“Not yet. Those women have gone through enough. If we can’t tie Brandon to any of this, we’ll go further. Also, see if you can get me the private contact information for the federal judge who was one of the girls’ dads. He might be able to get more done than we can.”
“I suspect he’s motivated like you are. I’ll get them working on it.”
◊◊◊
Halle and I made sure Bandit was in the room with us this time. She couldn’t find any marks on my butt where her mom had spanked me. I was a little irritated when she left her own handprint on my butt. Halle’s eyes got big when she saw I planned to leave my mark on hers. Evil woman! She somehow used her feminine wiles to distract me from my revenge.
◊◊◊ Thursday February 4
We closed on the strip mall. Caryn called me at lunchtime to give me the good news.
“There’s something else I need to tell you. We have an appointment at Ms. Dixon’s office to talk about your application to the NCAA. Her firm has outside counsel who specializes in amateurism issues; she said he needs to interview you. I agreed we’d meet him in Chicago on Saturday morning.”
“Yeah, we need to get this done. Did Ms. Dixon say if there were any issues that I should be worried about?” I asked.
“A couple, but you don’t need to concern yourself about that. She said this guy used to work for the NCAA and knows all the ins and outs. She said he wasn’t particularly worried, but wanted you to tell him everything so he could make sure you could play ball.”
“Perfect. I don’t want to deal with any more issues right now. My plate is full, and then some. I want you and Ms. Dixon to just bring me into the loop if there’s a problem. I’ll assume that everything is good unless you tell me otherwise.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Careful, I’m sure you can be replaced,” I teased.
“Well, in fact, you can’t fire me. Your dad would have to do it, and he likes me.”
“Hey, if we’re going to be in Chicago, why don’t you see if you can make an appointment to talk to Jack Mass? We need to invest my money,” I said.
“Good plan. I’ll want your dad there for that meeting,” Caryn said.
Then I had a revelation: I could talk to Bev Mass about my Brandon problem. She could at least advise me as to what the proper course of action would be to nail his butt. Trying to do this the right way sucked. Part of me wanted to just drive over to Rigby, Thompson and Associates and kick his ass.
“Could you also see if his wife is available? I need to ask her for some advice.”
“What about?” Caryn asked.
“It’s personal, but I need some legal advice that she’s well suited to help me with.”
Caryn knew that Bev Mass was the Cook County State’s Attorney.
“I’m afraid to ask, but what did you do?”
“It wasn’t me, honest. Just let Bev know it’s serious and I really need her help.”
Thank God, Caryn wasn’t like the other women in my life. She let it go and promised to get everything arranged for this weekend.
◊◊◊
Before going to bed, I checked my emails. Several coaches from around the country touted their recruiting classes. I figured I would go to one of the scouting sites for high school football to get an unbiased opinion on how well they’d done.
What I found was that the blue bloods of football dominated. I looked at 247Sports’ composite rating for the 25 best players at each position. I also looked at the 5-Star recruits. The 5-Star recruits could have a profound impact on a team.
I started by conference by division.
Rank
Conference / Division
Avg Rating
Avg
Stars
1
SEC West
0.9800
4.9
2
Big Ten East
0.9622
4.7
3
SEC East
0.9530
4.65
4
ACC Atlantic
0.9516
4.6
5
Big 12
0.9516
4.6
Then I looked at individual schools and how they rated.
Rank
School
Avg Rating
Avg Stars
5-Star Recruits
1
Alabama
0.9285
4.45
3
2
Florida State
0.9171
4.25
1
3
LSU
0.9160
4.25
2
4
Ohio State
0.9157
4.2
2
5
Georgia
0.9148
4.2
3
6
USC
0.9111
4.2
2
Once I had that data, I had to check out which schools my friends whom I’d made at various camps had signed with.
Player
From
Pos
School
Jim Ball
Lincoln High
OT
Alabama
Dan Berger
Phoenix, AZ
WR
Elite 11
Alabama
Todd Davis
King HS
LB
5-Star Recruit
Alabama
Wes Hunt
Phoenix, AZ
QB
Elite 11
5-Star Recruit
Alabama
Chuck Tess
Greenville, SC
QB
Elite Camp
Clemson
Terry Halstead
Syracuse, NY
WR
Elite 11
Clemson
Justin Dampier
Las Vegas, NV
WR
Elite 11
Florida State
Kyle Drexler
Ocala, FL
QB
Elite Camp
Florida State
Felix ‘Flee’ Johnson
Miami, FL
QB
Elite 11
Northwestern
Oliver Williams
Phoenix, AZ
OT
Michigan
Ben Luck
Springfield, MO
QB
Missouri
Jim Butler
Dallas, TX
WR
Elite 11
Ohio State
Tim ‘Cadillac’ Rogers
Dallas, TX
QB
Elite 11
Stanford
Roland Thibodaux
Houma, LA
QB
Elite 11
UCLA
Craig Hendricks
San Diego, CA
WR
Elite 11
USC
I sent them all congratulatory text messages and called a couple before it was time to go to bed. The rest I would call over the next few days.
◊◊◊ Saturday February 6
