Dyers’s family claim these publications are not only slanderous, but proof he is the victim of a hate campaign. The NCAA announced late last week they’d be investigating the veracity of these claims, but the first step in that investigation appears to have led to the termination of Ridley’s contract.
The entire situation began with Dyers’s arrest at the beginning of Christmas break, thanks to his assault of an NYPD parking agent. As video footage of his arrest spread online, stories trickled out of the forward’s behavior on campus. Some were difficult to confirm,others less so.
Photographic evidence of Dyers’s repeated use of drugs before games as well as at parties and events at his fraternity, Rho Beta Epsilon, were published on social media by an anonymous account born in the aftermath of Dyers’s arrest. Acting as a whistleblower, this account is feeding revelations to the wider public of the college student’s volatile behavior and criminal activities.
Dyers’s counsel claims that these pictures are not proof, just AI deep fakes, but more stories have trickled forward of Dyers’s time on and off the ice. Abuse of women, both physical and sexual, alongside verbal intimidation of teammates.
To make matters worse for the forward, these ‘activities’ line up with his father, Brutus Dyers, Consul General of the US Consulate to Edinburgh, UK, donating a substantial amount of money to the college.
Last year, Dyers was spotted snorting cocaine with a woman alleged to be a prostitute—two days later, his father paid for a new endowment. The donation of a state-of-the-art gym at the campus’ hockey facility followed Dyers’s bullying of a fellow frat brother.
If thisisa smear campaign, it’s cleverly executed and systematically carried out. Clearly, it has bite. Ridley covered up several complaints by Dyers’s teammates—a school spokesperson has confirmed that he will no longer be working with the Dukes.
Is there enough evidence to permanently suspend Dyers? The NCAA’s investigation will hopefully uncover the truth.
FORTY-FOUR
THAT ASS BETTER STAY JUICY
“Is this your doing?”
‘Head Coach of Oakwood College Hockey Team Fired Amid Drug Scandal’
I frown at the headline that Dad’s holding up like it’s my face on a WANTED poster and not that jackass.
“Is that why you’re here? Some dumb article?” My disbelief knows no bounds. “This your idea of a Christmas gift? You didn’t call me once the whole time I was in Poughkeepsie, but you’re coming at me with this? How did you even know where I’d be?”
“It’s Christmas Day, Zachary. Where did you think I’d be?”
“On the ice?”
“Even I have to let the players take some time off.” He sniffs his resentment that they get a free day. Then his shoulders sag. “Look, I wanted to talk to you, to call you, but?—”
“Did you forget my number?” I jeer.
“The same could be said about you.”
“I didn’t want to talk to you. Not after that bullshit at Mom’s funeral.”
His jaw works as if the memory alone is enough to agitate him. “I just didn’t know what to say. Your mother…” Dad pinches the bridge of his nose. “She’s the one who handled this kind of stuff.”
“What? Feelings?” I scoff. “What makes you think I’d ever come to you to handle losing the one parent who gave a fuck about me?”
“That’s not true, Zachary.”
“Isn’t it? This is our first conversation outside of texts and emailsin months and what you bring up is a newspaper! Seems like you only came here to talk about something that has nothing to do with you.”
“Rod told me you were causing trouble with this Dyers boy.”
So D’s dad called mine?
I’d laugh if this situation was at all funny. Dad has no say in what I do. Hasn’t since I turned 18.
“I told him Dyers’s reckless, which he backed up by starting a campus-wide humiliation campaign on Denny.”
“What do you mean?”
Once I’m done explaining, I demand, “Anyway, what does this have to do with youorRod? Unless… do you know his dad?”
