GEORGE KIMBALL / OUT OF AMERICA: In the murky world of collegiate athletic eligibility, the revelation that a well-heeled booster has been caught slipping cash to another student-athlete is a dog-bites-man story if ever there was one. But the latest case, which found itself splashed across the front page of the sports sections of newspapers in a few southern states this week, offers up a new twist: the apparent conduit for the illegal payments was Wayne Rowe, who happens to be a sportswriter for the Mobile (Alabama) Register.
The beneficiary of the largesse was Tee Martin, a back-up quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers currently spending his spring in Germany, playing for the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe. According for documents only now surfacing, in February of 1999, when Martin was the starting quarterback for the University of Tennessee, a Mobile-based insurance executive named Diane Sanford made out two cheques totalling $4,500 to Rowe. The sportswriter in turn passed the money along to Martin (pictured below).
Had the subterfuge been discovered then, rather than now, Martin's collegiate eligibility would have been immediately compromised, along with Tennessee's national championship.
Since that title is unofficially conferred, it will probably remain undisturbed, but there is a possibility the current investigation could result in Tennessee's forfeiting games in which Martin subsequently played, and that its Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship could be retroactively voided.
Rowe attempted to offer in his defence that he was acting in the capacity of a family friend and not as a journalist.
"Tee knew my kids," said the 46- year-old Rowe this week in an interview with his newspaper. "He'd come over and play video games and mess around. It was never a thing where I was trying to profit from him."
Now, admittedly, the Sanford-Rowe- Martin transactions were fairly small potatoes compared to some other transgressions which have recently come to light. Stories had abounded for years, for instance, that the University of Michigan's "Fab Five", who won the NCAA basketball title a decade ago, had been bought and paid for.
An internal investigation five years ago had unearthed sufficient irregularities to cost coach Steve Fisher his job, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed sanctions of its own, but only last month did the whole picture begin to emerge with the indictment of booster Ed Martin. (Who is unrelated to Tee.)
Although Michigan players of the era, most prominently Chris Webber (now of the Sacramento Kings), had steadfastly denied receiving payments from Martin, when placed under oath their testimony confirmed everyone's worst fears. Webber acknowledged having been "loaned" approximately $280,000 from Martin, dating back to 1988, when he was a freshman at Birmingham Detroit Country Day School, until 1993, when, after leading the Wolverines to their national title, he bolted the school and declared himself eligible for the NCAA draft following his sophomore season.
Asked about Webber's turnabout on the witness stand, his lawyer explained that "it's one thing to mislead reporters, and quite another to lie to a grand jury". The upshot of it was that Martin had "loaned" over $600,000 to Michigan players (nearly half of it to Webber alone), in what was apparently a combined act of boosterism to the extreme and, at a more basic level, money- laundering.
It was Martin's clumsy attempt to hide profits from an illegal gambling ring he had been running at the Ford Motor plant that ultimately drew the scrutiny of the authorities.
THE involvement of the sportswriter in the Tennessee case was also discovered almost by accident. It came to light as the result of a lawsuit brought by Aarco Insurance Company against Diane Sanford and her husband, Paul, charging financial irregularities while Diane Sanford was an executive with the firm.
According to Rowe, he hadn't even known Ms Sanford three years ago when she phoned him up out of the blue and asked if he could "get something to Tee", but, the sportswriter now admits, he said "sure". Rowe dropped by the company offices, picked up a cheque for $2,000 made out in his name and written against an Aarco account, cashed it, and wired the money to Tee Martin. Three weeks later he repeated the process, this time with a cheque for $2,500.
Rowe now appears prepared to play the race card. His explanation is that because he is one of the few black members of his profession, black players "trust him", and that he didn't realise he was doing anything wrong.
Sure.
Diane Sanford was fired by the company in September of 1999, eight months after initiating the process by which the money was funnelled to Tee Martin. With parallel investigations under way last week, on Wednesday - the same day a Southeastern conference investigator was deposing Rowe, the newspaperman and the money trail seemed to be leading to his wife - Mobile police responded to a suicide attempt involving Ms Sanford's husband.
Paul Sanford died at the University of South Alabama Medical Centre this past Monday. Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey says the university will take no action pending the SEC investigation, and the SEC says it will turn over all relevant documents to the NCAA.
And here's the most bizarre part of all: as of yesterday morning, Wayne Rowe still had a job at the Register.
