Gymnastics and swimming have their sex/rape scandals, baseball of course has its steroids scandals, cycling has doping, and now out in the open (in case you were hiding somehwhere) football doesn't just have the quick route to being the top 3 on "Dancing with the Stars", but also widspread illegal NFL recruiter-college athlete payouts breaking the NCAA regulations. Much like the pro cyclist Floyd Landis that tells all and names names after his suspension on Cycling & Doping, former NFL agent Josh Luchs spiels out the big names who accepted money from him or another NFL agent as a NCAA player - and those who didn't like Sean LaChapelle, Kansas's Dana Stubblefield, UCLA's J.J. Stokes and USC's Keyshawn Johnson - in the October 18, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated: Confessions of former NFL agent Josh Luchs - SI.com - Magazine. [QUOTE]Landing Sean gave me credibility with other players, and after him I signed fellow Bruins Carl Greenwood; Othello Henderson; Jamir Miller, who was the No. 10 overall pick in 1994; Matt *Soenksen; and Chris Alexander. I did a lot for Sean, but I never gave him money. I did, however, pay all the others. Doc and I gave them money around the first of every month. We paid quarterback Ryan Fien while he was at UCLA, and when he transferred to Idaho in 1996 we kept paying him. We gave Bruce Walker and Vaughn Parker of UCLA money too, but they didn't sign with us. I did more than just hand players cash. When Bruce was thrown in jail for shooting off a gun in L.A. [he would later plead no contest to disturbing the peace], whom do you think he called in the middle of the night to bail him out? . . Chris Mims, the Tennessee defensive end who was picked in the first round in 1992, was an L.A. kid Doc and I landed. We paid him about $500 a month during his final season in Knoxville and also paid a guy who was sort of his handler. Michigan State's Tony Banks, the first quarterback taken in the '96 draft, was another client. Doc had known Tony since he was a little kid and had represented his uncle, former USC and NFL linebacker Chip Banks. We paid Tony several hundred dollars a month. Colorado's Greg Thomas, USC's Delon Washington and Phalen Pounds, and Portland State's Darick Holmes also took our money and became clients. However, there were scores of others we paid but lost out on. *Between 1990 and '96 I'd estimate that I paid more than 30 players. Joel Steed of Colorado; Rob Waldrop, the Outland Trophy winner from Arizona; and Travis Claridge of USC all took my money but signed with someone else, as did many others. When I called those players and asked them why they didn't sign with me, they always had the same line: "Sorry, I gotta do what is best for me and my family." [/QUOTE] According to Luchs, NCAA's move to make it illegal for its athletes to accept money or any type of payout like concert tickets didn't stop the recruiters, just made them change their methods instead of their ways. Like Landis, he paints the picture of widespread corruption: [QUOTE]Agents have been giving kids money for decades. It was more open in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, before states passed sports-agent laws making it illegal. Now, agents still do it, but they are more secretive and use middlemen. Anyone who thinks it doesn't go on needs to look at all the schools currently being investigated by the NCAA for contact between players and agents, places like Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. It goes on everywhere.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]People should know how the agent business really works, how widespread the inducements to players are and how players have their hands out. It isn't just the big, bad agents making them take money. People think the NFLPA is monitoring agents, but it is mostly powerless. People should also be aware of all that an agent does for his clients. Catering to their needs can be an all-consuming job.[/QUOTE] Luchs draws a comparison to the famous 1996 movie "Jerry Maguire": [QUOTE]This was pre-Jerry Maguire, before football agents became as famous as their clients. It was not a glamorous profession and was full of guys who had fallen into it.[/QUOTE] ...But there is the same dog eat dog atmosphere, the scramble to get the big clients in both Luchs' account of the recruiting world and the movie (which is supposedly based on the true story of Orange County agent Leigh Steinberg, representing Troy Aikman in real life and the movie). The movie's catch phrase, credited to be coined by former NFL defensive back Tim MacDonald as an Arizona Cardinal, "Show me the money" rings true on so many levels. "Josh Luchs first got into the agent business at age 20 and represented more than 60 NFL players over the course of his career." (via SI: Confessions of former NFL agent Josh Luchs - SI.com - Magazine)