Wake Forest Football Fires Radio Announcer for Leaking Game Plans
The Wake Forest University football program has found Tommy Elrod, the team’s radio announcer and a former player and assistant coach, guilty of providing or attempting to provide confidential game strategies and preparations to opponents multiple time since 2014, the North Carolina-based school said in a statement earlier today. Elrod has since been fired from the IMG Radio Network and banned from all Wake Forest athletics and facilities.
The school pointed to text messages, emails, text messages and phone records to come up with its result that Elrod had tried to give out the confidential information.
After an equipment manager recognized documents inside Cardinal Stadium a day before Wake Forest’s matchup with Louisville on November 12th, the school began a program-wide investigation on this matter.
When the play strategy sheet was given to Clawson, Wake Forest’s current head coach, he handed the documents over to Wellman, Wake Forest’s athletic director, to begin the investigation process.
“I’m deeply disappointed that he would act against Wake Forest, our football team and our fans in such a harmful manner,” Wellman said in a statement to ESPN, “by compromising confidential game-preparation information.”
Elrod was hired as a graduate assistant by former Wake Forest head coach and current head coach of Baylor, Jim Grove, after playing for Wake Forest from 1993 to 1997. After Grobe’s departure, Clawson did not retain Elrod, so he joined IMG Radio as a football analyst in 2014.
“It’s incomprehensible that a former Wake Forest student-athlete, graduate-assistant, full-time football coach and current radio analyst for the school would betray his alma mater,” Clawson said to ESPN.
Wake Forest is currently taking steps to elevate the security of game-preparation activities.
Added Clawson, “We allowed [Elrod] to have full access to our players, team functions, film room and practices. He violated our trust, which negatively impacted our entire program. I am glad we have taken steps to ensure it will not happen in the future.”
