The U – University Of Miami Football Controversy Has Some NFL Players In The Hot Seat
The U is the latest college to be accused of giving their football players 'gifts' that include some rather outlandish things. Everything from VIP access at nightclubs to at least one abortion...Yeah. Some players implicated include the Saints own Jonathan Vilma, Tampa Bays TE Kellen Winslow, and many more.
According to Yahoo! Sports:
"Well, for Da U, it means a horribly tarnished legacy that could lead to an SMU-style "death penalty" in a worst-case scenario. That's what happens when, according to Charles Robinson's report, a booster named Nevin Shapiro provides impermissible benefits to at least 72 Miami football players from 2002 through 2010. The Miami violations trump any recent scandal; they make USC, North Carolina, and Ohio State look like jaywalkers, or those guys who copy DVDs on their computers and send them back to Netflix.
In an exhaustively researched expose, Robinson details a litany of the following violations: "cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and, on one occasion, an abortion."
At least six different Miami coaches were aware of, or participated in, the violations.
Shapiro, the booster at the center of the controversy, is currently serving a 20-year prison term for operating a Ponzi scheme, but that doesn't make his allegations any less credible — indeed, in an NCAA system that practically begs people of Shapiro's peculiar ethical stripe to get involved, Shapiro's "other life" should come as no surprise.
25 NFL draft picks, and 13 first-round selections, received varying levels of illegal benefits from Shapiro, and got away with it.
For the full story and to see who all is implicated see what Yahoo! Sports has to say.