Thomas Mott Osborne: “recently the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon) and I joined to introduce the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust…”

“recently the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon) and I joined to introduce the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act. Each year, hundreds of college athletes are offered illegal inducements to enter into contracts prior to the exhaustion of the athletes' eligibility by unscrupulous sports agents. Often these actions result in three major problems. Number one, the loss of the athletes' eligibility. Personally, I experienced having a player back in the 1980s who was offered some illegal inducements, lost his eligibility, and pretty much ruined his career. That same player was involved with some agents who really had given illegal inducements to several players around the country. They were eventually indicted on a number of felonies. They threatened some of the players with bodily harm. However, in the State of Nebraska, we lacked the laws to pursue these agents. Secondly, there is a financial loss to the athlete and the school when illegal agent offers are involved. Again, a personal note, I had a player back in the 1980s who thought he signed a contract for giving 3 percent of his proceeds to the agent, but somewhere buried in the contract was 13 percent. So he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”