On Friday, rookies report to Cleveland for the start of the 2010 season. It remains to be seen whether the legs sprouted by the rapidly unfolding story of agents paying college players will continue to churn up new stuff once training camps open.
Until then, the legs are moving like pistons in a Porsche.
The latest? A party held at the Miami home of 49ers running back Frank Gore could be the epicenter of the current controversy. Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal reports that the NCAA is investigating whether agents, financial advisers, and/or runners paid for multiple elite players to attend Gore’s party.
Gore admitted to Mullen that he hosted the party, but Gore said that he didn’t know whether the guests included North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin, South Carolina right end Weslye Saunders, or Alabama defensive tackle Marcel Dareus.
“I don’t even know those guys,” Gore said. “There were a lot of people there; it was crazy.”
Gore also said that no agent, financial adviser, and/or runner paid for the party at Gore’s home. “I paid for my own party,” Gore said.
Mullen reports that, in all, players from at least five FBS (i.e., Division I-A) programs are being investigated for receiving cash or other benefits from persons other than the FBS programs, which profit from the labor and bodies of the players while giving them merely “an education.”
