Dark Clouds Over the Plains,......

Howdy Folks, long time....been REAL busy up here in WNC and I had a few minutes to do some surfing. I noticed this particular storyline and thought I would repost here....If this is Germans, please forgive, but I looked at the tag lines and didn't notice a similar subject thread. That being said,...................


>>MASH HERE<<

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HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel premieres an hour-long special on the business and ethics of college sports on Wednesday. The first airing is at 10p ET on HBO.

I have obtained an advance copy of the show and have transcribed excerpts of a portion of the Andrea Kremer-hosted “Pay to Play” segment of the show below.

The segment contains explosive claims from former Auburn players Chaz Ramsey, Troy Reddick, Stanley McClover and Raven Gray.

On McClover’s recruitment:
Kremer voiceover: “McClover said it wasn’t until he attended an all-star camp at Louisiana State University that he realized how the game is played. A game of money and influence.”

McClover: “Somebody came to me, I don’t even know this person and he was like, ‘we would love for you to come to LSU and he gave me a handshake and it had five hundred dollars in there. … that’s called a money handshake … I grabbed it and I’m like, ‘wow,’ hell I thought ten dollars was a lot of money back then. Five hundred dollars for doing nothing but what I was blessed to do. I was happy.”

Kremer to McClover: “What did you say to the guy when he hands you five hundred dollars?”

McClover: “Thank you and I’m seriously thinking about coming to LSU.”

Kremer voiceover: “But McClover says there were money handshakes from boosters at other football camps too. At Auburn for a couple hundred dollars and at Michigan State. All the schools denied any wrongdoing. And things really started heating up a few months later when he went to Ohio State for an official visit where schools get a chance for one weekend to host prospective athletes. McClover says there were money handshakes from alumni there too. About a thousand dollars. And something else to entice him.”

McClover: “They send girls my way. I partied. When I got there I met up with a couple guys from the team. We went to a party and they asked me to pick any girl I wanted.”

Kremer: “Did she offer sexual services?“

McClover: “Yes.”

Kremer: “Did you take them?”

McClover: “Yes.”

Kremer: “McClover committed to Ohio State right after that weekend. The recruiter at Ohio State who says he dealt with McClover that weekend denied the school was involved in any wrongdoing.”

On what caused McClover to sign with Auburn over Ohio State:
Kremer voiceover: “McClover says what he asked for was money. A lot of it. And that he got it. Delivered in a bookbag, exact amount unknown.”

Kremer to McClover: “You opened it up, what are you thinking?”

McClover: “I almost passed out. I literally almost passed out I couldn’t believe it was true. I felt like I owed them.”

Kremer to McClover: “You felt obligated to them (Auburn)?”

McClover: “I felt totally obligated.”

Kremer to McClover: “Because of the money?”

McClover: “Yeah.”

Troy Reddick talks about his recruitment by Auburn
Reddick: “I was contacted by a local alumni (of Auburn) and offered a large sum of money.

Kremer: “What are you thinking?”

Reddick: “That people are trying to take advantage of me. And I can’t give anybody any kind of power over me.”

Kremer voiceover: “He (Reddick) says he didn’t take the handout. …

Reddick on why he was unhappy at Auburn - and the remedy for that unhappiness
Kremer voiceover: “Reddick was growing increasingly unhappy because he says the (Auburn) coaches wanted him to change his major. Why? Because his class schedule got in the way of football practice.”

Reddick: “I changed my major, so my classes didn’t interfere no more but I didn’t bother to go because I knew I was only there to play football.”

Kremer: “So what did you do?”

Reddick: “I started complaining and insinuating that I was ready to leave any day. They had to do something about that.”

Kremer voiceover: “The enticement to stay, Reddick says, became clear to him, when one of the coaches approached him after a team meeting.”

Reddick: “He (Auburn coach) said I got some mail for you up in my office.”

Kremer to Reddick: “Some mail for you?”

Reddick: “And I followed him up to his office and he gave me an envelope. I didn’t open there, I walked out to my truck, took off. … It was about 500 dollars.”

Kremer: “500 dollars in the envelope?”

Reddick: (nods yes)

Kremer: “How often did you get the money in the envelope?”

Reddick: “Over that season it happened like two or three more times. And it happened about six or seven times my senior year.”

Kremer: “So where do you think the money came from?”

Reddick: “I think that worry got back to alumni from my hometown. Or it may have been the coaches or the staff but everybody knew I didn’t want to be there.”

On McClover being paid $4,000 for his performance in the Iron Bowl:
Kremer voiceover: “Stanley McClover says he was also paid while at school (Auburn). Paid by boosters. Like the time he had his eye on this 1973 Chevy Impala.”

McClover: “Private owner wanted seven thousand in cash so I went to my booster who I knew and he gave me the money the next day in a bookbag.”

Kremer voiceover: “McClover says eventually he didn’t have to ask for money, as long as he played well, he’d get paid.”

Kremer to McClover: “How much wao McClover: “How much was a sack worth?”

McClover: “Anywhere between 300 and 400 dollars. For one.”

Kremer to McClover: “I think in one game you had four sacks, what did you earn in that game?”

McClover: “Four thousand. Against Alabama.”

Kremer: “Seriously?”

McClover: “Alabama, a rivalry game.”

Kremer: “More money because it’s Alabama?”

McClover: “Definitely. No other game matters.”

Chaz Ramsey and Raven Gray are interviewed at same time together
Kremer voiceover: “Chaz Ramsey played for a year (for Auburn) in 2007, and says he too received money handshakes after games.”

Ramsey: “You walk out and all the fans are waiting for you to sign autographs and everything and some random guy just walks up to you and shakes your hand and there’s a wad full of money.”

Kremer: “How much are we talking about?”

Ramsey: “300 or 400 dollars a game.”

Kremer voiceover: “Raven Gray was a top (Auburn) recruit in 2007, he says people affiliated with Auburn would visit him at his junior college and press the flesh there too.”

Kremer to Gray: “How much do you think you got?”

Gray: “Twenty five-hundred to three thousand dollars. Loyalty is the key. This man give me money I’m going to be loyal to him and go to Auburn.”

Kremer voiceover: “And he did go to Auburn but got injured before he ever played a game.”

On Ramsey’s motivation for coming forward
Kremer: “You have an axe to grind?” (Ramsey had a medical claim lawsuit against Auburn recently thrown out.)

Ramsey: “I’m not out to get anybody, I want high school athletes to know what they’re getting into. This is what college football is really about it, it’s a business.”

Ramsey and Reddick on selling items made available to Auburn players by the school:
Ramsey: “I would sell tickets all the time, Iron Bowl you can make a thousand dollars a ticket.”

Kremer: “How much money did that get you during your time at Auburn?”

Ramsey: “Five-six thousand dollars probably.”

Reddick: “I sold my SEC Championship watch right off the stage as we were celebrating in Toomer’s Corner.”

Kremer: “Why did you sell it?”

Reddick: “Because it was useless to me. I had to sell all my championship rings to help my sister not go into debt as her house was about to be foreclosed on.”

At the end of Kremer’s segment, the host read Auburn’s official response to HBO regarding the allegations by its former players:

The NCAA turned down repeated interview requests to discuss anything to do with illegal payments, despite new NCAA President Mark Emmert recently saying he wants to be more transparent with the media.

As for Auburn University, officials declined to comment on quote, “these alleged claims apparently made by a few former football players” and said, quote, “compliance with all NCAA and Southeastern Conference rules is a major emphasis and top priority for all of our athletic programs.

For more comments from Reddick and McClover, go here.

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Tic,....tic,.......tic.........BOOM !!!!!


Go Dawgs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Auburn thing is all over the Alabama blogs.
The scoop is Auburn does not encourage parental involvement in the recruitment process.
They want the kids alone and recruit them with money and girls.
They wait until the last moment and pick like scavengers.
There is a Yahoo story coming later this this spring that will make the HBO thing look lame.
Trooper Taylor is the supposed bag man.

Good to see you back. Too bad it has to be under these circumstances. I watched the Dan Patrick Show this morning and he had Andrea Kremer on a land line. She is a head hunter, would hate to have her on my case. She is also truthful.

Chizik came aboard with the "Cadillac Tour" . . . as sadlerdawg would say . . . uuuummmm?

Going to be interesting to see what this does to community organizer Pastor Newton's son in the upcoming draft.

Buc, sadly it probably won't hurt him at all in the draft.

wlayton, given the near glacial speed of the NCAA, compiled with the ignorance of Slive, I suspect SCam will have cashed in several pay checks before any ruling come from this, if any comes at all!!!....This will likely play out ala USC and AllBarn will be left holding the corpse!!!!

Sad on my part to say that you are probably right wlayton. Cam is a self indulgent young man, molded by his parental upbringing. Or should I say, lack of parental upbringing.

Players such as Cam and his Holy Father are the reason that Pro Football and College Football at some point will implode. There is a serious problem on both levels right now with money and the distribution of the riches. The folks that pay the price of admission (yes, repeating myself) are the ones that are getting the hell beat out of them. Classless bunch of sucker punchers.

I love football and all sports, but this old fart is damn tired of watching not only the players, but the owners, schools, coaches and anything related to football getting so out of hand. The single biggest thing that bothers me is the way a university can be played by all involved in the money game, leaving education, supposed higher learning out of the equation.

Let's quit calling this education, too many people involved for the most part in football, that includes coaches and players don't belong on Jeopardy. Maybe Wheel of Fortune when all of the vowels have been called. Basket weaving is tough.

If one goes to an Auburn site that is allowing opinions on the current situation, we find that anyone associated with the school, whether fan or not, a huge portion of the votes being taken show just how stupid folks can be. This is not football anymore it is war.

Damn a handshake. As sadlerdawg said sometime back, you are getting a CHANCE at an education that could serve you the rest of your life. While I was on the side of the fence that I didn't think that ANY university should profit on jerseys and related gear. Seems to me that the folks in charge of the universities should keep their books as it relates to FOLLOW THE MONEY. The more we as fans give, the more that the universities want. Reminds me of Washington, District of Columbia, bunch of who##s. None of the folks on either side, meaning parties, Democrat or Republican could care less. They serve their ELECTED time and come away with pensions that should not be allowed for the rest of their lives. They earned that because you and I elected them to office and then they started their journey to SERVE us for 25 or 30 years.

Why should any College football coach make 2, 3, 4, 5 or whatever million dollars a year? Why should a baseball player make 25 million a year? What would some of these highly paid coaches and players do if they had to . . . excuse me, GO TO WORK like most of us have done all of our lives or will do most of our lives. I have done well in my life, I understand capitalism, have been a part of it, did not make excuses, I worked.

The end result is those at the top, like Presidents of Universities not only condone this, they make sure that everyone understands their place in the money market. We had a AD that was fine until he was exposed playing with Red underwear. Had enough connections to move on and make even more money. Anyone remember the shot of his family and their faces? I do.

Started to apologize for this rant, won't do it. Too much BS going on and ruining what was once a pleasurable thing to be a part of.

This is just the beginning of what is going to be a sad time for those of us that love college football. I sure hope it does not touch us, would not place a bet at this point.

Through all of this rant, I still hope that UGA can do better than 6-7 this season.

Coach'em up!