By now you've probably heard about the accusations of Josh Luchs, the former agent who outed a bunch of NFL players for taking money in college. Guys I know in the league aren't really making a big deal out of it. Quite honestly, it's nothing we don't already know. Guys joke about getting paid in college all the time. They'll say things like, "Once you get to the pros, you take a pay cut." When Reggie Bush had to give back his Heisman, my teammates didn't even bat an eyelash. It wasn't a big deal that he was getting paid. Everybody knew about it. Guys just assume -- especially the ones from smaller schools -- that all the high draft picks from the big schools are getting paid. And to be honest, nobody really cares.
Once you get in the NFL, it's straight business. Say we have a team meeting, and a guy stands up and tells everyone that he took 100 grand from an agent while he was in college. His teammates will say, "Great, why didn't you get 200 grand?" Nobody would think it was wrong. They'd say, "Hell yeah, I would've taken that too." Guys in the league don't look down on it at all. The more money you can make, the better.
That's why the Sports Illustrated story wasn't a huge deal in the locker room when it came out. I was surprised the agent named all those names, but I wasn't surprised by what he said. I don't know if everything he said was the truth, but it wouldn't shock me if it was. It's kind of sad the way he played up his relationship with Ryan Leaf and how they were boys, because I doubt that Leaf ever thought the guy was his friend. He was probably just using him for his money, like everyone does. What's interesting is that Luchs named guys who didn't take money too, so it wouldn't surprise me if all the guys he claims took money actually did.
Personally, I never took money. Never had the chance, to be honest. I went to a big school, so people assume I was getting cash, but I wasn't. That's because the agents, the marketing people, the runners, they know who to approach and they knew that I wasn't that type of guy. I had a couple of buddies who were high picks too, and we weren't the types you were going to offer money. Agents knew we didn't need money and we weren't going to accept it if it came. They aren't stupid. They do their homework. They know that if they offer a guy like me money, I'd be willing to turn them over to compliance. On the flip side, they know which families are having trouble paying the mortgage. And they know that once you take that initial payment, bam -- they've got you hooked.
Looking back, I was naïve when I got to college. I never got offered money, so I thought it only happened in the movies. But then I started seeing guys from my school getting in trouble. Turns out there are plenty of college players who accept money, no questions asked. My NFL teammates tell me about guys they went to college with who were accepting huge amounts of cash, some as early as sophomore year. Based on what I know, it seems like a lot of what goes down happens in the south, especially in the SEC. One guy on my team who played in the SEC told me about a couple high profile guys on his team that took money. They'd have $70,000 or $80,000 hidden under their mattress or in their closet. Stuff like that apparently happens all the time. Like Luchs said, the money doesn't come all at once. It comes in installments. Kind of like an allowance. That way, a guy has a reason to talk to you every week or every month. As a college player, you couldn't care less about talking to an agent. But if you're taking his money, you're going to answer his calls.
Crazy thing is, I know of agents who have paid guys that are seventh-rounders or even undrafted free agents just to get to somebody else. They don't give these guys crazy money -- maybe they'll give them a $3,000 or $4,000 watch or a couple thousand dollars in cash. But they go after them because the seventh-rounder has a buddy on his college team who's a surefire first-rounder the following year. So they'll pay the seventh-rounder just to try to land that first-round pick the next year.
Whether you're a big fish or a little fish, it's assumed that if you take money from someone, you're signing with them when you get drafted. That's why Reggie Bush got screwed. He took money, and then ended up going with someone else. Whether it's an agent or a marketing firm, if you don't go with them, they get pissed. That's why I'd be reluctant to take money, because you know you're a slave to them for the first four or five years of your career. It's like the mafia. Usually guys are smart enough that they'll sign with the guy they got money from -- at least for a year or two -- to keep them off their back. It's like paying them off for what they got in college. Once they pay them off, then they can go elsewhere.
As for Luchs, guys around the league see him as a villain, as someone who's just trying to be famous or get paid. Why else would he tell this story? He claims it's about his kids and making sure he leaves them a good legacy, but he didn't have a legacy before this story. I guarantee you that the only guys who ever heard of him before this are the guys he was paying.
