The UNC football team will be forced to play without one of its more experienced defenders for the 2022 season, as rising senior defensive lineman Tomari Fox lost his appeal to the NCAA to overturn a suspension for taking an illegal substance. Fox did not play in UNC’s bowl game in December due to the appeal, and now will not suit up for the Tar Heels in 2022.

“Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in the 2022 football season for reasons I cannot control,” Fox said in a statement. “I’m disappointed in the decision, but I remain hopeful for the future. I will continue to give my all to Tar Heel Nation both on and off the field.”

During the suspension, Fox will be able to practice with the team, but will not be able to officially travel with them or appear on the sidelines during games, according to head coach Mack Brown.

Fox appeared in all 12 of UNC’s regular season games in 2021, logging 25 tackles and 1.5 sacks. He teamed up with his older brother Tomon, who used his last year of eligibility in 2021, on the Carolina defense.

“We’re gonna miss him,” Brown said of Tomari Fox in a press conference Tuesday morning. “I’m really concerned about the penalty. I don’t think the penalty’s fair. Here’s a young guy that got some advice from somebody, and drank something out of a bottle that I would’ve drunk. And then he loses his entire year. I don’t think the penalty fits the crime at all.”

Brown also called the NCAA’s punishment of performance-enhancing substances “outdated,” and suggested the penalties should be softened from the Steroid Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

 

Featured image via Inside Carolina

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