What I am surprised about is that we don't hear about it more often after that fact. What I mean is if John Doe was a 5star in college, was receiving hundred dollar hand shakes repeatedly during college, goes to the NFL draft but doesn't make it in the NFL, after he is cut from the NFL, like my pro athletes, blew all his money and is now broke, what is to stop him from selling his story to ESPN? It seems like you would here about this happing at least once a year. That is what has made me wonder if all the bag man stuff is as common as I had always assumed it was.

Reminds me of the oft quoted line that Larry Bird said to Rick Robey after Joe B. Hall visited him in the Celtics locker room ... something like:

 

Rick, that's first time someone from UK shook your hand without having a hundred dollar bill in their hand.

Agree. Out of sight, out of mind.

Greatest BBall coach of All-Time (according to some), got to the top by playing don't ask don't tell at UCLA.

Need to talk to whoever the bag men are for USF. The Snickers bars ain't cuttin' it.

Does it happen? Maybe. But, every time I hear stuff like this I think of the area high school parents/fans that think other area high schools give money to kids to transfer, they often say "it happens everywhere". It doesn't happen. So, when I hear "it happens everywhere" I sit and think silently "properly not".

Does it happen? Maybe. But, every time I hear stuff like this I think of the area high school parents/fans that think other area high schools give money to kids to transfer, they often say "it happens everywhere". It doesn't happen. So, when I hear "it happens everywhere" I sit and think silently "properly not".

 

It happens everywhere. In the SEC...

The Bag Man excuses himself to make a call outside, on his "other phone," to arrange delivery of $500 in cash to a visiting recruit. The player is rated No. 1 at his position nationally and on his way into town. We're sitting in a popular restaurant near campus almost a week before National Signing Day, talking about how to arrange cash payments for amateur athletes.

 

"Nah, there's no way we're landing him, but you still have to do it," he says. "It looks good. It's good for down the road. Same reason my wife reads Yelp. These kids talk to each other. It's a waste of money, but they're doing the same thing to our guys right now in [rival school's town]. Cost of business."

 

Technically, this conversation never happened, because I won't reveal this man's name or the player's, or even the town I visited. Accordingly, all the other conversations I had with different bag men representing different SEC programs over a two-month span surrounding National Signing Day didn't happen either.

 

 

 

Meet the Bag Man: How to buy college football players, in the words of a man who delivers the money - SBNation.com

 

Show me a top college program and I'll most likely be able to show you a school who has some shady characters at least insofar as NCAA rules go. Name a top flight school and watch responses pour in.

 

Better yet, name a school who wouldn't do the same if given the opportunity. Outside of the Ivy League, a handful of schools who care far more about their academics than athletics, and the few schools whose missions vary far from athletic success and have administration who'll stick to it, I'll bet you that there are few schools that wouldn't mind being in this "predicament".

Not only the schools, but you also have agents/lawyers who I trying to get their hands in the top athletes pockets giving them perks to sign with them. Setting up autograph sessions, selling jerseys/memorabilla, etc.