Now let’s talk dirt. Here is what you came for.”The Fact: many college athletes get special treatment. Let that sink in. Give yourself as much time as you need to come to terms with that before you read further. If you cannot handle this first fact, you are going to have a hard time with the rest of this. Now that you know that, and have given up arguing it, and don’t feel the need to deny it, let me tell you what I saw. “Now that we are comfortable with The Fact, it shouldn’t be a surprise that part of the special treatment involves money. Some players get money and some don’t. Some boosters like to hand out cash to players and some don’t. The important thing to note here is that very rarely does a coach ever go to a booster and ask them to start ponying up cash to players. I never knew of this happening at OSU, and I don’t think it happens now. In fact, I don’t think that happens at very many programs. Boosters do it on their own, and players accept it on their own. When I was at OSU, coaches warned players about this type of thing. They asked us to be smart and not do anything to put our eligibility in question. I heard, but didn’t see, that they also warned boosters not to break any rules. In my opinion, this is about all the coaching staff can do until they know about, and have evidence of, this type of thing actually happening. They warned us about it, told us what the consequences would be, and trusted us as adults to make the right decision. This is where about 90 percent of the team does the right thing and makes the smart decision, and 10 percent do drugs, take cash, lie, cheat, steal, have bad attitudes during practice, and get themselves booted from the team. I’m sure there were some athletes (not just football players) that mowed someone’s lawn and got paid $250 for it. I’m sure there were some $100 handshakes and phone calls asking for cash and all kinds of other things mentioned in the SI article. Sometimes a player gets a free meal or VIP service. That stuff absolutely happens. http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-tales-from-a-les-miles-walkon/article/3881699?custom_click=rss
That's a great read. Beyond what you quoted, you need to read the whole article that he wrote. Thanks SmileASU (you did rank ASU first, above LSU, I believe, in your favorite list, so not sure why you are spending so much time here).
