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Oops, Roy did it again: No repercussions expected after Williams' postgame gaffe(News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 20--Apparently, Roy Williams' salty slip is much a-bleep about nothing. North Carolina's basketball coach remains profoundly sorry about his profane postgame word choice, and the ACC, FCC and UNC on Thursday all appeared willing to let Wednesday night's curse word pass without punishment. "He feels terrible about it," said UNC athletic director Dick Baddour, adding that Williams called to apologize again Thursday morning and planned to call the university's chancellor to say sorry, also. "... Roy's such a classy guy, and this is not typical Roy. I know he feels bad about it." The Hall-of-Fame coach was talking about his team's failure to execute the fullcourt press after it beat N.C. State 89-80 when he said, "We stink." Pressed by a reporter to explain why they stink, Williams responded, "If I knew the answer to that, do you think we'd still be [expletive] stinkin'?" Williams more typically uses "frick," "frig" or "flip" as part of his public, down-home vernacular, and after a moment of stunned silence followed by nervous laughter in the room, Williams apologized for using the curse word. "I can't believe I said that," Williams said. "I only say that on the golf course." According to the FCC's Web site, indecent or profane speech that is broadcast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. is not actionable --meaning the radio stations that carried the four-letter utterance live won't be fined. Williams comments came shortly after 10 p.m. Williams won't be disciplined by the ACC or UNC either; a league spokesperson said the word-slip was an institutional matter. Expletives aren't uncommon in college coaching circles -- just read Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's lips on the sidelines. Or overhear Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg's exhortations in the huddle. Or lend an ear to Maryland coach Gary Williams as he mentors his bench players. And Williams himself uttered an expletive on live TV, after his Kansas team lost to Syracuse in the 2003 NCAA final, when asked if he was headed to UNC. Krzyzewski sympathized with his counterpart. "If you're in public a lot, yeah, you can slip up," the Duke coach said after leading his Blue Devils past St. John's in New York City on Thursday night. "You forget things. You get over 60. He's not over 60. I'm over 60. That shouldn't be that big of a thing. We should get on. "He's a great guy, a great coach and represents our game really well. ... I think we should move on." UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough was surprised to learn about his coach's choice of words -- but only because it occurred in front of cameras. "I've definitely heard it more than you guys," he said of Williams and the X-rated F-word. "It's usually once every other ballgame, he drops it in the huddle, and we know he means business then. But I think he may beat himself up over that. Because he usually counts how many cuss words he says in the huddle and in practice. "When he gets really mad in practice, he says, 'Now, that's four cuss words, and I didn't plan on saying any today.' " Williams did not take an aggressive tone or appear overly angry when he slipped up. Still, the news conference was being broadcast live on both the Tar Heel Sports Network -- which carried the entire press conference -- and Wolfpack Sports Network -- which elected to cut away from it after Williams' curse and statements about the press. "Unfortunately, it did go out over the air," said Brian Asbill, general manager of Wolfpack Sports Marketing. "... But we cut, and [announcer] Gary Hahn made an on-air apology." Asbill said spicy language sometimes makes it on air from background crowd noise, but he had never encountered a situation such as this. "It certainly came at a time when we least expected it, sitting in a room with a lot of cameras and recorders going," he said. Both Asbill and Gary Sobba, general manager of Tar Heel Sports Network, said they hadn't received any complaints from their affiliates. [email protected] or 919-829-8944 Staff writer Roger van der Horst contributed to this story. To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsobserver.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |