“Yes. I received plane rides and lodging my freshman year. On the advice of Mr. Morris, I paid for that. We have a letter from the NCAA that says that all past acts are forgiven, which would include that. I also received $100 from a booster at a tailgate party at Michigan State. I returned the money as soon as it was handed to me. If you want more examples, talk to Mr. Morris,” I explained.
“You’ve never received any offers like the one you received last week?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“Are you aware of anyone else receiving incentives of any kind?”
She was a bulldog.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. There was an incident at a football camp I attended about two-and-a-half years ago. I recorded a transaction that occurred between a quarterback and representative of a university.”
I told them what had happened at Elite Quarterback Camp and my capturing Mark, ‘the jerk,’ taking money in the locker room. He’d been asked to leave the camp.
“Do you know if this was ever reported to anyone?” she asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” I admitted.
“Do you still have the video?”
“Yes. Give me a second, and I’ll email it to Ms. Dixon.”
I connected to my cloud storage and forwarded the video. I’d never deleted it because I might someday need it. It looked like today was that day.
“From what I see on the videos, this would interest the FBI. I’m going to suggest that we get out in front of this and have you and your dad sit down with them. Of course, I would be at the meeting. Can I call you directly to set it up?” Ms. Addison asked.
“No. Call Lexi, my PA. I’ve got a busy filming schedule, and I don’t have my phone on set. Lexi knows when I have free time and can arrange when we can talk or meet,” I said.
“Bev, your thoughts?” Ms. Dixon asked.
“I think Ms. Addison has everything under control. I’m available if you want to bounce anything off me. As it happens, I do have some time free since we’ve transferred most of my duties to one of my assistant state’s attorneys.
“I’m looking forward to coming aboard at the first of the year.
“And David … I hope you don’t continue to get yourself into these types of situations,” Bev said.
“Believe me, I try not to. I’m just glad you’re around to bail me out. At least this time, the police didn’t think I was a gang member,” I said.
Her daughter had been arrested at a party for underage drinking. I’d had to call Bev to help get Harper out of jail. As it happened, I’d worn a leather jacket that evening, and still had the tattoos from filming
“It was easier when you were just a gangbanger. Now I have to get back to work,” Bev said, and then hung up.
“One last question. Did you let the shoe representative pay for your dinner?” Ms. Addison asked.
“No, I made sure that we paid for my meal and my dad’s drinks. I have the receipt. I’ll have it scanned and emailed to you,” I assured them.
Ms. Addison then dropped off the call.
“I have a call into the NCAA,” Mr. Morris, my sports attorney, said.
He used to work for the NCAA before going back into private practice. Now his firm specialized in helping athletes and institutions when they had a problem with the NCAA. Ms. Dixon had hired him when the NCAA questioned my eligibility. The main problem had been that I modeled clothes for Range Sports. We’d brokered a deal that all past transgressions were forgiven in exchange for help I might provide them in the future.
“Are you worried they might cause us more problems?” Dad asked.
“Probably not, because technically David hasn’t done anything against the rules. He’s reporting the bad actors as soon as they approach him. That doesn’t mean that some idiot won’t take it upon themselves to throw a monkey wrench into the works. We are talking about a huge bureaucracy that’s only interested in its member institutions and not the athletes.”
I chuckled. I wondered how Mr. Morris really felt about the NCAA.
Despite the agreement we’d already reached with the NCAA, I was reasonably sure that we would have a battle over the rights to my image in the future. We hadn’t pushed that yet, but I was confident it was coming. Since I made a living modeling and acting in movies, my image was something I had to protect. One of the ways universities, conferences, bowl games, shoe companies, TV, and ultimately, the NCAA made money was through using student-athletes’ images without reimbursing them. When you signed a National Letter of Intent, you gave up rights to your image in exchange for a scholarship to pay for your education and room, board, books, etc. The problem was, the rights athletes give up usually weren’t limited to their sports image.
“Are you still worried about David reporting this?” Dad asked.
The other day he’d said he was worried I might have problems if I did.
