Miami (FL) Hurricanes (1926-2003)

[osugrad21]

Miami Herald

Reporter's expose on Miami Hurricanes was surreal journey



Yahoo! Sports reporter Charles Robinson?s account of the UM scandal included 11 months of sleepless nights, secrecy, tedious research and tense interviews.


BY GLENN GARVIN

[email protected]

There was a moment this spring when a dazed Charles Robinson realized he had barely moved in 12 hours. Another day ? there had been months of them ? had been swallowed whole by the vast wasteland of paper surrounding him on his living room floor: the endless stacks of old phone bills, canceled checks and courtroom depositions from which he was trying to piece together a dark picture of athletic scandal at the University of Miami.
?I am sick of my life,? Robinson said, though there was no one there to hear except him. Reflecting on that, he added: ?I am losing my mind.?
It would take 11 months before his work finally bore its poisonous fruit, a searing Yahoo! Sports story of illicit money, sexual licentiousness and official corruption that has rocked the world of college sports. The story, published last week, implicated 72 players and seven coaches from the university?s football and basketball teams in accepting millions of dollars worth of cash, jewelry, trips, meals and prostitutes from a South Florida man later convicted of engineering a massive Ponzi scheme.
The Miami story was the latest in a series of seven blockbuster expos?s of rampant misbehavior in college athletic programs reported by Robinson for Yahoo over the past six years. His stories, and the official investigations they trigger, leave behind a high body count: The University of Southern California had to return a national football championship, and its star running back Reggie Bush (now with the Miami Dolphins) had to return his Heisman Trophy. Coaches and athletic directors have been fired; employees have gone to jail.
ANOTHER LEVEL
The University of Miami story could take the highest toll of all. Because the allegations against the Hurricanes cover such a long period (eight years) and involved so much money (possibly millions of dollars), there?s some speculation that if they?re proven, they could result in the NCAA?s so-called death penalty: the abolition of the football program. NCAA president Mark Emmert pointedly refused to rule out the death penalty last week and added: ?If the assertions are true, the alleged conduct at the University of Miami is an illustration of the need for serious and fundamental change in many critical aspects of college sports.?
The story?s impact doesn?t surprise the 39-year-old Robinson, who joined Yahoo seven years ago after a decade as a sportswriter at newspapers including The Orlando Sentinel. What kept him from going crazy during the months he spent poring through the financial records of Nevin Shapiro, the diminutive Miami Beach financier now serving a 20-year prison sentence for his role in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, was the potential enormity of Shapiro?s disclosures.
?By the second or third day I talked to him, he?d said enough that I began to think, ?There?s a chance this will be staggering,? ? recalls Robinson. ?But the problem was that he had no credibility. He was a crook. He had lied. He had stolen. He was in jail.?


Cont...

That was the first of a blizzard of phone calls from Shapiro, 150 in the first month alone, many of them lasting for hours. The calls from Shapiro?s New Jersey jail to Robinson?s Chicago home got so expensive that Robinson bought a cellphone with a New Jersey area code so they wouldn?t count as long distance. (Yahoo! Sports paid for the calls, giving the money directly to the jail rather than Shapiro. That, plus reimbursing photocopying costs, was the only money that Yahoo paid Shapiro, the company says.)

Yet within two hours of starting to sort through the checks, Robinson struck journalistic pay dirt: a $2,500 check from Shapiro to Clint Hurtt, the Hurricanes? football recruiting coordinator. The check was important support for Shapiro?s claim that he gave Hurtt an interest-free loan of $5,000, half in cash and half by check ? a violation of NCAA rules.

Documents weren?t the only things Robinson used to check Shapiro?s claims. He says he interviewed 21 people, including 10 former Hurricane players, recruits and coaches, who helped corroborate the charges.....Among the former players, the conversations typically began with them complaining that the college football system is broken, that the University of Miami made a lot of money off them and they didn?t get any of it. From there it was usually a short step to talking about Shapiro.?

Ouch.

​

 

[osugrad21]

Miami Herald

Unscrupulous activity at University of Miami: There?s no denying it

Buy Photo
University of Miami Football head coach Al Golden speaks before practice on August 18, 2011. Walter Michot / Miami Herald Staff










By Linda Robertson

[email protected]

Some very fast former University of Miami football players are being as evasive off the field as they are during games.
Some very large ex-Canes are trying to be invisible.
Some coaches and administrators known for their garrulity suddenly have nothing to say.
The silence is deafening.
Not to mention damning.
Among the many questions hanging over UM since the revelations of rogue booster Nevin Shapiro broke, one has become more nagging by the day: Why haven?t we heard any convincing denials or impassioned explanations?
Why aren?t loyal Hurricanes rushing to stand up for their alma mater and stem the damage of this scandal?
Why aren?t assistant coaches ? one who allegedly accepted a loan, another who allegedly arranged the $10,000 signing of a basketball player ? clarifying their roles?
Is everything that convicted Ponzi schemer Shapiro said about his decadent decade as a UM sugar daddy true? Did Shapiro, a talented liar who swindled $930 million from investors, exaggerate any claims about the millions he spent on cash gifts, parties, boat rides, strip club visits, prostitutes, cocktails, game bounties, clothing, jewelry and cars for 72 UM athletes?
Or is the exhaustive documentation he provided to Yahoo! Sports in the form of credit card bills, phone records and photographs air-tight proof of an unchecked booster?
The ?no comments? are predictable but won?t make this mess go away.


Cont...

So does Devin Hester, whom Shapiro said got $3,000 for an engagement ring for basketball player Tamara James; cash for rims for his sport-utility vehicle; Heat playoff tickets; drinks, meals, suits; lodging at Shapiro?s mansion and $7,500 in game bonuses, including $500 for a kickoff return touchdown and $500 for his ensuing celebration penalty against Florida State in 2003.
?I don?t know the guy, I have nothing to say about it,? Hester said at Chicago Bears practice.
But there?s a photo of Hester and Wilfork sitting in Shapiro?s Opium Garden VIP section. There are two autographed photos Hester gave Shapiro, inscribed ?To Lil Luke, the one that just don?t give a [expletive]?? and ?To: Nevin, Devin?s big cuz 4 life.?

​

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Have most of our players played 7-on-7 before?
That may be all the U has to offer next month

I wouldn't post anything to tease further but a couple current Cane students that played sports with my son were really giving me the jabs this summer at the gym...

Now someone has to find the Shapiro of Auburn

 

[Bill Lucas]

This one goes to 11.

 

[BB73]

In ordrer to show another perspective:

Dan Le Batard (who is a MIami grad, but actually broke the Pell Grant scandal in the '90s) cautions that what exists at this point isn't proof.

Miami.Herald

But precious little of what we?ve seen amid this noise so far can be considered truth, evidence, facts. And the idea that the death penalty is amid the loud speculation doesn?t show much knowledge of even recent or local history.

In 1995, reports had a lot more on-the-record voices than this Yahoo! story detailing all the following: Women humiliated and assaulted and raped in the football dorms, the accused players punished with mere laps. The head coach concealing failed player drug tests from his athletic director to keep them eligible. Players firing guns in dorms. Drunk coaches inviting players to drink with them. A secretary to the assistant coaches buying marijuana for players and smoking it with them. The picture painted had more run-amok lawlessness than the present one, and a lack of institutional control more damning than the one presented even by Shapiro?s wildest accusations, but things like the Internet and social media weren?t around to inflate the noisy hysteria.


That program, it goes without saying, was Miami.


And the angry noise didn?t kill the program then, either.

Cont'd ...
​

 

[HINYG8]

In ordrer to show another perspective:

Dan Le Batard (who is a MIami grad, but actually broke the Pell Grant scandal in the '90s) cautions that what exists at this point isn't proof.

Miami.Herald

Maybe I am looking at it wrong..but much of what he cited as problems in the 90's was more legal than NCAA related..which is why the current circumstances appear far more dire for the program wrt to schollie reductions and bowl bans.

If a kid gets a DUI, smokes some weed, or gets accused of rape..the good news for the program is that he didn't sell his trophies.

Oh, and by the way, acknowledging all of the problems in the 90's does NOT help da U's situation. In fact, it all piles up and makes it much worse.
The disconnect in his logic is that this guy was CLEARLY tied to the program, right to the president, while he was passing out hookers, cash, booze and lord knows what else. It trumps a few players getting high with a secretary. As far as the NCAA is concerned it is more damaging than the dorm rape charges.

 

[MaxBuck]

... this guy was CLEARLY tied to the program, ... passing out ... cash, booze and lord knows what else. It trumps a few players getting high with a secretary. As far as the NCAA is concerned it is more damaging than the dorm rape charges.

That says more about the NCAA than just about everything else in this thread put together.

 

[Gatorubet]

Well, Coach Boom is "all in" on Coach Hill. He is backing him all the way. I only hope that Hill did not do anything while at Miami that will wind up biting us in the tail.

 

[Gatorubet]

Maybe I am looking at it wrong..but much of what he cited as problems in the 90's was more legal than NCAA related..which is why the current circumstances appear far more dire for the program wrt to schollie reductions and bowl bans.

If a kid gets a DUI, smokes some weed, or gets accused of rape..the good news for the program is that he didn't sell his trophies.

Oh, and by the way, acknowledging all of the problems in the 90's does NOT help da U's situation. In fact, it all piles up and makes it much worse.
The disconnect in his logic is that this guy was CLEARLY tied to the program, right to the president, while he was passing out hookers, cash, booze and lord knows what else. It trumps a few players getting high with a secretary. As far as the NCAA is concerned it is more damaging than the dorm rape charges.

The yahoo article says that Shapiro entertained recruits brought by Miami coaches to his house - and that a Miami Athletic Dept. employee took 2 or 3 K from Shapiro to use as "rain" for visits to strip clubs. When you have long term, multiple employee involvement in infractions is when you have LOIC and FTM issues.

 

[cincibuck]

The football players whom Shapiro cited as taking improper benefits from him were Jacory Harris, Vaughn Telemaque, Ray Ray Armstrong, Travis Benjamin, Aldarius Johnson, Marcus Forston, Olivier Vernon, Marcus Robinson, Adewale Ojomo, Dyron Dye, JoJo Nicholas and Sean Spence. Shapiro also alleged to Yahoo Sports that he paid $10,000 to ensure that basketball player DeQuan Jones signed with the Hurricanes.

Today was the first day of classes and as a teacher I just have to say, "Ok, let's not always see the same hands up..."

 

[jlb1705]

Miami Herald

Ouch.

​

The behind-the-scenes is just as compelling as the story itself.

This passage encapsulates why Miami is effed in the ay, and why Robinson's work overshadow whatever it is that George Dohrmann claims to do in every way imaginable:

Shapiro not only talked during that first conversation, he listened as Robinson ran down a list of facts the reporter had already assembled. The next day, Shapiro called Robinson directly. ?A lot of reporters have called and said, ?Tell me your story,? ? Shapiro told Robinson. ?But you?re the first guy to tell me part of my story. I want to talk to you some more.?

 

[Muck]

Now someone has to find the Shapiro of Auburn

Wait...Bobby Lowder is lost?!

 

[LeftCoastBuck]

Curious

I wonder if all of the bounties, bonuses and other cash comp put "da U" over the salary cap

 

[Cincinnatibuck]

I wonder if the current NFL players get punished by Roger Goodell.

 

[Oh8ch]

I wonder if the current NFL players get punished by Roger Goodell.

Goodell hates people who take yacht rides.