Illegal Procedure

by Josh Luchs

  Amazingly, this was the first time I’d ever seen any university compliance people in my professional life, in spite of the fact that part of their job was to monitor people like me. I’d heard they existed, but like rare animals in the wild, I’d never seen one. During the panel the Washington State compliance person said, “We don’t know what we don’t know.” I took that to mean a couple of things: First, they are protesting that there’s so much to know, so much going on, they can’t possibly stay on top of all of it. Second, if they don’t know about something, they have less liability. It’s not as if they knew about a violation but ignored it. What was clear was that as a body, a compliance department is in way over its head.

  In March 2011, I shared the dais with another agent at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. This is how they promoted it:

  Sports Agents Josh Luchs and Bob Boland to Speak at “The Role of Agents in Entertainment & Sports” Conference. Josh Luchs, a former National Football League agent who was recently featured in Sports Illustrated and on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel regarding his admission of paying college football stars for nearly 20 years, will speak at The University of Texas School of Law’s Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law second annual symposium on Thursday, March 24. Luchs will discuss his experience paying players in the hope of signing them as clients and violating NCAA ethics rules with several professors and agents, including Bob Boland, a professor at New York University and well-known sports agent. He has negotiated more than 100 player and endorsement deals in a variety of sports, including the NFL.

  This was the first time I’d done a lecture rather than just field questions on a panel, so I was nervous. And to make it a little more intimidating, the event took place in a mock courtroom in front of the seal of the Great State of Texas. If I ever envisioned myself in a Texas courtroom, it would have been under very different circumstances, perhaps subpoenaed, but never as an invited guest, let alone as an expert. I didn’t get to feel good about myself too long, though. The dean of the University of Texas Law School, Lawrence Sager, introduced the participants, including esteemed professors, and former Texas linebacker Brian Jones, now a CBS football analyst. Then he introduced me as a “former criminal.” There was an audible gasp from the crowd, waiting for me to go after the dean for his defamatory remark. The large contingent of lawyers, and even I as a non-lawyer, knew there’s supposed to be a presumption of innocence in America. And I’d never been convicted of any crime. Who’d have thought the dean of the law school would sound like a tabloid sound bite instead of a legal scholar? I held my tongue (an older and wiser me).

  A couple of highlights from the conference: A current student asked my advice privately on an agent situation he was in the middle of. He was a former roommate of some University of Texas players now in the NFL, who he said had been paid by agents while in school. Having witnessed how the agent-player world works, he was now in a situation with two major sports agencies battling over UT prospects, both of whom had offered him a job as a runner to help deliver next year’s players for meetings and as clients. He was asking me the best ways to protect himself and his interests, and how to parlay it into a job as an agent with one of the sports agencies. In other words, business was going on as usual—right there at the conference that was specifically designed to stop it.

  One of the lecturers was well-respected Villanova law professor David Caudill, whose research and scholarly interest is focused on sports and entertainment law. During the question-and-answer portion, he said the perspective I was providing was invaluable to the coaches and athletic directors and that any school that did not take advantage of the opportunity for me to speak to their student athletes is foolish. Then he asked if he could be my booking agent … to much laughter from the crowd. Professor Maureen Weston of Pepperdine’s School of Law, also on the panel, asked me to speak at her school in Malibu and I agreed.

  Before the conference, Mike Powell from the Texas secretary of state’s office and I discussed the proposed Texas law on agent conduct and his office’s commitment to protecting the universities and athletes in Texas from agents and runners. I didn’t hear any more from the dean. He ducked out shortly after the introductions and didn’t return.

  An April 1, I was on a panel at Fordham University’s School of Law in New York City: Agents, Amateurism and Accountability: Legal and Ethical Questions Arising from the Relationships Between Lawyer/Agents and the Amateur Athletes Seeking Their Representation. The participants: Jean Afterman, Vice President, Assistant General Manager, New York Yankees; Jared Fox, NFL Agent, SportStars, Inc.; Richard Karcher, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Law and Sports, Florida Coastal School of Law; Josh Luchs, Former NFL Agent; Fernando Tamayo, Associate, Coffey Burlington and Former International Scouting Coordinator, Boston Red Sox.

  During the conference, we were filmed for a segment of a documentary on sports agents being done by Morgan Spurlock, director-producer of Super Size Me (in which he eats nothing but McDonald’s for thirty days) and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (about product placement). His crew filmed some of the panel exchanges and then set up a one-on-one with me. The producer, Matthew Galkin, asked Jared Fox, the other agent on the panel, if he’d sign a release and be willing to be filmed, but Fox declined. Spurlock’s take on the world of sports agents, The Dotted Line, premiered on ESPN in October 2011.

  I continued to do sports and law panels, even speaking at Yeshiva University—coming full circle from paying a player with my bar mitzvah money. After that appearance, this ran on a multi–law school blog:

  Josh Luchs at New York Law School!

  Josh Luchs. Yes. THE Josh Luchs will be lecturing at New York Law School on April 28th … between 1–2pm. Do not miss out on a great opportunity to hear about the realities of the sports industry and how Mr. Luchs hopes to change it.

  I am happy to say, I think I talked some of the students out of wasting a part of their lives on this business. My parents would’ve been proud.

  It’s been interesting, even enlightening, hearing about these rules from the side of the people who attempt to police them. In my career as an agent, I knew the rules as a complex language to be learned only in order to know how to circumvent them—almost a game in itself. As it turns out, behind the rules were people sincerely trying to enforce them, but by and large, they had no idea what I, or most other agents, had been up to.

  I did another talk at the Philadephia Sports Law Conference at Temple University. On the panel with me were Herman Frazier, Senior Associate Athletic Director at Temple; and Greg Sirb, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, who is responsible for enforcing agent laws and getting agents registered. I told him and the audience I remembered receiving a letter from the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission office asking me to register and pay a fee, which I immediately threw in the trash. Greg confirmed there was nothing his office could do to mandate agent cooperation. The reason, he said, was it was the NCAA’s problem. Its members make money from athletics and therefore have the financial resources, but not the motivation, to investigate; so, in general, they don’t. On the other hand, his office, which is charged with investigation, is constrained by tight state budgets and overwhelming workloads. The organizer of the Temple event mentioned he’d asked Mark Levin of the NFLPA to participate in the panel but when Mark found out I would be there, he refused to participate and made some disparaging remarks about me. When I hear things like that, it affirms what I’m doing, opening up and telling the truth, making the powers that be uncomfortable.

  While I was in Philadelphia, I did an interview on a local morning show, Mike & Kerry, on Fox. Kerry asked, “There are some people that say, okay, this guy, he crossed the line, why is he coming out now?” She went on, “Are these the ramblings of a man who’s angry he never made it further being an agent than he did? I mean, you had one big client, Ryan Leaf.” I had an impulse to get angry; where did she, a local TV talking head, get off telling me I
was a failure? But instead, I clarified that I signed but did not end up representing Leaf. It feels good to tell the truth.

  Next stop was New York Law, where I was to deliver a lecture to a small group of law students. It happened to be the first day of the NFL draft. I took the train from Philadelphia to Penn Station and took a cab to my hotel, passing by Radio City Music Hall, where the draft was being held. I felt like an ex-addict having withdrawals. I should’ve been there. I wanted to know who was going to be picked. What teams would trade up or down. Which players would rise or fall. Who the surprises would be. I called my wife from the taxi to talk me down. I’d been hooked on the draft from the time I was a little kid, faking sickness so my mom would let me stay home from school. Any time I told her I wasn’t feeling well, she’d ask, “Is it draft day?” Now it really was draft day and instead of being there, irony of ironies, I was on my way to lecture about the injustices of the system and my role in it.

  Not long afterward, I came home to testify at the California Senate hearing in the L.A. Coliseum entitled “Protecting Student Athletes from Unscrupulous Athlete Agents.” The hearing was to gather input and support for State Senator Kevin de León’s proposed agent-athlete legislation, designed to regulate and punish improper behavior.

  The first to testify was my old acquaintance, J. J. Stokes. J. J. was sworn in and claimed he had never been offered any money from agents or received any improper benefits. I reminded him I had offered him money and he said he did not remember. He acknowledged that he had known money was available if he wanted to get it but hadn’t done so. Afterward, I brought up the Jamir Miller draft party he and other Bruins had attended and explained that since we had hosted it, by attending he’d have taken an improper benefit when he got a drink at the bar or food from the buffet. He said he paid for his own drinks. If so, he would have to have been the only person at the draft party to have done that—maybe the only person in the history of such parties.

  I highlighted an area that I believe is a major chink in the armor supposedly protecting student-athletes. The staffs at university compliance departments are paid by those universities, not by the NCAA, so self-preservation plays a role. If they look too closely into where the player got the gold chain he’s wearing it may lead to suspensions, sanctions, and possible forfeiture of games. The head coach would then call a press conference proclaiming they have the best compliance staff in the country. A little later, when the trouble is finally exposed, the compliance staff is likely to be the first to be fired and the head coach keeps his job and remains the highest-paid person at the university.

  Senator de León asked USC Vice President of Compliance Dave Roberts why the civil remedies available to the university have not been pursued in, for instance, the case of Reggie Bush receiving payments from marketing agents. Other than the “promised” return of his Heisman Trophy, Bush received no punishment, while the school serves a two-year bowl suspension and national rankings free-fall (full story follows on page 214). Roberts’s explanation was that such civil proceedings would open a Pandora’s box of possible violations, which might lead to more sanctions, and that the NCAA does not offer immunity to its member institutions. Why would a school look into one set of violations that could uncover a whole new set of violations? I compared NCAA-style amateurism to 1920s Prohibition: “As long as you have Prohibition, you’re going to have bootleggers.” And I told De León, “Everybody is a potential runner, and that includes coaches and family members and players on the team.”

  Carmen Trutanich, City Attorney of Los Angeles, testified that currently agents have “absolutely no fear” of being prosecuted under state law but that they would if De León’s agent-athlete bill were enacted. “If you’re a sports agent,” he said, “understand the cavalry has mounted.” We’ll see.

  I was also invited to attend NCAA Regional Rules Meetings, the first of which was in Arizona. I found myself at the front of a room filled with more than a hundred compliance staff from schools, some of which I had visited, and many at which I had paid players. I was ready to be treated like the least popular girl at the dance. To my surprise most of them were appreciative that I was willing to be so candid. I was left with the clear impression that these staffs are dedicated; that they want to understand how agents work, how they get around the rules; and that the more they know, the better they can do their jobs. Many of the compliance people don’t agree with all of the NCAA rules but realize they’re charged with enforcing them until such time as they change. These compliance departments are understaffed and underfunded, but well-intentioned. Again, the truth was a great weapon.

  Before the second Rules Meeting, in Tampa, I was having nightmares. I imagined talking about my experiences with Maurice Clarett in front of a very intimidating guy in a sweater vest in the front row, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. Under NCAA rules, it was mandatory he be there and he would have been … until he found himself the target of another onslaught of accusations, this time about players trading memorabilia for tattoos, gifts, and possible kickbacks, all on his watch as head coach (see Tressel story, page 222). Lucky for me, but not for him, he had more pressing matters to deal with. Part of me was relieved. But another part wondered what it would have been like; maybe interesting fireworks.

  Then, just before my appearance, the NCAA asked me to alter my presentation by removing a slide that showed a montage of recent sports investigation headlines and photos of Coach Tressel and players such as OSU’s Terrelle Pryor or Marvin Austin of UNC (see their sordid stories on pages 223 and 217). The slide was composed of information from newspapers, magazines, and the Web, nothing that isn’t available to everyone, but the NCAA felt it would be too sensitive and wanted it out. I agreed but replaced the offending slide with a blank one, and during my presentation I unsubtly said, “What I used to have here was a slide crammed full of headlines on recent alleged perpetrators, but I was ‘encouraged’ to remove it, and I did.” I’d been invited to tell the truth … as long as it didn’t hurt certain people’s feelings. In any case, my section of the discussion elicited very good feedback, though the Q&A was short. One compliance officer from Ohio State claimed to have never read my Sports Illustrated article. I find that hard to believe, not because I think my personal story is so fascinating but because it’s critical information for anyone whose job is compliance with NCAA, NFLPA, university, or state regulations. Besides, Ohio State had publicly responded to the Santonio Holmes mention in the article, saying they’d investigated the matter and were satisfied with the explanation Holmes had provided. I am beginning to learn that’s largely because compliance people don’t want to ask or answer a lot of specific questions in front of their peers, or bosses, or, most importantly, NCAA staff.

  Not all the problems were due to lack of effort, though. At the National Association of Athletic Compliance (NAAC) convention in Orlando, I was on a panel, moderated by Jon Fagg, Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Arkansas, that addressed all aspects of regulation, conduct, and enforcement.

  NCAA Vice President for Enforcement Julie Roe Latch—and a former college basketball player—was the keynote speaker on the topic of integrity. Given my history, she was a tough act to follow. It was if I were the counterpoint to what she’d been preaching. If you liked Julie Latch on integrity, you’ll love Josh Luchs on deceit, fraud, and corruption.

  And I was first up on a panel comprising besides me: NCAA Director of Agent, Gambling, and Amateurism Activities Rachel Newman Baker and Associate Athletic Director for Compliance at the University of Alabama, Mike Ward. Rachel talked about the NCAA broadening the definition of the term “agent” to include more participants in the process, a good intention but not particularly current or well defined. She also touched on trends in college sports, but they were hardly new to me: draft parties, which we’d been conducting since the 1990s. Third parties calling themselves brand managers, advisors, strategic coaches, or any other label that allows outsiders to make a buck on the
backs of college stars. An alternative to high school football called 7 on 7 that serves as a college recruiting process—essentially a marketplace where young talent can be reviewed and auctioned off like on a commodities floor—and makes the people behind it very rich, bringing agenting, even if it’s not called that, down to the high school level. This is what I suspected the Bob Leinart–Chuck Price–Gary Wichard Air 7 collaboration was going to be all about.

  After the panel I had a chance to speak privately with Mike Ward about the conflict of interest inherent in coaches’ agents also representing players from the same school. He agreed that it was a conflict and said that Alabama coach Nick Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton won’t represent ’Bama players for that reason. I replied that Sexton may not, but his partners do. In fact, this year’s ESPN NFL draft-day Green Room coverage featured Saban with his players alongside—guess who? Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton.

  I’m scheduled for more law school panels and more NCAA meetings. I’m doing as many as I can possibly fit into my schedule … while trying to make a living at my career in real estate. I’ve found something that turns me on as much as recruiting players: telling the truth about recruiting players.