Delanoy, speaking exclusively to Yahoo! Sports, said he took part in a three-way call with Bush and former New Era agent and officer David Caravantes in early December 2005, in which he said Bush appeared to be "fully on board" with New Era Sports. During the conversation, Delanoy said Bush voiced approval for several aspects of the web site New Era was planning, which was to include the sale of game-used memorabilia when he went to the NFL.
"Dave (Caravantes) told Reggie that I was one of the top web design marketing companies out there and that I'd be handling a lot of stuff for them in the future. And Reggie said, 'We're cool. I'm down with that,' " Delanoy said.
"I was telling Reggie the revenue that could be generated, looking at it from what I had done in the past with Chad Johnson, Sean Taylor and Willis McGahee. I said: 'Listen, you're one of the biggest names out there. You could be making a lot of money through this thing. We'll get your jersey on sale there and autographed items, pretty much soup to nuts.' I was telling him to save his game-used stuff from USC to sell and that he could be getting thousands of dollars for a pair of cleats. And he was like 'Oh man, yeah, that sounds really good.' And that point, Dave said that (Dave) had actually started working on endorsement deals with shoe companies and things like that."
Asked whether the conversation convinced him Bush was committed to New Era, Delanoy replied, "Yes, totally."
Caravantes, who has been investigated and
fined by the NFL Players Association for his association with New Era, denied the conversation ever took place.
"I spoke with Reggie Bush once in my life and that's it," Caravantes said. "That was late one night when (Lake) got him on the phone with me and I just introduced myself and told him I'd be the agent working for (New Era) if the business got going. That was it. Whatever that guy (Delanoy) is saying is absolutely false. It's absolutely (expletive)."
