Photo of Clemson WR Higgins posing with $200K car deleted
An auto dealership in South Carolina deleted a photo it posted of Clemson wide receiver Tee Higgins posing in front of one of its expensive sports cars.
True Auto Mart in Piedmont, S.C., posted the image of Higgins posing in front of a $200,000 McLaren Spider on its Facebook page Thursday and thanked him for purchasing a vehicle.
Two days later, the dealership deleted the photo, perhaps realizing that it could raise eyebrows with the NCAA.
True Auto Mart then clarified in a statement that Higgins did not buy the McLaren Spider.
“Mr. Higgins didn’t purchase the car in the picture,” the dealership said, according to FitsNews. “However he did love the McLaren and went for a ride in it. It gave him a lot of inspiration to be even better so he can get one with his signing bonus when he gets drafted to the NFL.”
The dealer also said it did not want to get Higgins in trouble with the NCAA. The photo caused a stir on social media over the weekend, including accusations that he violated NCAA rules.
“We took the picture down at the request of Mr. Higgins,” the dealership said. “We did not want to cause any problems for him even though there has been no wrong doing from him or us. We just wanted to post a picture with him in front of a nice car. We are working on getting him in one of our cars currently. We never said he bought the car he was standing in front of. Our other pictures we have of customers states the car they bought. This picture never stated what car he bought if any. People are always quick to judge and come to a false conclusion. It is a shame that a lot of people just want ridicule instead of saying something nice.”
Higgins made 17 catches for 345 yards with two touchdowns last season with Clemson.
