ESPN’s Mark Schlabach is reporting Thursday night that a former Carolina football player is at the center of the agent prong at UNC and is the link to the A.J. Green suspension at Georgia.
Chris Hawkins, who played at UNC in the early 2000s before being dismissed from the team and finishing his career at Marshall, is the person who bought Green’s game-worn Independence Bowl jersey for $1,000. The sale of the jersey landed Green in hot water with the NCAA and earned him a four-game suspension because the NCAA classified Hawkins as an agent.
Hawkins, meanwhile, has vigorously denied he is an agent. He apparently befriended Green on Facebook and represented himself as a financial advisor and memorabilia collector before getting Green to sell him the jersey. Hawkins confirmed to ESPN’s Joe Schad that he was the buyer and maintained that the jersey is in a frame in his basement. Hawkins also claims he “didn’t come at A.J. as a marketer or an agent. I’m not an agent…I wanted the jersey because I collect jerseys.”
But a source has told ESPN.com that the NCAA is taking a look into Hawkins’ relationships with current UNC players, including Kendric Burney and Charles Brown, who Hawkins characterized as “good friends”. The source says that Hawkins contacted several agents to gauge their interest in representing Carolina players.
The source said that Carolina players told the NCAA that Hawkins arranged for players to meet at least two agents. The NCAA is also looking into whether or not Hawkins facilitated trips to Atlanta and Las Vegas for players to meet with agents.
One of the agents named by the players, Peter Schaffer of All Pro Sports & Entertainment in Denver, told ESPN that he knew Hawkins and had discussed UNC players with him. Schaffer said, “Chris Hawkins was asked by a couple of players to vet potential agents.” Schaffer represents two former Tar Heels, Hakeem Nicks and Richard Quinn.
Hawkins has also been frequently seen around players facilities in Chapel Hill, often with his old roommate, former UNC running back Willie Parker, and that Hawkins has represented himself as Parker’s “manager”.
While none of this is particularly good news, at least it makes a modicum of sense. Chris Hawkins’ name has been lurking in the shadows of this investigation the whole time, and he would seem to be a more likely candidate to be a runner or an agent’s front man that John Blake, who just happened to be friends with an agent (who represented exactly one player of Blake’s from UNC).
Schaffer claims “Hawkins has never asked him (Schaffer) to do anything to violate NCAA rules. ‘He hasn’t asked me for money and he hasn’t asked me to do anything illegal. In my dealings with him, he’s done nothing improper.’” For his part, Hawkins says “I know many agents and I help my friends sort through the process. It’s not just one. I do lots of research.”
Could Chris Hawkins be the linchpin in the agent prong? He wouldn’t be the first guy to try and be an “adviser” and make a buck off guys who will be playing at the next level. The interesting part is that the NCAA apparently “classified” Hawkins as an agent, instead of saying he “is” an agent. I wish I could find the link, but Someone early in the investigation from the NC Secretary of State’s office at the National Football Post said it is hard to prosecute non-agents (i.e. financial advisors, as Hawkins claims to be) under the UAAA. That comment seems particularly appropriate here and now. (Also, the NFP reported Kendric Burney was flown to Atlanta to meet with agents, which appears to be confirmed by ESPN’s source)
There is also a nebulous area about how and when agents are allowed to contact players, as there is a permissible contact window for players eligible to be drafted. Obviously if Hawkins was paying for travel or somehow providing benefits, that’s a clear violation but I’m sure the NCAA and UNC would have to work hard to separate the permissible from the impermissible at this point. Regardless, the next few days should be interesting as this news makes the rounds.
I just can’t help but think of Hal Holbrook’s admonition about dealing with the FBI to Tom Cruise in the movie “The Firm”, and how it relates to college players and agents: “They invite you to break the law. Doesn’t cost them anything, but it costs you everything.”
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seems the ncaa is nitpicking at anything and everything a past
or current player has done and with who. after spurriers comments
about blakes reputation a few weeks ago i wonder what he ll say
now that South Carolina was officially notified that they too
are being investigated. oh boy the media and everyone else gets to crap on them now lol. where does this end? not just for unc but for the other schools as well?
An interesting irony in the Hal Holbrook quote. It was he who said to Robert Redford in All the President’s Men, “Follow the money. Always follow the money.” It appears this is where it’s going with the NCAA. If so, it won’t be pretty for UNC or the ACC. It’s a sad day for all of us in NC.
“Schaffer said he and Memphis-based agent Jimmy Sexton were invited to spring practice by UNC coach Butch Davis to educate Tar Heels players about NCAA rules regarding agents during spring practice.”
This also worries me. Was Butch involved in this quid pro quo, too?
Sexton is Davis’ agent so him inviting him to educate players does not strike me as a huge deal.
Wow… every time I think it can’t possibly get any worse….
so, again, like the Alabama player, like other players, like Austin, if you took a trip on someone else’s dime, youll have to pay that money to charity and depending on the amount, be suspended up to 4 games.
why was this joker Hawkins dismissed from the team? and why is he allowed to frequently be around the facilities? am *I* allowed to be frequently around the facilities?
i dont know if the NCAA is going to be able to see that HAwkins is an agent for sure, but that doesnt stop my first paragraph from being true. unless Burney or Brown can show where they paid for their trip or whatever, theyre going to be suspended for 4 games.
no GT, no Rutgers, no ECU.
and no problem from me. they HAVE to have been told numerous times about taking trips. TRIPS have to be right up there at the top of the Uh-oh list right after cash payments, for pete’s sake.
get a freakin anonymous email and chat to some agent. why in the world do you need to GO see one in Atlanta or Miami or anywhere? thats just dumb.
tell the agent to come to Sutton’s, go dutch on lunch, and youre golden.
and where is ROBERT Quinn’s name in all this. David Glenn keeps saying he is part of the agent prong, but where are the details? as a rising junior, he isnt allowed to even go dutch at Sutton’s.
FYI, StateFansNation currently has 15 posts on the main page. 12 are related to the UNC scandal. Zero are related to tomorrow’s game vs UCF. Pretty much sums up how State fans look at the world doesn’t it?
“FYI, StateFansNation currently has 15 posts on the main page. 12 are related to the UNC scandal. Zero are related to tomorrow’s game vs UCF. Pretty much sums up how State fans look at the world doesn’t it?”
It would be the same if there was no NCAA investigation at UNC.
At this point the average State fan probably knows the names of more people on UNC’s roster (specifically, all the guys being investigated) then they do on their own team’s roster. But in their defense, there really is no reason to care about their football team…
Schlabach tells David Glenn that Quinn and Green are friends from the same hometown and that Quinn introduced Green to Hawkins via Facebook.
That’s it?
” am *I* allowed to be frequently around the facilities?”
One thing about the UNC campus that differs from many is how open the entire campus and many buildings are to visitors. I prefer to run stairs and the old track at Kenan so I guess I am frequently at the facilities. Now if that includes the weight room and other areas that’s another matter. It seems as though the “family” aspect of all UNC programs draws former players on campus and working with the current players. I think this is even more common in the basketball program. Tyler was in CH all Summer and many former players workout at UNC over the Summer, I would take the risk every time over a completely closed program.
Hard to know what comes next hopefully everyone shares all the information they have quickly so we get past all of these issues. It doesn’t sound as though we are close to the end of the academic problems though.
Hey, I can name State’s entire starting 22. Just give me a few minutes on Google…. I keed, I keed!!
Question. If this were Duke or State would THF be covering the scandal? I submit that either Brian or Doc, if not both, would be covering it, if not here, then on TSB. I don’t fault SFN for covering it, although I take a much different approach than they do. But again, I’m not your average State Fan either. (Did I use than correctly or should it have been then?)
Also, keep in mind that SFN changed a lot when they added their forums. I don’t visit the forums there often, but it is my impression that there is a lot more State related info there. I never visit either IC or PP, by the way, unless I get there by accident while researching a recruit, but I digress.
Good luck to the Heels tomorrow against the dreaded Bye. Those suckers can be tough sometimes. Hopefully this Bye will not result in devastating injuries, er, suspensions, er, expulsions to any players. Or coaches.
Another Friday marking another week of speculation and rumors. How about if I extend the Wolfpack Olive Branch and invite you all to root for the Red and White against UCF tomorrow?
Oh, and on topic, dude was booted from the team in 2003 for “violating team rules”. All I could find in my very quick google search was that he may have partaken in some sort of hazing/beating event. So the question about him having access, after he was kicked off the team, gets a little puzzling to me.
I know it is no where near the same, but do you think Damien Wilkins hangs out at the RBC? Um, not so much.
And how could Hawkins put Green in that position to begin with? All he had to do was say something like “Yo, keep it on the DL but after you leave UGA I want to buy a game worn jersey from you, so throw one aside for me if you can. I’ll make it worth your while.” Then wait for dude to leave school and get your stupid jersey for your collection. Hawkins had to know it was against NCAA rules for dude to sell him a jersey. Something smells bad here, and while it could be the dried sweat on said jersey, I think it is something even dirtier.
But hey, I’ve been wrong on everything so far, right?
^Mike – I’m not suggesting that the problems at UNC shouldn’t get any coverage on SFN. But when, as HeelYeah observed earlier today, 12 of 15 posts on the main page were about what’s happening at UNC, and there are zero posts about State’s football game tomorrow then doesn’t provide some real quantitative evidence that at least that portion of NC State’s fan base is more interested in rooting AGAINST someone else’s program then rooting FOR their own?
^^Nice, 2003, dismissed for violating team rules = not get caught smoking weed. That seemed to be on of the biggest issues during the CWSNBN era.
As to SFN, I’m not sure where it fits is Pack Pride = Inside Carolina? Is SFN like a Deadspin for State Fans? I don’t know what the online universe looks like and I guess I’m not that interested. I know that EDSBS joined SBNation but it seems to be pretty much the same content. Jerseys, shoes, pish posh – it doesn’t sound right is true. That’s a really odd bit of business.
I did see somewhere that the NCAA wants you to provide a preliminary report with your ideas on punishment then they share their thoughts. I’m not sure that makes any sense, I guess I could do that but I would have to develop an appendix and release my thoughts on the punishment based on the infraction and the previous punishment handed down by the NCAA. So I’d be telling the NCAA what they have done in the past and what makes sense going forward. Not logical. Either the school worked with you or not, they hide the information or they shared it freely, they lost complete control over the situation or they didn’t. Do your job NCAA and you tell me.
It appears Hawkins as yet to go to trial for felony cocaine possession in GA. He could be innocent though, he said he was moving stuff for Willie Parker. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5576687&campaign=rss&source=NCFHeadlines