This afternoon, one of the programs long held up as an example of success without compromise took a PR hit at the hands of its former star QB’s wife.
On ESPN’s “The Herd”, Colin Cowherd was discussing improper benefits, particularly the situation at Ohio State. As he began to talk about the booster culture, he was joined by the wife of current Brown’s QB Colt McCoy, who chose to call in and share her perspective.
Agreeing with Cowherd, Ms. McCoy said that her husband was often approached by boosters while at Texas, and had managed to avoid those problems due to his values and the influence of his father. She then went on to say,
Regularly it’s just dinner. People in Texas are just being friendly, they don’t mean anything by it at all. They don’t realize realize most of the time it’s a violation. At Texas you’re taught to take absolutely nothing, I don’t care if it’s a hot dog or soda.
But you’ve got guys, grown adult men with law degrees – educated men – what are they going to gain out of this? It’s to say, ‘Hey, I bought so and so dinner, hey I took so and so to do this’ … It’s grown men and their pride.
You cannot expect 19-20 year old kids to say no to free stuff when they’re in college … It’s hard, I think, for a lot of these guys to even know to say, ‘I can take this, I can’t take this, nobody’s going to know, will someone find out?’Things that could be handed to you that seem so minor – a dinner, a hunt, a fishing trip – most kids don’t even realize are illegal.
I know Colt was approached quite a bit [by agents] but I saw so many of his teammates who didn’t have some of that self control to say no to somebody … it’s hard, because you have adults who you respect and who you think will know what’s right and wrong … when you have adults promising things and offering things …
Granted, this is really not all that significant in the world of Cam Newton, Reggie Bush, and whatever Terrelle Pryor is up to this week. However, it does go to show that even top notch programs with excellent history of compliance also struggle with the very issue that’s currently dragging the Buckeyes down.
Again, to be clear- I do not think that Texas is “cheating”, or that they would need to. I’m not even alleging that Ms. McCoy’s memory is accurate in this matter.
But, like we’ve talked about before, being in compliance with the NCAA regarding hundreds of young adults and tens of thousands of fans is a significant challenge, no matter where you are.
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