by Josh Luchs
Hours before the Sports Illustrated story would break, with rumors of its explosive content all over the sports blog-o-sphere, the athletic department and the university president had a talk with their coach. On Memorial Day, Jim Tressel “decided” to resign.
What will be the ultimate punishment for Ohio State? For Jim Tressel? For stars like Terrelle Pryor? Will the school be stripped of its 2010 Big Ten Championship? Will the university’s athletic director be sacrificed, or the president? Or … will Ohio State, home of the Buckeyes, one of the iconic teams in college football, a stalwart of the NCAA, be given a slap on the wrist? Will it all be swept under the rug as were the allegations of Maurice Clarett?
As of this writing, the answers are: 1) In what may be the first step on the road back to coaching, Jim Tressel was hired by the Indianapolis Colts as, what ESPN.com writer Tim Keown called, “the most over-qualified replay-reviewer in the history of professional football,” and given a self-imposed suspension of not five games like his former players, but one for good measure, six games. 2) Terrelle Pryor elected to forfeit his senior year, enter the NFL Supplemental Draft, and was selected by the Raiders in the third round. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Pryor would not be able to play the first five games of the pro season. Goodell wouldn’t acknowledge they were mirroring the NCAA punishment but said the decision was to prevent circumventing the rules of the pro draft. (Since when did the NCAA rules become the NFL rules? It’s a dangerous road to travel.) 3) OSU preemptively offered self-imposed penalties: Jim Tressel’s exit, “vacating” the entire 2010 season including the Big Ten Championship and Sugar Bowl win, and serving a two-year NCAA probation. 4) In August of 2011, the NCAA held hearings during which OSU officials testified on the entire case, enumerated their self-imposed penalties, and added another—donation of the school’s share of the Sugar Bowl revenue of $338,000 to charity. The NCAA will now deliberate for up to twelve weeks before reaching their final conclusion on whether those sacrifices are enough or more should be added. They could ban Ohio State from one more bowl game or limit their recruiting or worse. They could hit them with “lack of institutional control,” for which they can lose scholarships, wins, and most painfully, sports revenues, (second only to the “death penalty” or being banned from playing a sport). But the NCAA has said that charge is off the table. It was on the table for USC and UNC. Why not for OSU? Good question.
The scandals just keep coming. In July 2010, Alabama defensive tackle Marcell Dareus was investigated by the school along with the NCAA about his attending a party in Miami hosted by a sports agent, a clear violation. In September, he was suspended by the NCAA and required to repay almost $2,000 in impermissible benefits as a contribution to charity.
Georgia receiver A. J. Green was suspended for the first four games of the 2010 season by the NCAA for selling his 2009 Independence Bowl jersey for $1,000 to former UNC defensive back Chris Hawkins, who the NCAA determined to be an agent or person who markets amateur athletes.
After a report revealed the Fiesta Bowl CEO had engaged in extravagant spending and inappropriate use of funds, he was fired and the Bowl Championship Series threatened to end ties with the game. Ultimately, they opted to fine the Fiesta Bowl $1 million and maintain the relationship.
Four former Auburn players went on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and admitted they’d received thousands of dollars from boosters, in $100 handshakes and specially filled book bags, while being recruited by or playing for the Tigers. The show’s producer had sent me an e-mail that this special was, in part, fueled by my appearance with Bernard Goldberg, which had spurred their interest to dig further.
Willie Lyles, the football trainer-scout, came under NCAA investigation for receiving $25,000 from University of Oregon coach Chip Kelly for player information and for allegedly telling Texas A&M to “beat” $80,000 to sign Patrick Peterson in 2007. Willie went public with his version of the story, also inspired, he says, by my confessions.
And rest assured, right now, as you read this, the next scandal is already happening. In fact, just before going to press with this book, just when some thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. College sports reached a new low … again.
NEVIN SHAPIRO: PONZI SCHEME PERPETRATOR, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI BOOSTER, AND THE MOST BRAZEN RULE VIOLATOR IN THE HISTORY OF THE NCAA
August 2011: Yahoo! Sports reporter Charles Robinson broke the story of Nevin Shapiro, jailed for conducting a $930 million Ponzi scheme and also guilty, by his own account, of using millions of his ill-gotten wealth to illegally recruit Miami Hurricane prospects, lavishly entertain star players, and later lure them to his sports agency.
The scope of Shapiro’s actions is staggering: showering improper benefits—money, gifts, trips, parties, prostitutes, and bounties or rewards for injuring opposing teams—on as many as seventy-two players, with the knowledge and even participation of various university officials, coaches, and trainers, from 2002 to 2010.
Shapiro’s involvement with the Hurricanes began with Willis McGahee in the NCAA-approved “living scholar” program, in which a booster pays the scholarship for a player and develops a one-on-one relationship. Shapiro came to know other players and soon inherited the paternalistic role once held by entertainer Luther Campbell, notorious for supplying cash to Miami players in the 1980s and ’90s. “His role was diminished by the NCAA and the school, and someone needed to pick up that mantle … He was ‘Uncle Luke,’ and I became ‘Little Luke,’ ” said Shapiro.
Among the marquee players in his flock were defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, linebacker Jon Beason, wide receivers Andre Johnson and Devin Hester, tight end Kellen Winslow Jr., safety Antrel Rolle, and defensive end Andrew Williams. “Everything started when I gave some Miami Heat basketball tickets to Andrew Williams,” Shapiro said. Williams denied receiving the tickets but Shapiro says he later bought a big-screen TV for Williams and subsequently met Williams’s roommates, defensive ends Cornelius Green and Jerome McDougle, on whom he also bestowed material benefits. Eight former Miami players or recruits confirmed they’d gotten such benefits, including running back Tyrone Moss, who Shapiro says he entertained on his $1.6-million yacht and gave $1,000 in cash. Moss said, “Yeah … It was me and a few more of the guys in my incoming class that he kind of showed some love to.”
Along the way, Shapiro paid $1.5 million for a 30 percent interest in a sports agency, Axcess Sports & Entertainment, with a partner, then-NFL agent Michael Huyghue. Axcess signed two first-round picks, Wilfork and Beason. Huyghue wooed the players with money and other goodies, notably $50,000 in one chunk to Wilfork. Huyghue’s pedigree, so to speak, was GM of the Birmingham Fire of the now-defunct World League of American Football, Vice President with the Detroit Lions, Senior Vice President with the Jacksonville Jaguars, associate of David Dunn at his Athletes First agency, and later Commissioner of the UFL.
Shapiro’s activities could flaunt four key NCAA rules—bylaw 11, impermissible compensation to coaches; bylaw 12, dealing with amateurism; bylaw 13, improper recruiting; and bylaw 16, extra benefits to athletes—and could even go beyond the statute of limitations, allowable when there is “a pattern of willful violations” over a period longer than four years.
When asked about the allegations, the school, via Associate Athletic Director Chris Freet, gave the stock university-under-suspicion response: “We are fully cooperating with the NCAA and are conducting a joint investigation. We take these matters very seriously.”
The specific incidents Yahoo! Sports uncovered read like a how-to manual on corrupting college sports. At least seventy-two players involved, seven coaches, and three support staff are accused of receiving improper benefits or of witnessing or playing a part in the improper actions.
• Violating NCAA rules with the knowledge or help of six coaches. In football, Clint Hurtt, Jeff Stoutland, and Aubrey Hill escorted top recruits to Shapiro’s home or box to pitch them. Some signed with Miami (Ray-Ray Armstrong, Dyron Dye, and Olivier Vernon
) and some did not (Andre Debose, Matt Patchan, Orson Charles, and Jeffrey Godfrey). The coaches and/or their current schools refused to comment. In basketball, Shapiro made similar accusations about coaches Frank Haith, Jake Morton, and Jorge Fernandez and they too either denied the charges or did not respond.
• Shapiro claims to have provided prostitutes for thirty-nine Miami players or prospects, though the names have not been revealed. So far, two players have confirmed Shapiro paid for sexual favors for themselves and others when they played for the Hurricanes, often at luxurious parties at South Beach’s Mercury Hotel. Shapiro said he paid cash for the rooms and registered under his alias, Teddy Dupay (the actual name of a smallish basketball player Shapiro thought he ressembled). Yahoo! Sports found debit-card expenditures at the Mercury Hotel between major Miami games. Shapiro said, “In 2002 and 2003 we were really rocking it for a while and it was just out of control. But I decided to get away from the regular Mercury Hotel situations. I was getting too old for that kind of thing, and I had the boat for prostitution situations.”
• Shapiro said he never had a player “payroll” but often gave cash to players at his house in Miami Beach. This was corroborated by the former CFO in the Ponzi-scheme company, Capitol Investments. Shapiro also held tournaments in which players could win money for fishing, bowling, and playing pool. And in 2002, as Luther Campbell had done, Shapiro set up a bounty program, rewarding players for the “hit of the game” or “big plays” against major rival teams and star players. Bounty targets included Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and Seminoles quarterback Chris Rix: $5,000 if you could knock them out of the game. Three former players recall the bounty system. “We pounded the [expletive] out of that kid,” Shapiro said of Rix. “Watch the tape of those games … [Jon] Vilma tried to kill him—just crushed him … trying to get that $5,000.”
• All kinds of gifts—jewelry, watches, engagement rings, diamond-studded dog tags, clothing, SUV rims, plane tickets, televisions—were lavished on players to celebrate wins or as recruiting inducements for Axcess Sports.
• Shapiro had two Miami Beach residences—a large $2.7-million home with a pool and a $6.1-million coastal Mediterranean estate—both open to the players to hang out, watch sports, eat, drink, and bring their friends. Plus, Shapiro’s $1.6-million yacht was available for fishing, leisure trips, and prostitution. And several times a week, Shapiro would take large groups of players to strip clubs and night clubs—Solid Gold, the Cheetah, Pink Pony, Tootsie’s Cabaret, Mansion—and Shapiro’s entourage always went into the VIP section. “We rocked Mansion so many times, I couldn’t even count them,” Shapiro said. “And I never went in there once without players …” Shapiro also picked up the tab for players’ meals at Prime 112, Grazie, Prime Italian, Benihana, and other restaurants.
• Shapiro provided players housing on his yacht, in his homes, or in his rental properties—players including Devin Hester, running back Graig Cooper, tight end Kevin Everett, Vince Wilfork, and linebacker Tavares Gooden.
• Once, Shapiro paid for a player to go to the Pink Pony strip club and paid a dancer to have sex with the player. Later, when the dancer claimed to be pregnant, Shapiro gave her $500 for an abortion. “I was doing him a favor,” said Shapiro. “That idiot might have wanted to keep [the baby].”
• Axcess Sports, his agency with Huyghue, was a funnel for players. Shapiro would introduce players to Huyghue and then leave it to his partner to close—a classic runner-agent operation. From that point on, according to Shapiro, Huyghue provided whatever financial benefits it took to make the deal. Huyghue denies the claims but some key players support it.
• Shapiro’s stake in Axcess almost did him in. Drunk at halftime, with Miami losing 31-0 to Virginia, Shapiro spotted the university’s head of compliance, David Reed, and ripped into him, blaming him for scrutinizing the program too much and causing the school’s sports decline. Reed, in turn, instigated a background check on booster Shapiro’s connection to a professional sports agency.
All the while, Shapiro was a big supporter of the school and its sports programs, a major donor; despite his improper behavior with players, he was cultivated and treated like royalty by the highest officials at the university. He was allowed to run with the team out of the tunnel and was honored on the field by former Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee. (Dee, now the chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, was known for his scolding of USC on the Reggie Bush scandal, saying, “… high-profile players demand high-profile compliance.” And in 2007, he chastised Long Beach College President Leonard Alexander for basketball infractions, saying, “You have to put in place the kind of institutional control we have at Miami.” No comment.) In 2008, Shapiro made a $250,000 pledge for an athlete lounge named in his honor and donated $50,000 to the basketball program. In a photo that captures the whole ugly scenario, Shapiro is at the microphone next to Coach Haith, for whom Shapiro says he bought a recruit, and in the background is President Donna Shalala (former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton), smiling at the check he had just written with money made in his Ponzi scheme. Shapiro says, “If they had hired a private investigator for a day … it would have been over in five minutes. You would have had all the information you needed. Follow me to a nightclub or a strip club. Lunches. Dinners. The boat. Hotels for parties … These guys were at my house. There was all kinds of [expletive] going on in. Gambling. Pool tournaments. Prostitution. Drinking.”
Why wasn’t anyone suspicious? Why weren’t his actions questioned? Why did David Reed’s background check go nowhere? Shapiro says it’s simply because the University of Miami didn’t want to know. The same reason schools always look the other way. The booster is … boosting, supporting the school, being a big promoter, donating, saying good things about Miami. There’s nothing wrong with recruiting good kids. Unless, of course, you break rules to do it. And if that happens, they don’t want to know.
Nevin Shapiro’s story is a lot like all the rest. But this time it’s bigger, uglier, and more flagrant. The dollars have more zeroes; the behavior has almost no limits; and the rules haven’t been broken—they’ve been shattered. The University of Miami will see people punished—some players, coaches, administrators, maybe even the president. But, I predict, once again, nothing will be done to change the long-term outcome for amateur sports.
CHAPTER 10
Can This Sport Be Saved?
But what comes of all of this attention, all the hand-wringing, head-shaking, woe-is-sports? What do we do about it? I certainly do not claim to have magic answers. But I have some ideas. And I have some opinions on some of the ideas I’ve heard from other experts. I am, above all, a skeptic. I put every potential solution to two tests: First, can agents and other people with an agenda find a way around it? Can guys like me beat the system? Does it really improve anything or just put a little cosmetic cover on the acne? And second, is it fair? Does the fix give an unfair edge to one school, or type of school, over another?
I want to preface my discussion of solutions by reiterating that my experiences are limited to football, the only sport I was involved in. From what I understand the world of basketball is littered with behavior that may make football players and football agents look like Boy Scouts. Unlike baseball players, who have the option to pass on college and immediately start their professional careers in the minor leagues, or basketball players, who can be “one and done” (one year of college or at least nineteen years old), using college or overseas ball as a brief stopover on the way to the NBA, football players are in a different, much more restrictive environment. Currently, after high school, it’s either play college football (essentially, the unpaid minor league system of the NFL), or nothing. Athletes can’t declare themselves eligible for the NFL until they are at least three years removed from high school. If they did nothing in that time period, they would lose their skills. No international or minor-league alternative exists. It’s play for a college team or what … pla
y semi-pro? Other than Eric Swann, the defensive tackle drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 1991, and the occasional former soccer player turned place-kicker, the number of noncollege or semi-pro players in the NFL is as close to zero percent as you can get.
And the system is hard, if not impossible, to challenge. Maurice Clarett, who was arguably the rare talent ready to play in the NFL after his freshman year, fought the rule in court, won, then lost on appeal. No surprise that the billion-dollar enterprise prevailed in the courts, maintaining what I believe to be an oppressive, monopolistic system. Maurice, deprived by that ruling of utilizing his best talents, was left in the cold to survive while sitting out and waiting, He never had good judgment, but he might have succeeded anyway if not for the restrictive draft rules. The undeniable fact is, football players have no alternative available. It’s the NCAA or nothing.
The fixes for college football fall into two basic categories: 1) better policing of the system as it stands and 2) changing the system. Actually, there’s a third category: Ignoring the problem. That’s the route that has been taken to date, with an occasional dash of number one to keep the media and outraged citizens at bay.
Better Policing
Right now, the various regulatory bodies—NCAA, NFLPA, and the individual states—provide rules, and some laws, that are meant to govern behavior. In my opinion, if they were all enforced, we’d still have a huge problem: injustice. Screwing the geese who lay the golden eggs, the so-called student-athletes, aka indentured servants. Players make college football a success. The schools get all the money. The players get nothing. That’s injustice. According to Richard Karcher, professor of sports law at Florida Coastal School of Law, it’s an ideal, if cynical, economic model. An institution gets to make a fortune and doesn’t have to pay its workforce. Zero labor costs (other than scholarships, which the institutions also hand out for academics, need, diversity, and other reasons). How ecstatic would General Motors be with a no-labor-cost model? Or Apple? Or Walmart?