NCAA Allows Boise State to Help Homeless Recruit Antoine Turner
The NCAA granted Boise State's request to provide immediate help to incoming recruit Antoine Turner, who recently revealed that he is currently homeless.
Boise State submitted a waiver request on Wednesday after Turner revealed in an interview with KTVB-TV that he has been sleeping at a motel or in his girlfriend's car due to financial and family issues.
"After Boise State's request last night, the school may provide immediate assistance to football student-athlete Antoine Turner," the NCAA announced through their official Twitter account.
With the NCAA's ruling in place, Boise State can now provide room and board for the 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive tackle, who was originally scheduled to be allowed on campus later this summer.
Turner revealed in the television interview that his miserable life started when he lost his mother to cancer when he was just four years old. The death of his mother led to a strained relationship with his father, which forced him to find a new home.
Turner stayed with his uncle, but their house was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, which also took his uncle's life.
"Nothing was really normal anymore. New Orleans wasn't New Orleans anymore," he said. "I didn't really have the mental stability to lead a normal life."
Turner also admitted that he lived with gang members, and was forced to run drugs for them in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, until the gang members gave him "a pass" after learning that he was playing football.
"They may be thugs and they may be gangsters, but they actually cared," Turner said. "They kind of like gave me a pass. They just said 'look man, you're going to be good. Anytime you have a problem, you let us know. You're going to be alright around here.'"
Turner then added that he attended Fullerton Junior College wherein he slept on park benches because he had no money to rent a house. His condition changed a bit when the family of his girlfriend took him in, but the government's subsidized house regulations forced him to leave again.