The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "sports agents" ...
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O.J. Mayo's Inner Circle
NBA star O.J. Mayo was found to have been involved with a secret bank account and credit card used to finance luxurious gifts, meals, and travel. Mayo's agent Calvin Andrews was suspended by the National Basketball Players Association.
Tags: sports agent; USC; Minnesota Timberwolves; Memphis Grizzlies; NCAA; lobbying;
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Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids scandal that Rocked Professional Sports
San Francisco Chronicle reporters broke the story that some elite athletes used drugs to "run faster, hit harder, and cash in on the fame that comes only to those at the very top of their games." Fainaru-Wada and Williams used"Federal Grand Jury transcripts and federal investigative reports... court records and state health department records," among other documents. (332 pages)
Tags: steroids; drugs; BALCO; Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative; San Francisco Chronicle; Victor Conte; Major League Baseball; football; track and field; California Public Records Act; Federal Grand Jury; sports agents; trainers; sports doping; Olympics; Justice Department; IRS; U.S. Anti-Doping Agency; USADA
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Dominican Gold Rush
The series looks at how young baseball hopefuls from the Dominican Republic become targets for abuse by "buscones," or independent scouts or agents who take a cut of the potentially huge signing bonuses from American major league teams. Buscones encourage young players to drop out of school and, in some cases, encourage them to take harmful veterinary nutrients as cheap substitutes for anabolic steroids.
Tags: major league baseball; steroids; minor leagues; sports agents; scouts; Arizona Diamondbacks
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Free Agent Professors. Florida's universities are spending big to recruit top-level professors.
Universities, like sports teams, can hire green, inexpensive talent and wait for it to mature. Or they can adopt the strategy of going after free agent talent --more expensive, but with the potential for immediate impact.
Tags: universities; professors; top
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The Foreign Game
The Dayton Daily News investigates the growing number of foreign athletes at high schools in and around Dayton. The investigation reveals that "a sophisticated and often secret network of sports agents, coaches and middlemen are flooding American high schools and colleges with foreign athletes. The network, frequently using deception to conceal violations of high-school and college athletic regulations, is driven by schools hungry for championships, by foreign athletes desperate to live in America, and by sports agents poised to make millions should a single grateful player become a star."
Tags: sports; foreign students; athletes; crime; regulations; NCAA; high schools; education; immigration; recruiting; violations; coach; high school athletics; collegic athletics; visas; exchange programs; immigration; agents; extended elligibility
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Top Dollar, Top Coaches
Wieberg examines Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops and Florida coach Steve Spurrier as prime examples of some of the million dollar coaches in college athletics. Stoops and Spurrier, who are guaranteed $2 million a year and $2.1 million respectively, are among 39 coaches from major basketball and football program's around the country that are making at least $1 million a year. Coaches have hired agents to work out their contracts, asking for millions along with added incentives for performance, knowing that athletic departments will pay for what they believe is success. A growing number of college officials feel the coaches salary issue has become part of an "escalating athletics arms race that a majority of schools can't afford." College faculty have also started to object, questioning paying the coaches more then tenured professors or college deans. Combined with increased spending on sports facilities, many wonder if universities have shifted their main focus away from education to entertainment.
Tags: Sports; college athletics; coaches
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A Push to Punish Unscrupulous Agents
When sports agents give money illegally to student athletes the student loses their eligibility while the agent often goes unpunished. Bart Gorden, a congressman from Tennessee, wants to remedy that problem with the College Athletic Integrity Act. This proposal will allow unscrupulous agents to be fined or imprisoned.
Tags: Sports Agents
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Marcus Camby Investigation
Marcus Camby, the National College Basketball Player of the Year (1996) of the University of Massachusetts, and two friends took jewelry, money, rental cars and had sex with prostitutes at would-be agent Wesley Spears' behest. The NCAA is now looking into major reforms for agents as well as ways to compensate athletes so they can stay in school.
Tags: NCAA reform; sport agents; Marcus Camby investigation; Contest entry
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Agent Probe Targets Son of George Allen
The Journal-Constitution examines how agent Bruce Allen took advantage of NFL players he represented.
Tags: NFL; Allen; sports agents
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McCants Agent's Tactics Questioned
Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines cash-for-athletes recruiting violations; sports agent Lance Luchnick has admitted he gave money to athletes and coaches in violation of NCAA rules; other violations include possible maile and/or wire fraud, signing college football players before their eligibility expired, and real estate fraud.
Tags: McCants NFL NBA