NCAA Football

NCAA Fishing for More Alabama Trouble

Posted Aug 24, 2009 2:15PM By Brian Grummell (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Alabama, SEC, Recruiting

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The NCAA is once again looking into Alabama's football program after a, well, fishy report emerged that a person had funded a fishing trip for two of the program's star players. An Alabama man named Curtis Anderson acknowledges paying for both receiver Julio Jones and running back Mark Ingram to go on an offseason fishing trip.

Alabama has investigated the matter and passed along its findings to the Southeastern Conference, which will then be shared with the NCAA. Alabama's defense at face should clear them -- they claim Anderson is not a booster and has zero affiliation with the program. But Alabama was also recently placed on three years probation, this on the heels of just getting cleared of five years' probation in February of 2007. Anderson's story and that of his relationship with the players adds intrigue to the story.

The Birmingham News reports that Anderson is a mess of physical ailments that leaves him unable to even walk.
''I didn't carry them fishing," Anderson said. ''They carried me fishing. I can't even stand up by myself."

Literally.

He said he has degenerative disk disease, among a long list of physical ailments, and has been through six major operations. He said, before his physical problems began, he was an outdoorsman who hunted and fished throughout the United States and Canada.

''For seven years, I haven't been able to go fishing," Anderson said. ''I wanted to go one more time. I said, 'If I can get a hook in one fish, I'll be happy.'" Anderson said the charter boat captain was reluctant to let him take the trip because of his physical condition. He said they were supposed to travel 28 miles out but made it only six miles because he couldn't go any farther. He said the trip was possible only because Jones and Ingram physically carried him onto the boat and supported him while on-board.
There's more to this, I encourage you to read the whole story. Anderson's clearly defensive of the players and calls them close friends, having met them in unexplained circumstances, but claims to have not known nor cared of their football lives for much of the relationship.

There's no way to parse the truth right now, but he's on record and Alabama's also on record with their side of things. This being the NCAA -- which I'm happy to report is having its heart ripped out because a Florida court forced it to reveal "confidential" exchanges between them and Florida State in an unrelated investigation -- you never know where this situation might turn even if everything checks out.

The bottom line is the players received a substantial benefit from an outside party that most of us wouldn't blink twice about but must be accounted for because they are competing in NCAA sanctioned competition.

Tags: Julio+Jones, Mark+Ingram, NCAA

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