Gray Areas, Golf Carts and Range Rovers

Joey Harrington drove a crappy Toyota in college. The first thing he did with his NFL money was buy his first decent car. We all remember those days, driving around in an old beater that smells like dirty gym socks, wondering if it will stay in motion long enough to use the last ten dollars we spent on gas, cranking it over four times before the engine catches on a cold day.

LaMichael James doesn't have to worry about that right now. A friend of his, a mentor from his high school days, lent him a $17,000 Range Rover. We can all use a friend that generous. But it's not unheard of that a fatherless kid from a tough part of town would need some guidance, or that an athlete with James' prodigious talent would have someone looking out for him.

The NCAA investigated, and ruled it wasn't a violation. The Oregon athletic office responded quickly to the allegations, saying James is and remains eligible. Rob Moseley covered the story for the Register-Guard and got a candid reaction from Chip Kelly:

Not concerned with it at all," UO coach Chip Kelly said following practice today. "We knew about this. Every one of our players has registered their car with us. When LaMichael switched cars he registered his car with us. He switched cars with a friend that's a preexisting friend before he got here. It was a 2003 with I think 96,000 miles on it. But the NCAA ... we've cooperated fully with them. If he was gonna be ineligible we would have held him out of the Cal game. We have nothing to worry about. So, he has nothing to worry about. It's really a non-story."

Not surprising that Kelly would react that way. The details are less sensational than the original reporting from the Willamette Week, which has a knack for sensationalism. The headline and boldfaced caption reads "Range Rover;" they leave out the part about it being eight years old with 96,000 miles on it. Instructive to note that all the players have their cars registered with the athletic office.

College football is a weird world. The NCAA micro-manages certain things and ignores others. Dillon Baxter just drew heat for taking a ride in a golf cart, yet all over the country athletes have off-campus apartments and spending money that has to come from somewhere. It wouldn't take much digging to find a paper trail that led in the wrong direction. It's easy to see why the top athletes are highly sought after, because there's a lot of money and prestige at stake: the National Championship Game last season had a payout of $31 million, and top coaches like Nick Saban make over four million a year. Seems only fair that the kids, most of whom will never see a dime of a pro contract, get a little something for all the riches their talent creates. Officially, though, it's room, board, books and tuition. Anything else is a potential red flag. And it's hard not to notice a Range Rover. For that matter, where did the 2000 Mustang come from?

I love the Ducks. That's why I've written 60,000 words and ruined my workout schedule and strained my marriage writing about them. But only a fool would believe the average high-profile top twenty football team is not a little dirty. There's too much at stake for it not to be.