Sports Agent Josh Luchs Speaks Out On Sports Central
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) -- A former sports agent tells Sports Illustrated he paid college football players and several of them confirm it to the magazine. He sat down with Sports Central's Jim Hill, Wednesday to explain why he did it.
Josh Luchs says in the Oct. 18 edition he paid more than 30 players from 1990-96, including many who didn't sign with him.
He says quarterback Ryan Leaf, the second pick in the 1998 draft who flopped in the pros, took more than $10,000, most of which he paid back after signing with another agent.
Leaf declined to comment on specific allegations.
Luchs also says he paid first-round picks Jamir Miller and Chris Mims.
Miller declined comment.
Mims died in 2008. Luchs was suspended for a year by the NFL Players Association in 2007 over the handling of a commission check.
He says he's telling his story because "I don't want my career to be defined by that suspension."
Miller played at UCLA from 1991-1993 and was the 10th overall pick in the 1994 draft.
According to the report, eight players confirmed to SI that they had accepted money or benefits from Luchs.
Several of them, including former USC receiver R. Jay Soward, said they took the payments because their scholarship didn't provide enough money for rent and food.
"I would do it again," Soward said. "I have four sons, and if somebody offered my son money in college and it meant he didn't have to be hungry, I would tell him to take it."
Other local players who he claims to have paid: Ryan Fien (UCLA), Carl Greenwood (UCLA), Othello Henderson (UCLA), Matt Soenksen (UCLA), Chris Alexander (UCLA), Bruce Walker (UCLA), Vaughn Parker (UCLA), Deion Washington (USC), Phalen Pounds (USC) and Travis Claridge (USC).
