bronco fans that it is NOT permissible within NCAA rules for boosters of Boise State athletics to provide benefits to Mr. Turner. That would include money, loans, gifts, discounts, transportation costs, etc.
While Mr. Turner’s need is abundantly clear, it is not permissible for Boise State, the athletics department or supporters of the athletics department to assist Mr. Turner at this time. Once Mr. Turner arrives on campus for the start of the summer school program, he will be well taken care of—receiving full tuition, room and board, books, fees etc. In the meantime, the compliance office is exploring a potential waiver with the NCAA that would allow us to provide assistance prior to the start of summer school.
This is disgusting, outrageous and shows exactly how hypocritical the NCAA and their rules are. Instead of Boise State working to try to find a place for a homeless student athlete to stay, they have to worry about potential NCAA violations.
People who want to help this young man should in no way be discouraged. And the NCAA, which brought in $871.6 million in revenue in 2012, should not prevent it.
H/T: Deadspin