A University of North Carolina professor has fired off a furious plea to athletics bosses demanding they ‘rein in’ Bill Belichick’s football players after a string of speeding tickets, reckless driving charges and parking violations.
Mark Peifer, a cancer cell biology researcher who has taught at UNC since 1992, has spent five months bombarding university administrators and athletics director Bubba Cunningham with emails and photographs.
‘Is there no one who can rein in these players, probably only a subset of the football team, who are tarnishing the reputation of our school and of all Carolina athletes?’ Peifer wrote in a recent email to UNC’s athletics director, Bubba Cunningham.
The professor says players have parked in disabled bays, backed into spots against university rules, raced through narrow parking decks and cursed at him when he dared to challenge their behavior.
A WRAL investigation last year found nearly 20 percent of the 101-man roster had been cited for driving violations, accounting for 31 speeding tickets and 10 reckless driving counts.
When confronted in November, Belichick said: ‘Our conduct outside of the building is important to us, and we stress that. We’ve addressed multiple things, not just that.’
A University of North Carolina professor has fired off a furious plea to athletics bosses demanding they ‘rein in’ Bill Belichick’s football players after a string of speeding tickets
A WRAL investigation last year found nearly 20 percent of the 101-man roster had been cited for driving violations, accounting for 31 speeding tickets and 10 reckless driving counts
Evidently the message hasn’t landed. Cunningham, who has served as athletics director since 2011, appeared increasingly exasperated as Peifer’s complaints kept coming.
‘I appreciate your notes and I have spoken to the football staff,’ Cunningham wrote in November. ‘Disappointed it has not changed behavior.’
By April 27, his patience had worn thin entirely. ‘I don’t know how many more times I can apologize,’ he told Peifer. ‘Disappointing to say the least.’
Peifer said Cunningham’s intervention did produce a brief improvement – fewer cars in disabled bays, less racing through the decks. But he says the worst behavior had fully resumed by late April.
In a May 5 email, the professor’s patience had run out entirely. ‘Apparently UNC football players have decided final exams are the perfect time to demonstrate their privilege and immunity to the rules,’ he wrote.
He warned: ‘I guess when an innocent bystander is killed this will get some attention – but then it will be too late.’ UNC’s athletics department responded only that it would continue with ‘safe driving education.’
Among the most offenders is Demon June, the team’s leading rusher in 2025, who has been cited three times since February – including for reckless driving after allegedly hitting 101 mph in a 65-mph zone.
Transfer tight end Jelani Thurman – part of Ohio State’s powerhouse 2024 roster – fared little better, racking up four citations between January and April, twice for speeds topping 100 mph.
At least five of the star players UNC highlighted in its ‘re-signing’ campaign this January have since been cited for speeding.
