Well, it appears basketball is not the only college sport infected by corruption.
The key government witness in the FBI’s college basketball corruption trial began his testimony Tuesday by switching the conversation to football and discussing multiple payments he said he made to players at major programs, including at least once at a coach’s direction.
Former financial adviser Marty Blazer said from 2000 to 2014 he made payments to college players at Pitt, Notre Dame, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina, Alabama and Penn State to secure them as clients when they turned pro.Blazer said he gave $10,000 to the family of a player would wound up as the 11th pick in the 2009 NFL draft. According to ESPN, the description matches Penn State linebacker Aaron Maybin, who was drafted by the Buffalo Bills. Blazer said a Penn State assistant, whose son then played in the NFL, arranged the deal, which was a loan that would end up being paid back. Former Penn State assistant Larry Johnson, whose son Larry Jr. played for the Kansas City Chiefs at the time and is currently an assistant at Ohio State was linked to the deal. Johnson has called Blazer’s accusations inaccurate.
Blazer said he never paid a coach. His involvement in paying college football players has been previously reported in connection to a criminal investigation in North Carolina relating to improper payments made to UNC players dating back to 2010. Blazer testified he paid money to a former first round pick drafted by the Giants in 2009. The Giants drafted wide receiver Hakeem Nicks in the first round that year.Blazer was never criminally charged under the state’s athlete agent law, but his runner, former UNC cornerback Chris Hawkins, was and is still awaiting trial.
Blazer’s testimony was linked to his more recent connection to aspiring basketball agent Christian Dawkins, who along with ex-Adidas consultant Merl Code, is facing bribery related charges in connection with alleged payments made to five assistant basketball coaches at six universities to influence their players to sign with Dawkins’ start up sports management agency.
In October, Dawkins, Code and former Adidas executive James Gatto Jr. were convicted in a pay for play scheme to send recruits to Adidas-sponsored schools, including Kansas, Louisville and NC State.
In his opening statements for the third trial, assistant US attorney Eli Mark told jurors that Dawkins was putting envelopes of money into coaches’ hands and Code was getting paid in exchange for “bringing dirty coaches to the table to be bribed.’’ He said Dawkins was engaged in paying coaches, specifically former South Carolina assistant Lamont Evans before Blazer and the FBI entered the picture.Evans, who also coached at Oklahoma State—and fellow ex-coaches Tony Bland of USC and Book Richardson of Arizona have pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Since Nov. 2014, Blazer had been recording phone calls for FBI investigators. He agreed to work for them as part of a cooperation deal to help avoid part of a lengthy 67-year old prison sentence as result of investment fraud in which Blazer was caught misappropriating his client’s money and falsifying documents.Blazer said he met Dawkins in Sept. 2015 when Dawkins was interested in using him as a financial resource and Dawkins—who was still working for sports agent Andy Miller—was already paying players and at least one coach, Evans.
Blazer said the purpose was to establish a relationship so that coaches would send their players to him for financial services and Dawkins as an agent once they turned pro.
