There is much, much too much ado being made about allegations thrown out by former player's agent Josh Luchs in Sports Illustrated this week. Luchs admits to paying players throughout a career that roughly spanned the past 20 years. But the majority of players have long disappeared from the sport's memory bank and the crimes mentioned seemed rather lame. Jonathan Ogden is a big name--and big guy--but he just took one concert ticket. Ryan Leaf paid back the money he took. Some players admit to taking cash and others deny or refuse to talk, but we already know a great many football players take money. Some players were paid to play college football in the 19th century, so the problem has been with the sport since its infancy. To be honest, reading the article just made the business of being a sports agent rather pathetic. I have no interest in that aspect of the sport.
That said, I do want it cleaned up a bit. Paying players will never go away. But perhaps making it harder to do so will make some guys like Leaf become more diligent in his preparation as there will be no payoff until he makes the pros. And the playing field will be somewhat leveled between the schools with big bankrolls and the ones with smaller ones. And the positives to playing the sport--like character building, teamwork, achieving goals, etc--will outweigh the negatives, like prostituting yourself for an immediate payday. One would hope.
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