Marvin Austin may have fired off the tweet heard ‘round the college football world, but a review of the cached version of his Twitter account on Google suggests Austin was probably not in Miami at the time of the tweet and lends credence to the notion that Austin was most likely parroting a rap song lyric.
Austin’s famous tweet of “I live in Club Liv so I get the tenant rate…bottles comin’ like it’s a giveaway” has been considered a smoking gun of sorts, suggesting that Austin was living it up in one of Miami’s hottest nightclubs and potentially launching an NCAA investigation that has spread to at least four universities. The time stamp of 3:07AM on Saturday, May 29th seemed to add evidence to the idea that Austin was tweeting a play-by-play of a Memorial Day weekend party. But there’s only one problem – the tweet was not posted at 3:07AM, it was posted at 6:07AM, over one hour after Club Liv closes.
The 3:07AM time stamp has been reported by many media outlets, but since Austin deactivated his Twitter account after the NCAA probe was announced, the only access to his tweets has been through Google’s cached pages. The Twitter time stamps in the Google cache are in Pacific time, meaning 3:07AM is 6:07AM on the east coast. It would have therefore been impossible for Austin to have been tweeting live from the Club at 6:07AM.
Cached version of Austin's tweet from Google reads 3:07AM - Pacific Time. This image was taken from the N&O's ACC Now blog.
Screen capture of Austin's feed from SFN shows the time stamps in Eastern Time
It was actually our friends at State Fans Nation that inadvertently helped shine a light on this subject, as their screen capture shown above of Austin’s tweets shows the 6:07 time stamp. The SFN screen cap also shows the tweets immediately preceding and following the Club Liv post. Two minutes prior to the Club Liv tweet, Austin wrote of how he was going to “bust my ass this summa” to prove he was the best. Fifteen minutes later, he tweets to teammate Gene Robinson that he’s “bout to hop on da bird”. A logical guess would be “da bird” refers to an airplane, but that is simply speculation. The point remains that the tweets immediately before and after the Club Liv line do not support the idea that Austin was providing an update from the club.
Also providing context to those three tweets is one Austin posted 65 minutes earlier Saturday morning at 5:02AM, saying he was “up super early for one of my occasional moves”. The phrase “up super early” would seem to imply beginning a day, not ending one. Plus, the fact that it comes over an hour before the Club Liv tweet again suggests that he was not out clubbing when he made the posts to Twitter.
In addition, Austin’s tweets give clues as to his whereabouts earlier in the day on Friday, May 28th. Austin’s cached Twitter account shows a tweet at 1:41PM asking why there was “nothing but foreigners in the Social Security office”. In a 2:03PM reply to “BrintCity”, who had asked Austin what he was doing for the weekend, Austin says he is in Washington, D.C. Austin later replied to “BrintCity”, saying he had to get a new ID and “social security card and birth certificate I lost all my shit…I don’t even exist right now..hahah!!!”
These tweets seem to establish Austin as being in Washington, D.C. as late as 2:30PM on Friday afternoon. While it would certainly not be impossible to leave D.C. sometime after 2:30 and fly to Miami in time to go clubbing that night, the subsequent tweets of Austin being “up super early” and going to get on “da bird” do not seem to jibe with that notion. In addition, the context of the tweets before and after the Club Liv post really makes it seem just like a random posting of a Rick Ross line.
This point is significant because the May 29th tweet has been used as a jumping-off point for many news and blog reports of the NCAA’s inquiry. In fact, many media outlets are erroneously reporting that the party being investigated by the NCAA took place Memorial Day weekend, when it has been established that the big party in question was actually two weeks earlier. If Austin’s tweet was really quoting a rap lyric, then many, many reports out there about the incident and the investigation are incorrect based on a bad time stamp and an out-of-context tweet.
Moreover, it was advertised that Austin’s Twitter account was a potential treasure trove of NCAA violations, but is this really the case? Again, our friends at State Fans Nation have spent much time and effort to post Austin’s photos in the hopes that the merest appearance of impropriety would further taint the situation. Austin posted a photo of a $140 dinner tab at the Washington, D.C. Cheesecake Factory but tweeted that he was out to dinner with his family that night. He also posted photos of a Bentley, but it stands to reason that within a year he will be making Bentley money, so would it be so out of line for him to be shopping them now?
So what does all this mean? Ultimately the Club Liv tweet proves nothing. It is highly unlikely Austin was even in Miami at the time of the tweet, turning the focus back to the party of two weeks before. In no way does that absolve Marvin Austin of accountability for being at that party. His presence there is well documented, both in photos and in his Twitter account. On the other hand, if it was an NFL player’s party with zero agent presence, then is that a violation assuming players paid their way there? Marcell Dareus said there were agents present but his story (or at least the one put out by his family source) has been debunked. Still, if agents were involved, then Austin will have to answer for that.
Nevertheless, one of the prime pillars of this entire story, the Club Liv tweet, appears to be nothing but a simple rap lyric after all. More important, based on the available evidence, Austin’s entire Twitter feed does not appear to be as damning as some have reported (or hoped). Is the record incomplete? Sure. Could some random tweet surface casting guilt on Austin and others? Possibly. Until then we can only speculate on what we have before us and given this fresh look, Austin’s tweets are proving anything but slam dunks on potential NCAA violations.
Note from THF: Credit to Doc for doing the research and putting this all together. Many thanks.
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Thanks Doc, After reading this I can conclude that SFN, now without Lee Fowler, are forced to look outside of their programs for news and excitement. Congratulations SFN, capture the anger and the hatred. It’s hard to look in the mirror everyday and realize that your programs are weak across the board. If you can find fulfillment in “scoreboard” good, I’m sure you enjoy losing most of your home games. Nice facilities though…
Good job Doc. My gut tells me the truth about Marvin is somewhere between the picture painted by ABCers and a college kid taking pictures and twittering to no end. Obviously, did Marvin recieve benefits/gifts is the question and did the coaching staff have any knowledge of this is an even bigger question in my mind.
Leroy, you are exactly right about SFN. That site prides itself on providing accurate information about NC State sports. However, since a blogger named “Derek Medlin” (Is this his real name)? came on board instead of guys like Alpha Wolf, the level of entries is only notch above crap like “Carolina Sux” and most of the material on PP.
Actually, as much as I hate to say it for the tarheel hopeful, this article is incorrect. About 9 months ago twitter changed it to there its distinctive for each twitter users on time zone. Therefore it was in EST. If you view a tweet from Miami but you are in LA it will show up as 3 hours previous. I think that is where you have gone wrong here. It is relative to the user. This article is misleading and wrong, sorry.
In addition, I think the real “smoking gun” was the numerous pictures as well as tweets about random trips to DC and Miami on numerous occasions not just one tweet about receiving drinks which can happen at almost any night club(I know I used to work at one.)
I would remove this article, your credibility is in jeopardy.
THF: Our contention is that “The Liv” tweets occurred at 6 AM EDT on May 29th. The Google cache versions indicate the snapshot of the Twitter feed occurred in a different time zone. Those cache versions say Austin was tweeting at 3 AM in Miami whereas we contend that the tweet occurred at 6 AM since the cache versions would reflect the Pacific timezone. This was cross checked against the tarheelfanblog twitter feed. For example on July 10th at 6:39 PM EDT a post was published on this blog and automatically posted to Twitter. According to the current Google cache version of the tarheelfanblog Twitter feed the tweet with a link to that post occurred at 3:39 PM. The posting time was verified on the blog as being 6:39 PM EDT. Therefore if you look at the Google cache version of a Twitter feed it is showing you different time zone, presumably PDT. There are instances where the Google cache is showing a time stamp as much as four hours behind EDT for the same tweet. There is also the matter of the screenshots from SFN which show the time of the tweets to be 6 AM EDT.
Also understand what we are saying here. We are not saying the entire Twitter feed does not point to some kind of NCAA issue. We are simply attempting to debunk the use of the May 29th tweet as some sort of smoking gun while also pointing out a few other tweets might not be as nefarious as some have made out. The May 29th tweet has been used as evidence that Austin was in Miami for a party funded by an agent on Memorial Day weekend when, as far as I know, no other source has been cited putting Austin, Little or anyone else in Miami during that time. The central issue at this point appears to be the party on May 15th which we have confirmed photos with timestamps as well as a timetable(problematic as it may be) set forth by Alabama’s Marcell Dareus which points to the same weekend. Also, please read the final paragraph which allows for the possibility that, since we have an incomplete record of the Twitter feed, there very well could be some damning tweets we just are not seeing since the account has been removed.
Wow…you don’t know how twitter works do you?
Doc: Yeah, we do. Besides, this is not about Twitter, this is about the Google cache. That’s also why we independently vetted the time stamps in the Google cache using a different account. That’s also why we provided screen caps showing the two different times. There’s also the time differences between the cached version of Austin’s tweets and the replies to “BrintCity”.
I get it – Twitter makes time stamps local to the user. Google is in California, therefore the time stamps in the Google cache are in Pacific time. Otherwise, the person at SFN who made the screen cap of Austin’s tweets would have had to been in Greenland.
Don’t lose sight of the main points:
1. Social media, particularly the Club Liv tweet, were said to be the spark for the NCAA investigation. In addition, media outlets are using this tweet as the basis of their reporting in erroneously reporting the NCAA is investigating a party at Club Liv on Memorial Day weekend. If this is just a rap lyric, as it appears to be, then those media outlets have egg on their face.
2. This tweet has been offered as evidence that Austin was receiving some improper benefit (e.g. free champagne) to the point that media outlets researched the price of champagne at Club Liv. Again, if this is a rap lyric, there is no direct connection to impermissible benefits in this specific incident.
3. None of this changes the fact that Austin was at a party in Miami on May 15 and will have to answer for that. The larger point is that with the Club Liv tweet out of the picture, the focus really does narrow to May 15. Which, by the way, is what the NCAA has asked about at SCAR, Alabama, and Georgia – not some club night at Liv.
^^not sure i’m following how the exact time means anything other than its POSSIBLE he was at a club due to a club’s operating hours, but thanks for being concerned about THF’s credibility. rest assured, its in fine shape.
the Club Liv line is established as a line from a song. (even tho it took HOW long for the media/sports reporters to figure that out? insert your own reason why here, but i think we can probably guess)
so 2 minutes before he was “partying” he was sitting in a loud, thumping, girl-infested club, several to many drinks in him, and contemplating his off-season workout? in abbreviated, yet coherent english?
what do the tweets that whole day say about his wherabouts?
i linked all those pics from the 15th with the Nunn girl, so ive been waiting to hear what a seemingly pretty dull looking party, with a cop present, have to do with the Memorial Day party, wherever it was and if it was.
MA may have taken rooms he shouldnt have, car rides he shouldnt have, airpline trips he shouldnt have, but i’m not getting why we keep coming back to the Club Liv tweet as especially meaningful. do we really know that it was this tweet that started everything?
there are reports that agents following the rules have thrown some of their unethical peers out to the wolves, and that that may have more to do with an investigation than anything.
here’s what i think based on 10 whole minutes of searching for MA’s other tweets and then searching the tweets and gossip blogs of the people mentioned in those tweets.
MA was looking forward to preseason workouts and the upcoming season.
he was listening to rap songs on his Ipod.
he got on a bird to Miami to go to a party hosted by…..
P Diddy. attended by TI and Chris Brown, Shaquille ONeal.
none of whom are agents. sounds like a music party. how or why he got there seems to be unknown to the general public.
HTTE:
Here are some lines from the Miami Herald piece linked above:
“The NCAA is investigating reports that football players from several universities visited Miami over Memorial Day weekend and partied on a tab paid for by sports agents or financial advisors…One of Spurrier’s star players, tight end Weslye Saunders, attended the party along with North Carolina defensive tackles Marvin Austin and Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus.”"
This is based entirely on Austin’s tweet. We have established, as have you, the party being investigated by the NCAA was not on Memorial Day weekend.
“The party apparently took place at LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau Hotel in the early morning hours of May 29. A spokeswoman for the Fontainebleau declined Thursday to name guests at the party.”
Again, this is straight from Austin’s tweet.
“We have a lot of amazing events at LIV nightclub, all of which are open to the public,” Mabel De Buenza said. One of those amazing events apparently impressed Austin, the defensive tackle from North Carolina. At 3:07 a.m. May 29, Austin bragged via his twitter account: “I live In club LIV so I get the tenant rate–bottles comin like it’s a giveaway.”
It’s this kind of crappy, weak reporting that makes it important to show the context of Austin’s messages.
^gotcha. with the shoddy factchecking of the Shirley Sherrod case, on both sides, its not at all surprising that sports stories are so badly put together.
even moments ago, Joe Ovies misspells the name of ACC Coordinator of Football Officials, Doug Rhoads, several times.
***
theres a tweet circulating from MA from May 31, that the previous night he attended a party that had in attendance P Diddy, Shaq, etc.
there are gossip blogs referring to a P Diddy party in Miami that all the above mentioned celebs attended.
i didnt make that up.
does it mean he didnt go out the 29th? no. but the tweet of the 29th doesnt shed any light on anything.
And if he attends some music party in Miami with celebs there, it does not mean he violated NCAA rules unless someone paid for it. Also, this “BrintCity” with whom MA exchanges tweets appears to be some kind of promoter of sorts from what I can gather looking at his Twitter profile. Could he have connections that got Austin into some party? Was it open to the public? No way of knowing.
The simple point here is the same one on which THF has been built: Prove it. You want to says UNC is dirty? Then prove it. You want to say Austin was in Miami on May 29th at 3 AM attending a party hosted by an agent? Then prove it with more than just some tweet that has already been shown to be a song quote. No one is saying Austin is innocent but if he is going to be damned let’s damn him for stuff he actually did wrong and not stuff no one can prove.
Austin hopefully learned one valuable lesson in this whole thing….
DONT INTERNET SNITCH ON YOURSELF
It cracks me up, that all these media outlets are trying to figure out what Austin met in a tweet. I said during the b-ball season, once tweets get quoted in print media, its time to shut it down… Really twitter is where media outlets are getting their news.
exactly. wheres the leg work? make some calls, get some kind of confirmation. Daniel Schorr only just died, and he’s already spinning in his grave. reading isnt reporting. thats why journalists establish sources.
every “account” seems to be just a cut and paste of someone else’s “account”.
again, i have no clue what happened and if all of it is legit, but the “reports” all over cyberspace have little substance.
I’m not a football fan, so I haven’t been getting into this, but I think Starvin’ Marvin the cupcake freak and “nan nanny boo boo” will go down in sports history just because it’s so bizarre. If the truth comes out, it won’t matter.
Why doesn’t college sports just admit it is the NFL Development League, withdraw from NCAA football, and take NFL cash? Right now, only a few like Julius Peppers get millions, and the rest get lifelong medical problems for no pay. At least if football was a sanctioned NFL-DL, all players would get some money and medical care for their concussions, etc. The NFL is basically getting a free minor league system for nothing. Nice deal for them. Paying the former NCAA teams to be their minor leagues would be cheaper than starting a real minor league, so the NFL would probably go for it.
This is off topic, but I happened to be visiting that great country to our north recently, and I kept hearing the name Darian Durant, over and over, on RDS and TSN, which are the French and English versions of ESPN in Canada.
Apparently, he is doing quite well in the CFL, and it is always good to see a UNC guy succeeding. The NFL Network is airing a bunch of CFL games this summer, so hopefully they will include one with Sasketchewan.
^You’re right, William. Durant is the talk of the CFL this summer and that’s why I wrote about him on this very blog almost two weeks ago:
http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/2010/07/darian-durant-riding-high-in-cfl/
Glad to hear DD is tearing it up!
I haven’t had much to say about this whole NCAA situation, but I do have to say that THF and Doc, you guys are tearing it up on the information front. You guys are putting a lot of these professional journalists to shame with your accuracy too.
I am sorry I missed that, but I think we have all been so depressed about Dean that I didn’t see it.
It kind of made it more fun not knowing, because I kept hearing his name and apparently he led his team to a great win over the new incarnation of the Montreal Alouettes, who used to be the Baltimore Stallions, the only non-Canadian champion of the CFL, I believe. I was wondering, could that be the same Durant? I think Montreal won the CFL title last year, so maybe it is the start of a big rivalry.
The CFL has some interesting rules. It is not bad to watch, at all.
THF, Doc, thanks for compiling all of this information into one location. You can tell a lot of effort went into it. I just wish we could find out the results of the investigation so we can move forward…
JT3Bucky………… If it’s a 3am post in Miami it would be a 12am post in Pacific time.
Since it seems YOU don’t understand a 6am pacific post would actually be 9am in Miami.
Marvin may or not be guilty but you sir are dumb.