[SI] "I Will Never Forget The First Time I Paid A Player"

im sure the NCAA will go the NBA route and make him out to be a rogue type, citing he was suspended and isnt credible. sure sounds credible too me. not that its a surprise or anything that players get paid.

 

It'd be pretty tough considering the number of former players who owned up to getting paid. The list at the bottom of the article is pretty long.

The article does sound pretty legit. I'm sure the editors of SI had the author run down as many names as possible to confirm the story.

 

Sounds pretty legit and there's a bunch of details regarding the verification efforts at the end of th estory.

 

Great article....

DD

 

I don't think anybody can say any of this comes as a surprise. It's all a part of the sport.....an ugly side, but a side nonetheless.

 

Awesome article.

The Kids aren't the victims.

 

ESPN looking into Mel Kiper's relationship with Gary Wichard

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on October 12, 2010 4:13 PM ET

The Sports Illustrated tell-all article on the sports agent industry has already created a problem for one of its subjects.

ESPN tells Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal that they are looking into allegations that agent Gary Wichard and Mel Kiper's relationship is a little too cozy.

"We just learned of the story today and are looking into it," ESPN's statement read.

In the excellent article by George Dohrmonn, former sports agent Josh Luchs recalls a story where Wichard arranged for Kiper to call during a meeting in 2000 with Stanford defensive lineman Willie Howard.

"Gary and I were talking to Willie in Gary's office when Gary's phone rang, and he put it on speakerphone," Luchs recalls. "'Viper, how are you?' Gary said. That's what he called Mel, Viper or Vipe. 'Viper, I'm sitting here with the best defensive lineman in college football. Do you know who that is?'

'You must be with Willie Howard,' Mel said."
This isn't the first time there have been questions raised about Kiper's relationships with Wichard. PFT wrote an article back in April about Kiper's ranking of Jimmy Clausen as his top prospect at quarterback. Clausen was a Wichard client.

In an article for the Washington Post, Kiper admitted that he's friends with many agents but denied any favoritism.

"I don't shill for anybody," Kiper said.

Kiper denied Luch's version of the Howard story to SI, saying there wasn't a prearranged call. He says he has similar conversations with players for many agents. Howard, on the other hand, said Kiper called, confirming Luch's story.

Whether Kiper's evaluations are unbiased or not, the story presents a major problem for the draft guru. ESPN must consider whether they want one of their analysts helping agent friends to land clients.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...to-mel-kipers-relationship-with-gary-wichard/

From Lance Zierlein's twitter

Kiper's ratings on Oct. 21st of future Wichard clients w/ actual draft spot in parenthesis: Clausen - 12th (48), T.Mays - 4th (49)

More Kiper ratings of Wichard clients: Benn: 18-20th (in Dec. 2009) (39), Everson Griffen: 11th (100)

Maybe Wichard is working off Mel's ratings or maybe Kiper hypes Wichard guys. I know other agents believed Kiper was in Wichard's pocket

www.twitter.com/lancezierlein

 

The Kiper-Wichard thing has been making the rounds for a little while now and this article did a good job of shedding some light on it. If anyone (who still had) has respect for Kiper and his draft ratings after this then they need their head checked.

Excellent article though. Not all NFL agents engage in the same actions but a number do.

 

Leaf was 5k in debt at age 20?

Its pretty sad but I'd bet the over on that NOW.

 

I hope luch's writes a book. I don't see how he will be able to get a job anywhere.

 

Yeah put that in the same Category as " Doesn't surprise me "

 

It's ugly because they make it ugly. These guys should be getting paid anyway.

 

Free education/room&board/training=slavery?

I think there are a lot of African slaves sitting in the afterlife thinking "DAMN! If only I could have been a 21st century slave!"

 

Not slavery but the system certainly isn't fair, at least for the star athletes. If I'm Reggie Bush then I'm pissed that I can barely afford to take someone on a date even though half the campus is rocking my jersey. "Free" room and board doesn't compare to the $$ these programs make off of these kids, especially not when you quantify it with the hours that they WORK to play ball.*

 

Which guys do you think should be getting paid? It's really easy to say that athletes are making the schools big bucks, but even on the best teams, it's usually just a handful of players that are actually the big draws. Should every player on the roster be getting paid?

And how is this different from a situation where a group of undergraduate or graduate students may be playing an important role in some research project that's making the university a boatload of money? Should they be getting paid accordingly, too?

 

If all it takes is $500/mo to 'corrupt' Reggie Bush, I can't see why some reasonable stipend couldn't be paid to all who make a division I football team. No need to pay them 'market.' No need for differential amounts.

Say 60 players at $500/month x 8 months = $250K per team. Doesn't seem too onerous for a Div 1 team.

 

it'll never happen, although i agree it should.