On Wednesday, he helped launch the SEC Football Media Days with a quote that resonated all week. Referring to agents preying on players and jeopardizing their eligibility, Saban said, "How are they any better than a pimp?" That was an insult to pimps everywhere. With college football season six weeks away, it should be a continuing celebration of Alabama's national championship. It should be eager anticipation over Auburn's renaissance. It should be time to embrace the phrase Commissioner Mike Slive reprised, that this is "the Golden Age" of the Southeastern Conference. The trouble that bubbled up this week concerned the ever-popular phrase "illegal contact with an agent." Marcell Dareus, the defensive MVP of Alabama's BCS title game win, has been accused of doing so while attending a lavish party in Miami. Players from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have also come under scrutiny. As with most professions, it's a minority of agents giving the majority a bad name. Even if most agents might be missing a scruple or two, they are at least rule-abiding and seem to have the players' best interest at heart. Not so the more slimy ones. To do their dirty work, they use "runners," typically college-aged, able to blend into the campus scene and ingratiate themselves with players. They act as a player's pal, perhaps picking up a bar tab here, a bill for some new clothes there, maybe some walking-around money. Maybe a party invitation. They create a sense of obligation to sign with the agent the "runner" represents. Sometimes that comes with a "sign this now, take the money and nobody will ever know" arrangement well before the player's college eligibility is complete. "There's a lot of good agents out there that don't do this stuff. They're not out there chasing guys and giving them money and breaking rules and flying them all over the country, sending girls after them, all kind of stuff," Saban said. "They're not breaking the rules."
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Nick Saban's comparison of unscrupulous agents to pimps: An insult to pimps everywhere
On Wednesday, he helped launch the SEC Football Media Days with a quote that resonated all week. Referring to agents preying on players and jeopardizing their eligibility, Saban said, "How are they any better than a pimp?" That was an insult to pimps everywhere. With college football season six weeks away, it should be a continuing celebration of Alabama's national championship. It should be eager anticipation over Auburn's renaissance. It should be time to embrace the phrase Commissioner Mike Slive reprised, that this is "the Golden Age" of the Southeastern Conference. The trouble that bubbled up this week concerned the ever-popular phrase "illegal contact with an agent." Marcell Dareus, the defensive MVP of Alabama's BCS title game win, has been accused of doing so while attending a lavish party in Miami. Players from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have also come under scrutiny. As with most professions, it's a minority of agents giving the majority a bad name. Even if most agents might be missing a scruple or two, they are at least rule-abiding and seem to have the players' best interest at heart. Not so the more slimy ones. To do their dirty work, they use "runners," typically college-aged, able to blend into the campus scene and ingratiate themselves with players. They act as a player's pal, perhaps picking up a bar tab here, a bill for some new clothes there, maybe some walking-around money. Maybe a party invitation. They create a sense of obligation to sign with the agent the "runner" represents. Sometimes that comes with a "sign this now, take the money and nobody will ever know" arrangement well before the player's college eligibility is complete. "There's a lot of good agents out there that don't do this stuff. They're not out there chasing guys and giving them money and breaking rules and flying them all over the country, sending girls after them, all kind of stuff," Saban said. "They're not breaking the rules."
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