“I’m also not in the business of losing money. The quickest way to do that would be to lose my eligibility,” I reasoned.
“What if I could show you how to protect that eligibility but set yourself up for life?”
“I’m nervous even having this conversation,” I admitted.
“Would it be okay if I talked to your dad and kept you out of it?” Gordon asked.
He could tell we weren’t buying it.
“We will talk in generalities. No specifics that could come back and bite you in the butt later,” Gordon said.
Dad agreed, and they started for the bar. I stopped Dad, and when he turned to me, I stepped up and whispered, “Microphone pen!” He looked startled, then nodded and turned to follow Gordon to the bar.
I was hungry, so I ordered a big steak while I waited.
When the two of them came back, they seemed to be in a good mood. I made sure to pay for Dad and my tab. That was one rule I’d learned: you didn’t accept even a coke if you thought they were a booster of some kind. While I wasn’t sure how a shoe company fit into the whole scheme, I didn’t want to risk anything with the NCAA.
◊◊◊
We stopped at an In-N-Out Burger to get Dad an Animal-Style Double Double. Manaia had clued my dad in on In-N-Out’s ‘secret’ menu items. ‘Animal-Style’ burgers have mustard grilled into the patty, and a ‘Double Double’ was two patties with two slices of cheese plus all the trimmings. Dad was hungry because he’d not eaten while he and Gordon talked.
“They’ve got an ingenious scheme going,” he began.
“So, he was trying to pay me to go to a specific school?” I asked.
“Not a specific one, but one of the ones they have contracts with,” Dad said as he pulled out a piece of paper that listed all of their schools.
None of the schools were on my current final-four list.
“Back in the day,” Dad continued, “boosters would fund it, and the coaches would pay you. When I was a kid, there was a famous case at SMU where they paid some of the best talent to go there. ESPN did a documentary about it called
“The payments evolved to where the boosters were the ones paying players, and the coaches stayed out of it. They had schemes like having the players sell their game tickets under the table and signing sports memorabilia for a fee. And then there was the famous $100 handshake. There was even a car called the ‘Trans A&M,’ which was reportedly given to a player as compensation.
“The coaches were no longer directly handing out payments because they wanted to keep it outside of the schools. The NCAA does not have subpoena power. That means they can’t force a booster to testify, which makes it almost impossible for them to build a case if everyone keeps their mouth shut,” Dad said.
“What’s Gordon’s ingenious plan?” I asked.
“Assistant coaches don’t make near the money that head football coaches make. Springbok pays them to bird-dog talent and send the players their way. He said if you researched a list of the top recruiters at some schools, at least some of them probably were dealing with a shoe company,” Dad explained.
“Bo Harrington warned me that I might have to cut ties with Range Sports because the shoe companies wouldn’t be happy,” I said. “I haven’t had anyone from the shoe companies like Nike or Adidas tell me I can’t work with Range. But that could be because I’m already looking at schools they sponsor.”
Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour would be happy if I went to one of their schools. Once I picked where I was going, I was sure they would want to have ‘the talk.’
“Gordon made that suggestion when we were alone. He said that if you were to go to one of the Springbok schools, you would have to cut ties with Range,” Dad admitted.
No teenager likes to hear they can’t do something. For me, Range Sports had given me my break and stood by me when I was in the avalanche and with my mom’s cancer. Yes, Devin and I’d had our falling out about him and my women, but I counted Sandy as one of my closest friends in the business. And I was on better terms with Devin since he married Pam’s sister. There wasn’t anything that would make me ‘cut ties’ with Range until I enrolled in college when the NCAA rules would kick in.
“How does it work?”
“The assistant coaches point them to the players they want. Gordon has a sit-down with the parents and sometimes the player. Springbok has partnered with agents and financial advisors. When you finish your eligibility, you’d be expected to sign with all three in return for the up-front payments,” Dad explained.
“How much are we talking?” I asked.
Dad smirked and handed me a piece of paper. It had $150,000 written on it.
“I told him you were worth way more than that. I remembered some of the numbers you and your mom told me after you talked to Bo Harrington about it. Gordon figured out he’d stepped in it and that we knew more than the average athlete’s parents would. He said that he would have to get authorization for more money. He tried the old ‘your contract might be less on the back end’ ploy,” Dad said.
