Georgia announced on Thursday that they were suspending star running back Todd Gurley indefinitely pending an investigation into potential NCAA violations. A report from college football reporter Bruce Feldman says Gurley’s violation is memorabilia-related.
What’s really interesting about this story is that a memorabilia insider went on Reddit and predicted this story was coming less than two weeks ago.
The memorabilia dealer hosted an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit six months ago about how college athletes get paid for signatures. Here’s how the dealer described himself in the AMA:
Hey guys, I am a dealer that deals directly with NCAA players. Most of you read a lot about this type of business last off season when the media broke a story about a certain Heisman winner. I am doing this because I get asked a lot about what I do from friends and customers so I thought I’d answer a few questions for [Reddit college football].
On Sept. 27, that same memorabilia dealer posted again on the Reddit forum saying “something is going to come out” on the player in question, though he did not name names. He did say the player “was going overboard with getting paid.”
I did an AMA here and I mentioned that there was a high profile player that was a potential Heisman candidate that was going overboard with getting paid. The mods asked me not to mention any names so I kept their name private. They are definitely a Heisman candidate this year, 100%.
I said in there that I wouldn’t be surprised if something comes out on them before they reach the NFL.
Something is going to come out on them. With the way ESPN tears down people for a story, they are going to do the same thing they did with Manziel. He is having a ridiculous season and I have heard from a few people that they have been contacted by writers at ESPN trying to get someone to leak any information. I am almost positive one of the guys did.If they go with the story, it will be on the front page of ESPN. Guaranteed.
When folks on the Reddit forum did some followup, they found that autographed memorabilia by Gurley was plentiful on eBay. There were 258 results of autographed memorabilia from Gurley, compared to 40 for Marcus Mariota, 31 for Melvin Gordon, and 18 for Brett Hundley, who are other Heisman candidates.
Even though most people can agree that the NCAA rules are wrong and that players should be able to sell/capitalize on their likeness, Gurley made himself an obvious target by getting greedy.
