Adam Taxin Show #4

Officially my fourth appearance on Adam Taxin’s radio show, which is broadcast on 1540 AM WNWR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The entire segment is devoted to a discussion about Reggie Bush and his involvement with Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake of New Era Sports & Entertainment while enrolled at the University of Southern California.

For the full transcript, click the link titled, “More” below. Also, check out Jason’s excellent post on the topic. And if you want to hear my sexy voice…

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE MP3

-Darren Heitner

FULL TRANSCRIPT
DARREN HEITNER ON “THE ADAM TAXIN SHOW”

SUBJECT: REGGIE BUSH SCANDAL

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2007, 1:37 PM EST.
WNWR 1540 AM PHILADELPHIA
WNWR.com

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Adam Taxin: You’re listening to The Adam Taxin Show on WNWR 1540 AM Philadelphia, and live on the web at wnwr.com. Darren Heitner now joins us from Gainesville, Florida, in a slightly different capacity. He runs sportsagentblog.com and accessathletes.com, which are related to the business of sports. He’s a great SEC and University of Florida football reporter, and, while there’s a lot to talk about with LSU’s loss this week, coming out of #1 in the process, we’re not going to talk about that. Darren, I’m having you on to talk about Reggie Bush. Thanks for coming on today.

Darren Heitner: Thanks for having me again.

AT: So why don’t you explain to the audience what the situation is with Reggie Bush right now.

DH: OK, well, basically, going back to his days at USC, he accepted an amount which is supposed to be $280,000 from a couple of sports agents, Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake, who were in charge of New Era Sports & Entertainment, and, for any of you listeners that know, you’re not allowed to get any kind of money while you’re in college, from anybody, so this was a violation of NCAA rules.

AT: It’s an overwhelming violation of NCAA rules. There are a lot of things that are legitimate that players have to watch that they step over the line for … just related to a summer job where they may be legitimately working, right?

DH: Yeah. Honestly, an athlete can’t even accept a dinner gift; he can’t accept free entry to a club. An athlete has to pay for everything. Obviously, it’s going to catch the eyes of NCAA investigators if someone accepts $280,000, over a $5 entry into a nightclub. But still, the NCAA clearly defines that athletes cannot accept any kind of monetary gift or money from anybody, especially an agent.

AT: So what were Michael Michaels — that’s a great name, by the way — and Lloyd Lake trying to accomplish here? What exactly did they do? And I should point out that Reggie Bush was poor, so the temptations were great, much greater than they would be say, for, a Peyton Manning.

DH: Right. Well, first of all, I must agree. Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake … some nice alliteration in one company. But they were trying to get Bush to be involved in their company, be a client of theirs, and also have Bush act in a capacity to bring in more clients. Remember, this is also what investigators are supposing because Bush settled with Michael Michaels before anything was brought to trial for somewhere in between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars. The problem is that, while Michael Michaels is going to be silent, [Bush] never settled with Lloyd Lake. So that’s the issue that we currently are experiencing, the fact that Michael Michaels probably won’t say anything, or can’t say anything because of confidentiality. But Lloyd Lake has free reign to bring any type of suit.

AT: And their marketing agency was a failure, right? So they have all the incentive to get as much as they can out of a lawsuit right now because they’re never going to make it as sports marketers at this point?

DH: At the same time, it’s a very fishy subject because, while they did not end up doing well with their marketing agency, still, bringing suit should show that Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels were violating rules that were in effect where they’re not allowed to give any money. But the worst party — the party that’s going to feel it the worst — is USC, which may lose the National Championships that they gained while Reggie Bush was at school.

AT: How much is USC at fault here?

DH: It kind of goes back to something that I’m learning in my first semester of law school, which is respondeat superior. They kind of take the brunt from the fact that they’re in charge of Reggie Bush, and they have some supervising that they’re supposed to be doing. They’re supposed to have had their eyes on him at all times to make sure that that he’s not accepting any gifts. While that seems impossible, it’s just the rule that’s in place, and the NCAA puts it on the colleges to make sure that their players are not violating any of the rules that they put in place, so it’s just an unfortunate consequence.

AT: How at fault is Reggie Bush?

DH: Well, it seems that he’s very at fault. He took in $280,000 when he knew that, as long as he didn’t have any career-ending injury, he was going to be making some serious money in the near future. It really wasn’t necessary. He can lose his Heisman because of it and, while it’s not exactly money, it’s something that I’m sure Reggie would like to keep and hold onto for the future.

AT: So it’s not as simple as “Reggie was just a poor, naive athlete being taken advantage of.”

DH: I think you can kind of see that in the settlement that he made with Michael Michaels. Instead of taking it to trial, he did settle for somewhere between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars, so I think he realizes how serious it is. You know, at the time he might have thought that he would be able to get away with it. I’m sure he did, because now he’s not making any money, and he might end up losing money for taking money in the first place, so I’m sure he was naive at the time; now he’s quickly realizing that you’ve got to own up for your mistakes.

AT: Finally, what do you expect to be the result of this matter?

DH: Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m thinking that Reggie’s attorney will still try to settle with Lake, even though Lake has refused to settle in the past. You know, it’s best for all parties if USC can hold on to their championship, Reggie can hold on to his Heisman, and Lake can be remedied with some money. But we’ll see how it all plays out.

AT: Darren Heitner, in Gainesville, Florida, sportsagentblog.com and accessathletes.com, thanks for being with us today.

DH: Thank you, Adam.