Tonight on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, correspondent Bernard Goldberg will head a feature on disgraced NFL agent Josh Luchs who told Sports Illustrated this month about his payoffs to potential clients while they were in college. Some of those Luchs named are big time NFL stars today. While some of whom Luchs named have denied his story, others have said, yes, they received money from the him.
We have a highlight of the interview.
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBELGOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH SPORTS AGENT JOSH LUCHS IN A TV EXCLUSIVE; WHEN THE EMMY®-WINNING SHOW RETURNS TONIGHT, OCT. 26, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBOREAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL presents more enterprising features and reporting when its 163rd edition, available in HDTV, debuts TUESDAY, OCT. 26 (10:00 p.m. ET/PT & 9:00 p.m. CT) on HBO.HBO On Demand availability: Nov. 1-22Segments include:*Money Man.Following his explosive first-person account in Sports Illustrated, former certified NFL agent Josh Luchs sits down with HBO for his first extended TV interview. At age 19, armed with only a high school diploma, he was certified as an NFL agent by the NFLPA for a mere $300 application fee. In the SI piece, Luchs admitted to subsequently making cash payments to 30 college football players in hopes of signing them as clients when they became eligible for the pro draft. He left the player representation business in 2008 after a dispute with his former employer led to his suspension by the NFLPA. Luchs’ headline-grabbing account has reignited the debate over whether to protect student-athletes from preying agents, or simply permit college players to share in the revenues they help generate. REAL SPORTS correspondent Bernard Goldberg goes one-on-one with Luchs for his take on the debate and delves further into his account of nearly 20 years in the business.Producer: Joe Perskie.EXCERPTS:Luchs’ stance regarding the Sports Illustrated report:HBO’s BERNIE GOLDBERG: “You were paying players under the table, against every rule in the book. And as a result, you were getting clients when they went to the pros.”JOSH LUCHS: “Absolutely. I did it. Did it time and time again, over an extended period of time, and I never got caught doing it. Not once.”Luchs addresses what motivated him to the unethical practice of giving college players money and jeopardizing their eligibility:JOSH LUCHS: “I wanted so badly to make something of myself.”BERNIE GOLDBERG: “That you were willing to..JOSH LUCHS: “I was willing to do almost anything.”BERNIE GOLDBERG: “Did you feel bad about it at any point?”JOSH LUCHS: “Well, when they’d stiff me, I felt horrible.”Luchs on his mentor Harold “Doc” Daniels, and NFL agent, who had a reputation for paying and giving gifts to college athletes:JOSH LUCHS: “Doc (Harold Daniels) put his arm around me, and said, ‘Son, this is not the way to do this. I’m going to show you the way.’ And he taught me. Taught me the right way to do the wrong thing. He said, ‘You give these guys cash, you give it to ’em up front in one lump sum, you got nothing, you know. You need to give it to them in smaller increments over a period of time, so you’re buying yourself the in and the opportunity to have that relationship.’ And it made all the sense in the world to me, because suddenly, they’re calling me back, ’cause they know next month’s rolling around, and they’re coming back for some more candy. They get hungry, they’re going to eat, and I’m feeding them.”An exchange in response to his suspension by the NLFPA over an allegation that he improperly kept a commission check:JOSH LUCHS: “I accept responsibility for what I did. But I will not accept responsibility for something that I didn’t do.”BERNIE GOLDBERG: “But that’s the irony, isn’t it? That you got nailed. You got nailed for something you say you didn’t do. And nobody touched you for all the things that you did do that were wrong.”JOSH LUCHS: “Ain’t that a kick in the teeth.”Former USC wide receiver R. Jay Soward (1996-99) talking about the agent-player relationship that exists in College Football today:BERNIE GOLDBERG: “Do you suppose Josh Luchs is the only sports agent around– see you’re smiling already. So I think you– you know where I’m going with this.”R. JAY SOWARD: “Yeah.”BERNIE GOLDBERG: “That was paying college kids while they were playing?”R. JAY SOWARD: “Not at all. Not at all. I mean people are probably doing it everywhere. Somebody’s probably taking some money right now. You know, we should do a statistic on that. Every five minutes a college kid is taking money from an agent.”Former USC Trojan wideout R. Jay Soward, a first round draft choice of Jacksonville Jaguars in 2000, talking about life as a cash-strapped college student, who could barely make ends meet :SOWARD: “Funny story, me and my roommates, we had – some pizza guy just happened to be lost. And one of my roommates went up to the car and started talking to him. And I went around and I took the pizza.”GOLDBERG: “You took the pizza to be wiseasses or …”SOWARD: “We took the pizza cause we were hungry.”GOLDBERG: “So Josh Luchs comes along and says, ‘I got money.’ You say?”SOWARD: “Let me have some. I could really use it right now. Let’s show R. Jay a little bit of love.”
Wow. Interesting. I’m looking for a video preview of this segment and I don’t see one up on HBO’s YouTube channel.
Real Sports airs tonight at 10 ET/PT on HBO.
