There are two stories about NFL football players in today's news, both of which make you kind of shake your head, but for altogether different reasons. In fact, for nearly opposite reasons, if greed and selflessness can be thought of that way.
First, Yahoo Sports is now reporting the existence of tape recordings in the Reggie Bush case, which may prove that Bush and his family accepted gifts and cash valued at up to $280,000 while he was playing football at USC. Yahoo Sports has been on the story since April 2006. If you're just catching up, the allegations are summarized here:
Lake and Michaels told Yahoo! Sports in April 2006 that Bush and his family agreed to be partners in New Era Sports in 2004, then backed out of the venture after accepting the finances Lake and Michaels provided as part of the deal. The bulk of the benefits Lake and Michaels claim they gave to Bush and his family – including direct cash payments, rent-free living in a new home, paying off credit card debt and money for a car for Bush – were allegedly provided over a one-year period starting in late 2004.In April 2006, Yahoo! Sports first revealed allegations that Bush and his family received extra benefits, including $54,000 in rent-free living at Michaels' $757,500 home in Spring Valley, Calif., according to Michaels and San Diego attorney Brian Watkins.
Yahoo! Sports also reported the Bush family received $28,000 from New Era financiers to settle pre-existing debt, according to Michaels and Watkins. Yahoo! Sports also reported that Bush received approximately $18,000 to purchase and upgrade a car while he was still a student at USC.
Kind of puts in some perspective the $500 in cash that a booster handed to Troy Smith, and for which he was suspended and the OSU program investigated by the NCAA, doesn't it? I can come up with three reasons why this story still doesn't yet have the legs of the Troy Smith or the Maurice Clarett incidents. First, it was broken by Yahoo instead of world sports giant ESPN. Second, Reggie Bush is gone from USC, and a millionaire many times over by now anyway. Third, the media adore Pete Carroll and the USC program and this story dirties them both considerably. (And yes, I know...they're still just allegations)
It could (and should) get very ugly for USC, if the tapes are as convincing as they are purported to be. They could be stripped of the one (yes, it was just one in a row) National Championship they won, in 2004. All because greedy agents sought to exploit a star player, who also happened to have his hand out for some early spoils of stardom.
But if that story raises your level of cynicism about pro athletes and the system in which they become wealthy and famous, maybe this one takes it down a notch. Ex-Cowboy and ex-Buckeye running back Ron Springs is 50 years old now, and afflicted with type 2 diabetes. He has already lost his foot to the disease, and as Gene Garber's ESPN.com article puts it, is "waiting for a miracle."
Time will tell if it works out miraculously, but this March, Springs' friend and former teammate, Everson Walls will donate one of his kidneys to Springs, to at least give him a fighting chance. Excerpting Garber...
"I don't see him as a hero," Springs said. "Heroes are somebody that just did something to get notoriety. He is not doing it for that. He is a dear friend, and he loves me and believes in me and wants to see me have a better quality of life."This, in the hurly-burly world of professional football, constitutes an unlikely love story.
"We already know we love each other," Walls said. "I have never told Ron I love him. He has never told me he loved me. He didn't have to."
Now that's a teammate.
Posted by dan at January 28, 2007 11:32 PM