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Published Aug 3, 2023
Dumas-Johnson takes "full responsibility" for January arrest
Anthony Dasher  •  UGASports
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It was a remorseful Jamon Dumas-Johnson who addressed the media for the first time since his arrest on Jan. 10 for racing/reckless driving.

“I’m definitely disappointed in myself, the decision I’ve made,” Dumas-Johnson said. “I’ve been disciplined for that and really looking forward to moving on. I made a bad decision. I take full responsibility for what I did.”

The incident, which took place a week before the tragic deaths of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy, was the first in what’s been a series of arrests involving Bulldog football players and arrests for excessive speeding.

In the weeks and months that have passed, head coach Kirby Smart, who has acknowledged the problem with speeding, has come under scrutiny for the incidents, a subject he last addressed during the recent SEC Media Days.

“I'm disappointed anytime we have traffic incidents. It's very evident when you look at it, we've had traffic citations and incidents throughout the history of being at the University of Georgia," Smart said. "We actually don't have more now than we've had in the past. What concerns me most is the safety of our players, and when you drive at high speeds it's unsafe. We don't want that to happen."

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""I made a bad decision. I take full responsibility for what I did.”
Jamon Dumas-Johnson on his arrest in January for racing/reckless driving

Dumas-Johnson said he doesn’t believe there’s a culture problem inside the walls of the team’s football facility that’s led to the incidents which have taken place, the latest two weeks ago when defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins was cited for going 90 on I-85 in Franklin County.

“I don’t know about speeding. Mine was before everything hit the Internet and stuff like that, but I definitely don’t think it’s a culture that we’re creating,” Dumas-Johnson said. “There are just some bad choices that we’re making right now. Hopefully, the team gets it together.”

Dumas-Johnson said his punishment for the incident is complete.

“It was hard,” he said. “But throughout that process, I was hard on myself. I didn’t make the right decision.”

At Media Days, Smart said the program will continue to do whatever it can to keep such incidents from happening again.

“We're going to do all we can to take that out and make sure that's eradicated. But I'm also smart enough to understand and know that 18- to 20-years-old is when this happens," Smart said. "It happened to me as a student-athlete. That's when speeding happens. What we want to do is take that out and make it safe and not have high speeds. As long as they don't get a speeding ticket, it should not be a super speeder.”

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