Jeff Saturday spent two summers in 1996-97 working at the Eastgate BP service station—ringing the cash register, pumping gas, changing oil and tires, cleaning up after the station closed. He was one of a handful of Tar Heel football players who earned spending money at the station owned by James Spurling, a long-time friend of Rams Club executive director Ernie Williamson and most anyone who'd ever coached at Carolina. Spurling came to know Saturday as "a lovable kid, hard-worker, lots of energy."
But more than once during the spring of 1998, Saturday showed up all hang-dog, his face tortured and his body language screaming expletives.