Illegal Procedure by Josh Luchs

Author:Josh Luchs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Recruiting Big Samoans: Is That Redundant?

During the 2006 college football season, I reconnected with Gary’s runner, Wade, and he offered up connection to Tennessee Volunteers players, by way of a man called Navy, a gigantic Samoan who had connections to a couple of other gigantic Samoans, two Tennessee players. When Navy walked into our hotel room in Knoxville for our first meeting, I realized that he was a former offensive lineman Doc had represented, whom I hadn’t seen in years. He explained how he was “involved with the agent selection process” (any deal would have to go through him) for star defensive tackle Jesse Mahelona and offensive tackle Albert Toeaina. Albert was a lesser-rated prospect but a superb athlete with enormous upside … and an enormous backside. He also had a temperament issue, having been suspended by Coach Phil Fulmer for the final game of the regular season for spitting on a cameraman on his way off the field.

After Steve and I had good initial meetings with both players, they made it clear they both wanted to work with the same agents—us—provided we got the blessings of their parents. Steve and I flew up to northern California to meet Albert’s father, Pastor Alex Toeaina. After a warm Samoan greeting—“Talofa!” and a full-body hug—and the presentation of our “Albert Toeaina Playbook,” Pastor Alex proclaimed he and his family had prayed on it and determined we were the agents sent from God … with one catch. Obviously, God would not want his son to get anything less than what other agents were offering. (I hadn’t realized God even got involved in these negotiations.) Pastor Alex then showed us an e-mail from a financial advisor who worked with another agent, which promised a credit line of $250,000 for Albert if he signed with them. The pastor asked if we would match that offer. I diplomatically explained that, as good as Albert is, he wasn’t rated high enough to justify that much, and more importantly, that that amount of money would put his son too deeply in the hole to start his career. But I told him we could arrange for a $25,000 credit line, more than enough for the next few months since we’d be covering his living and training expenses in Long Beach, preparing for the Senior Bowl and Combine.

They went off to consider the offer, and, after what we assumed was more praying, we ended up signing Albert. Evidently Jesus gave us the nod. Then, a few days later, I got an emotional phone call from Pastor Alex, confessing that he had altered the e-mail from the other agent, adding a zero to the $25,000 credit line offer. Steve and I had already suspected this; I’d personally heard from that same financial advisor earlier, offering to create a credit line of $25k for players we signed, provided we worked with him. No doubt this was a financial advisor of great integrity. I knew that game. And anyway, it didn’t matter; we

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.