Junior Year Box Set полностью

“At that point, we begin to answer any questions they might have. Our best approach is to both be prepared for what they might ask and answer any obvious questions right away. We want you to come across as 100 percent transparent and forthcoming. Trust me, we do not want to look like we’re hiding anything.

“Once we’ve answered all their questions, and both we and the NCAA are satisfied with your answers, the case is forwarded to the Academic and Membership Affairs staff. They will determine whether the facts presented constitute a violation. At that point, the answers can no longer be changed. That is, of course, unless new information becomes available that could not have been obtained earlier.

“Once they’re done, we should be good,” Mr. Morris said.

“Unless they find against you,” Ms. Dixon chimed in.

“Which they likely won’t, with me working the case,” Mr. Morris said with confidence.

“So, what’s next?” Dad asked.

“I need to interview David. It’ll probably take a couple of hours.”

“I think we should go shopping,” Ms. Dixon told my mom.

Of course, Mom agreed. Dad and Caryn stayed.

Mr. Morris wanted a chronological listing of my activities since freshman year. I pulled out my tablet, brought up the calendar, and began working my way through everything. Mr. Morris had a video camera and put it on a little tripod to record what I said. He didn’t interrupt me unless he needed to clarify something.

I only saw him wince a few times. Receiving a private plane ride to Lexington from a Florida booster wasn’t good. Getting a part in a movie on the recommendation of a known University of Kentucky booster was also a cringe-worthy moment. The final big one was my car.

“Okay, David. Off the top of my head, you’ll have to reimburse Mr. Rigby for the flight to Lexington. Do it as soon as possible and be sure to get a receipt,” Mr. Morris told Caryn.

He took in a deep breath.

“You should be good for the movie role. You ended up getting a much better role based on your talent. The key to it being an issue would have been if the role was given to you because of your athletic skills,” Mr. Morris said.

“A big reason David got the role was his athletic skills,” Dad said, which worried me.

“Sorry, let me clarify. When I refer to his athletic skills, I mean his football or baseball skills,” Mr. Morris said and looked at his notepad. “I see he has many athletic skills that don’t impact his amateurism. Those include skiing, snowboarding, waterboarding, parachuting, wing boarding, horseback riding, surfing, jet ski, motocross, four-wheeler, swimming, martial arts, fencing, zip line, and shooting. None of those skills are of concern.”

“Oh, I’m also taking classes for SCUBA diving,” I added.

“You’re what?” Dad asked.

“Oops, I thought I told you,” I admitted.

“You better let me tell your mom.”

Good plan.

“The last biggie is the car you received from Range Sports,” Mr. Morris said. “It was bad enough they gave you a car, but to paint it your school colors and put your number on it might get you into some serious hot water. I’ll need to work on that one. In the meantime, you must give the car back and pay the going lease rate for the time you used it.”

That one hurt. I LOVED that car.

“I’ll need a copy of all of David’s contracts and financials. We’ll have to account for all his income and see what his contracts did and didn’t include,” Mr. Morris told Caryn, and then he turned to me.

“Something else I’ll be doing is going through your website and the one the school maintains for your football and baseball activities. I have to make sure there’s a clear separation between the two, that is between your own and the school’s. The same goes for all your social media accounts.

“There is something we need to address, or you’ll get into trouble for sure. When you do an interview, you should make clear what it’s about. It can be either about football or baseball, or anything else, but it can’t be about both. When I say ‘anything else,’ that means any activity that you get paid for. I need to pull the tape from your WORD interview and see if you crossed the line. You also dodged a for-sure violation when you didn’t get the role as a baseball player in The Secret Circle. If you had actually played that part, you would never have been able to play baseball in college. It’s possible you wouldn’t have been able to play football, either.

“When you’re in a football or baseball uniform, you absolutely cannot talk about anything else but those sports. That goes for the times you’re with your team or in a team activity; you cannot talk about anything else but those sports.

“What I want you to do in the future when interviewed is to pull the conversation back if it begins to blur the lines. Simply say that per NCAA rules, you can’t talk about that, or some such,” Mr. Morris said.

I would get Frank to write up some good responses for me.