AggieDiver
Contributor
Regarding the whole Manziel thing, it just boils down to who you believe. The memorabilia brokers are a bunch of really sleazy shady guys, and there have been investigative news stories in the past showing that the "authentication" agencies like JSA are not very diligent about looking for proof that a signature was authentic as long as the person requesting the authentication paid their $10 per item fee. I have no doubt that Johnny signed some stuff for these guys, but just from even a quick look at some of the stuff that was on EBay, there are alot of very obvious forgeries. So the whole line from ESPN was "look at how many things he signed, nobody would sign that many for free!" But what if he only signed less than 10% of the things? Brokers have been busted autopenning lots of stuff in the past, and most of the "thousands" of items supposedly out there for sale with Johnny's signature on them are pictures or other flat paper items that are very conducive to autopenning. So the question is do you believe Johnny if he says he signed 10-20 items for a guy at each of these alleged signings? Or do you believe the broker who claims he had him sign 500 things at once?
I totally understand that I have maroon blinders on this subject, but I just don't believe that he took money to sign, and here is why. His family is loaded. His dad bought him a Mercedes to drive, he can go anywhere, anytime he wants and doesn't need "pocket change" like a few grand when he can get it from his parents. At the same time, he is clearly focused on the NFL and wants to play at the next level. He also was intensively counseled by A&M's compliance office about what he can and can't do before he ever went to New York for the Heisman award ceremony. So given that he is focused on the NFL, knows that the 2013 season is his meal ticket to the NFL, knows exactly what he can and can't do to stay eligible, I just don't see him jeopardizing all of it for a few grand in walking around money that he doesn't even need.
On the other hand, I know his signature on anything was worth a fortune earlier this year. So it is entirely believable to me that when a few shady brokers got him to sign 10 or 15 things for them, that they would take a picture of him signing it and then forge a bunch more signatures on other stuff and submit it all for authentication in one batch. Why not right? Every time they autopen a signature, it is like printing money for them. And unlike Johnny, they don't have a trust fund to take care of whatever they need. So when somebody comes along and says hey, where are all these hundreds of items with his signature coming from...what are the brokers going to do, admit to forgery and comitting mail fraud by selling them online? Or claim that they paid Johnny to sign hundreds of items? One path makes the broker look sleazy, the other path makes the broker admit to a crime for which they can go to jail.
In the end, as an Aggie, I want to believe Johnny didn't get paid to do it, but who really knows. Given that it is a crime in Texas to knowingly do something that harms the eligibility of a student athlete, I think there is zero chance of any hard evidence ever coming out from any of the guys who supposedly paid him. With that lack of evidence facing them, the NCAA did the only thing they really could which was get A&M and Johnny to accept the slap for the other violation of signing stuff he should have known would be sold for profit, and wash their hands of the matter. If they tried to get any more severe with what they were punishing him for, they would have faced calls to mete out the same punishment for guys like Clowney, Bridgwater, McCarron, etc who also have hundreds of items out there for sale with their names on them. Hitting too many at once would have likely triggered another lawsuit like the EA Sports lawsuit, but this time over who owns a player's signature.
Oh well...can't wait for the season to start...looking forward to September 14th. Gig Em Aggies!
I totally understand that I have maroon blinders on this subject, but I just don't believe that he took money to sign, and here is why. His family is loaded. His dad bought him a Mercedes to drive, he can go anywhere, anytime he wants and doesn't need "pocket change" like a few grand when he can get it from his parents. At the same time, he is clearly focused on the NFL and wants to play at the next level. He also was intensively counseled by A&M's compliance office about what he can and can't do before he ever went to New York for the Heisman award ceremony. So given that he is focused on the NFL, knows that the 2013 season is his meal ticket to the NFL, knows exactly what he can and can't do to stay eligible, I just don't see him jeopardizing all of it for a few grand in walking around money that he doesn't even need.
On the other hand, I know his signature on anything was worth a fortune earlier this year. So it is entirely believable to me that when a few shady brokers got him to sign 10 or 15 things for them, that they would take a picture of him signing it and then forge a bunch more signatures on other stuff and submit it all for authentication in one batch. Why not right? Every time they autopen a signature, it is like printing money for them. And unlike Johnny, they don't have a trust fund to take care of whatever they need. So when somebody comes along and says hey, where are all these hundreds of items with his signature coming from...what are the brokers going to do, admit to forgery and comitting mail fraud by selling them online? Or claim that they paid Johnny to sign hundreds of items? One path makes the broker look sleazy, the other path makes the broker admit to a crime for which they can go to jail.
In the end, as an Aggie, I want to believe Johnny didn't get paid to do it, but who really knows. Given that it is a crime in Texas to knowingly do something that harms the eligibility of a student athlete, I think there is zero chance of any hard evidence ever coming out from any of the guys who supposedly paid him. With that lack of evidence facing them, the NCAA did the only thing they really could which was get A&M and Johnny to accept the slap for the other violation of signing stuff he should have known would be sold for profit, and wash their hands of the matter. If they tried to get any more severe with what they were punishing him for, they would have faced calls to mete out the same punishment for guys like Clowney, Bridgwater, McCarron, etc who also have hundreds of items out there for sale with their names on them. Hitting too many at once would have likely triggered another lawsuit like the EA Sports lawsuit, but this time over who owns a player's signature.
Oh well...can't wait for the season to start...looking forward to September 14th. Gig Em Aggies!
