USA Today Article on AD

[Blues1]

LINK


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/big12/2006-08-28-oklahoma-peterson-cover_x.htm



R"

[GDC]

Ankle injury not sidelining OU's Cooper
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
8/28/2006

NORMAN -- Jon Cooper knew something was wrong when he heard the bones crack.

He was surrounded by 21 other football players, pushing, shoving and grunting, jammed onto the goal line. They were swarmed by 52,625 frenzied Red Raider fans crammed into Jones Stadium.

But the sound that came from inside Cooper's ankle was unmistakable.

"We heard a loud pop," said Chris Messner, Cooper's teammate on the Oklahoma offensive line, "and we were like, 'Oh, crap.' "

Cooper's right ankle was stepped on during a goal-line play. The misstep left his foot and lower fibula dangling, turned almost 180 degrees.

"It didn't really hurt right then," Cooper said. "I mean, it hurt at first, because we were on the goal line and people were laying on it. I was like, 'Get off!' I was just kind of laying there trying to get up, and everybody was like, 'Don't look at it.' "

Left tackle Davin Joseph, now playing in the NFL, knelt down and tried to steady Cooper.

"I looked at it," Cooper said, "and kind of went in shock."

He wasn't the only one.

"I looked down at his foot and there was something clearly wrong with it," said Messner, who played right tackle that game. "Very gruesome."



Now, nine months later, Cooper is still recovering from the injury. That day back in November was just the second career start for the first-year freshman from Fort Collins, Colo. His promising future was abruptly snapped.

Cooper, now a sophomore, has regained his starting job as the Sooners' center. Immediate surgery and a follow-up operation left him with a seven-inch scar on the outside of his lower leg. Inside is a steel plate and 10 tiny screws holding things together. He says his bones have healed but the ligaments are "still sore, still weak."

Cooper's mother, Chris, said her son's recovery has been slow and painful -- and educational.

"Just out of my own ignorance, I thought, 'OK, he has a broken leg and bones heal, so we'll move right along.' I didn't understand all the complexities of the injury," she said. "The doctors and trainers have been very good helping us understand his healing process. As he goes along, they've explained that some things are going to hurt but that doesn't mean he's incurring more injury. It doesn't physically harm him just because it may be painful. . . . But I trust them. They've been very good."

Cooper's parents were at Jones Stadium that day. Tom Cooper, an assistant football coach at Fort Collins High School, had a playoff game the night before, and he and Chris left Fort Collins about 11 p.m. and drove to Lubbock. They rolled in about 9 a.m., changed clothes at the McDonald's down the street and went to the game. But they didn't stay long.

It was the first play of the second quarter. OU running back Adrian Peterson had gained a yard to the Texas Tech 1-yard line, setting up a fourth-and-goal.

"I heard it, first off," Messner said. "Right as the play was ending. It was a goal-line play, so it didn't last very long. . . ."

Dr. Brock Schnebel, OU's team physician, was out quickly and set the bone back in place.

"That's when it really started to hurt," Cooper said.

Within minutes, Schnebel and his staff were on the phone with Cooper's parents.

"I was just terrified because my son was hurt," Chris Cooper said. "I was told not to look. My husband said, 'His foot's pointing in the wrong direction; don't look.' So I didn't."

Jon Cooper, of course, missed Peterson's 1-yard touchdown run on the next play, as well as the game's controversial ending.

Going into this season, offensive line was the Sooners' area of greatest need. Messner, now at left tackle, is the only returning starter. Projected starter J.D. Quinn was kicked off the team. Projected starters Branndon Braxton and Duke Robinson are, like Cooper, only sophomores. And Cooper still isn't 100 percent.

"It's real important to have him back. He's a really big part off the O-line," said Robinson, who said he sees Cooper as something of a veteran "because he's really got most of everything down pat with his job, what he's supposed to be doing."

Cooper always felt a sense of urgency to get back on the field, no matter how much his leg and ankle hurt.

"Oh man, every time I think about it, it just starts to hurt again . . . Now, it feels like I can play. It still hurts and swells up, but I can play on it.

"From spring break until now, it's gotten 100 percent better."


John E. Hoover 581-8384
[email protected].

[XingTheRubicon]

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
NORMAN, Okla. — He had an agent's look, in his mid- to upper 30s and sport-jacketed slick. And he wanted Adrian Peterson to know: He was flush with cash.
"I can help you financially right now," the guy said, sidling up to Oklahoma's star running back at an NBA All-Star function in Houston in February. "Anything you need, I can give it to you. Whatever amount you ask for. Ten. Twenty. Whatever."

Peterson shakes his head as he recalls the meeting. The man was talking thousands, of course. Who knew where he might have stopped? "It was kind of crazy," he says. "I was, like, 'I'm OK. I'm cool. I appreciate it.' "

Uncomfortable, the then-20-year-old player walked away.

Peterson has done that — passed on offers that would have compromised his college eligibility and put Oklahoma in the cross hairs of NCAA investigators — five times since he has been at the school, he says.

You wonder what it's like to be college football's Big Thing, a fabulous blend of power, speed and instinct, the Heisman Trophy runner-up as a freshman and a potential top-two or three NFL draft pick in April? Yes, there are the cheers of 80,000 plus in OU's Memorial Stadium. Multiple entries in the record book and more approaching. And there is this: an all-out assault on Peterson's privacy and principles in what most everyone expects to be his final year on campus.

He opens his junior season when Oklahoma hosts Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) on Saturday, and he'll be eligible for the draft when it ends. Barring injury or stacked defenses taking a dramatic bite out of his production, he's looking at tens of millions of dollars written into a five- or six-year pro contract.

He's also looking at a queue of agents, marketers and others who hope to share that wealth.

"Everybody wants to do something for him. Or for his family," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says. "In the end, everything has a string attached. ... You've got to understand that.

"I've talked to him a lot. ... Look down the road. Even though it seems attractive now, suck it up. Wait for the right time. Protect your image, do things right, and you'll gain 20, 30, 40 times more than whatever you're being offered now. If you'll just be patient."

California-based agent Gary Wichard concedes having eyes for Peterson but insists he won't be part of the over-pursuit. "I'm going to let him play football first," he says.

Too many others, he grumbles, "will do nothing short of an unnatural act to get involved with him."

Going into the final week of preseason practice, agents are only part of the crush.

Peterson's cellphone typically logs more than 100 voice and text messages a day, many from fans and others outside the circle of teammates, family and friends who are supposed to have his number. Dinners in public have long stopped being interruption-free.

He's already a presence on eBay, an OU helmet with his signature going for $499.99, a signed football for $199.99.

Atop that is unrelenting scrutiny from the media and school officials skittish about any brush with NCAA rules. They monitor everything from the car he wheels into the parking lot to the postgame company he keeps, threat levels raised by OU's recent dismissal of starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and lineman J.D. Quinn because of job-pay improprieties.

Another cautionary tale comes from Southern California. The end of Reggie Bush's three-year, Heisman-winning run with the Trojans was marked by investigations into allegations that a would-be marketer plied his mother and stepfather with improper inducements.

"I don't know what the wherewithal of his parents is, but let's say they're poor people," Bush's marketing agent, Mike Ornstein, says of Peterson. "Somebody comes up and offers $50,000 for your son, and you say no. And they come back about a week later and say, 'We'll give you a hundred grand.' And you say no. And then they get up to 200 grand, and that's more than you made in 20 years.

"Now you have to start hoping they continue to say no. It's a very, very tough thing."

Bush comparisons

Peterson, now 21, has lived some version of this bordering-on-mad life since running to superstardom at Palestine (Texas) High School, where he amassed 2,960 yards and 32 touchdowns as a senior in 2003.

A 1,925-yard, 15-TD freshman season at Oklahoma turned up the heat. The first agent to hit on him, he says, stopped him in the lobby of the team's hotel in Miami a day after he and the Sooners were blown out of their national championship showdown with USC in the 2005 FedEx Orange Bowl.

Peterson counts about 20 contacts by agents just since late December, when his sophomore season ended with 80 yards in a 17-14 win vs. Oregon in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

His mother, Bonita Jackson, estimates she has been approached seven or eight times in the last month. Responding to e-mailed inquiries submitted through Oklahoma's sports information department, she says, "I just tell them to send me the information and we'll get back with them at a later time."

By phone and in person, Stoops has gone over the do's and don'ts with her and her husband, Frank. Everything from how and where they may be approached to how they could get tripped up by accepting something as seemingly innocuous as lunch.

The NCAA allows players and their families to talk with agents but not sign with them or accept any sort of benefit.

Note that Peterson hasn't said he'll jump into next year's draft. He quickly turns aside questions about his plans, though it has been a common assumption that he'd play a requisite three years with the Sooners and move on to the NFL.

If, indeed, the 6-2, 222-pound prodigy enters the 2007 draft, former Dallas Cowboys personnel director Gil Brandt projects him as a top-five pick. "This guy is so special," says Brandt, an analyst for NFL.com, "he has a chance to be (No.) 1 or 2."

Here's where agents' eyes light up. Bush, this year's No. 2 pick, signed a six-year contract with the New Orleans Saints worth up to $62.05 million. He's guaranteed $26.325 million.

A contract agent's standard cut is 3%, though players in Bush's draft stratosphere can negotiate a smaller cut. Say it's 11/2%. That's nearly $395,000 guaranteed and more than $930,000 for the agent if his client plays the six years.

Move on to marketing deals. Agents who handle them get anywhere from 10%-20%, Ornstein says. He has hooked Bush up with Hummer, Pepsi, Subway, EA Sports video games and Adidas, among others, for amounts he says total in the "mid-seven figures." Ten percent would put Ornstein's cut somewhere in the half-million-dollar area. Twenty percent would mean around a million.

Coach-parent connections

Stoops would prefer that agents making honest inquiries be directed to him, he says. He typically tries to control the process by making a conference room in OU's football complex available for their meetings with players and parents. Stoops also may sit in or pull in another member of his or the school's compliance staff.

"If they have something good to say," he says, "they'll say it in front of us."

Bonita Jackson says neither she nor her husband has been offered anything illicit. Stoops says he trusts them. And he says he trusts Peterson's natural father, Nelson, who's re-entering Peterson's life after serving seven years in federal prison for laundering drug money. Now living in a halfway house in Oklahoma City, he's scheduled for full release in October.

"I've talked with his dad quite often, and his dad has been nothing but a positive, strong influence to him," Stoops says.

But as USC appears to have learned from Bush's family, who can be certain?

"There's constant angst," Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione says. "Regardless of how many bases we've covered, we're always asking ourselves: 'Did we do enough?' Then: 'What is enough?' "

OU, like most schools, routinely holds educational sessions for athletes that cover such issues as substance abuse and gambling, as well as agents. Additional steps are taken with high-profile players.

In Peterson's case, Castiglione says, OU officials pulled him aside "to punctuate some of these things a little bit more" as soon as the celebrated recruit arrived on campus in 2004. They talk to him "periodically through the year when we instinctively feel the need to provide some friendly reminders."

Before games, the school reviews his and other players' complimentary ticket lists. At games, security personnel monitor who's lingering outside the locker room or in hotels on the road. During the week, compliance officers keep an eye on parking lots and run checks on player-driven cars that might raise suspicions.

Cautious optimism

When Peterson was spotted in a late-model Lexus several times last spring, for example, it spawned an investigation. He says he was test-driving it, and there was no NCAA violation. But out of that review, Castiglione says, grew the investigation that uncovered Bomar's and Quinn's offenses. The now-banished players claimed pay for more hours than they'd worked at the same dealership that sent Peterson out with the Lexus. Peterson, too, had worked at the dealership during the summers of 2004 and 2005, according to Castiglione, but an OU investigation of his and other Oklahoma players' employment there raised no more red flags.

"I've heard only good things about him," Wichard says. "It doesn't sound like he'd do anything to jeopardize his situation or make a poor choice."

Stoops trusts his star, too, he says. But it's cautious optimism. "You trust people to make the right decisions and understand that (when something's offered), hey, this isn't right," he says. "And if these people are doing it wrong at this point, what makes you think they're going do it the right way when you're allowed to be fully signed with them and represented by them? To me, a cheater's a cheater. Their stripes are their stripes. They don't change.

"You do your best to get people to understand that.".

[Sooner-N-KS]

Thanks for posting that article. It's incredible what these guys are facing out there.

I wish the NCAA would work on a better system to take care of the athletes better so that they don't have to work and are less tempted by these people wanting to give them money.

It also brings up the topic of USC/Bush. Is that still being investigated or just forgotten about? Is there still a threat of USC losing it's 2004 NC and other NCAA penalties?

I guess from what I can see the PAC-10 is investigating, but I'm surprised it's still a quiet issue.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=dw-bush042806&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Bush
On April 24, 2006, a week before the 2006 NFL Draft, a report surfaced raising questions about whether Bush's family received improper benefits during Bush's final college season. The questions involved a home valued at $757,000 located in Spring Valley, California which Reggie Bush's mother, stepfather and brother lived in during the 2005 season. The home was owned by a man with ties to a recently started sports marketing company. If Bush and his family paid less than fair market value on the rental, then this would equate to a gift prohibited by NCAA policies. USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said the school has requested that the Pacific-10 Conference look into the matter. If Bush is ruled ineligible, USC could be forced to forfeit every game that Bush played in after losing his eligibility. The school could also be put on probation or banned from bowl games but that would likely depend on how much it knew or should have known about any violations. Bush could also potentially risk losing his 2005 Heisman Trophy because the official Heisman ballot states the following: "In order that there will be no misunderstanding regarding the eligibility of a candidate, the recipient of the award must be a bonafide student of an accredited university. The recipient must be in compliance with the bylaws defining an NCAA student."

[Collier11]

Thanks for posting that article. It's incredible what these guys are facing out there.

I wish the NCAA would work on a better system to take care of the athletes better so that they don't have to work and are less tempted by these people wanting to give them money.

It also brings up the topic of USC/Bush. Is that still being investigated or just forgotten about? Is there still a threat of USC losing it's 2004 NC and other NCAA penalties?

I guess from what I can see the PAC-10 is investigating, but I'm surprised it's still a quiet issue.



I havent heard anything in a while, but the last I had heard was something like Bush had no idea that his parents were living in a illegal house(????) therefore he couldnt be held at fault

[Blues1]

I havent heard anything in a while, but the last I had heard was something like Bush had no idea that his parents were living in a illegal house(????) therefore he couldnt be held at fault


Yea- Sure - He thought they won the Lotto ....! ---- :D



Yep Still R'

[Jason White's Third Knee]

I had a guy offer me 10, 20 or whatever I wanted too, but he wasn't an agent... and it wasn't thousands... and it wasn't for football.

That was the last time I wore a Matt Lienart jersey.

[tbl]

He'll be here till closing, ladies and gents.

[Sooner-N-KS]

I havent heard anything in a while, but the last I had heard was something like Bush had no idea that his parents were living in a illegal house(????) therefore he couldnt be held at fault

They sure got out of the house in an awful big hurry, didn't they? LOL

If they thought they were in the right, why didn't they just stay there? Bush was already out of college and ready for the draft.

[Sooner-N-KS]

And to stay consistent, I would assume that all of our games from last year are in jeopardy since RB played in them all. For violating the rules starting prior to last years season he(they) may be ruled ineligible for all of last season. :(

[RedstickSooner]

And to stay consistent, I would assume that all of our games from last year are in jeopardy since RB played in them all. For violating the rules starting prior to last years season he(they) may be ruled ineligible for all of last season. :(

Fine with me.

In fact, just rub last year out of the recordbooks altogether -- sounds like the only thing we can honorably do, doesn't it?

:D

[Taxman71]

And to stay consistent, I would assume that all of our games from last year are in jeopardy since RB played in them all. For violating the rules starting prior to last years season he(they) may be ruled ineligible for all of last season. :(

I can already hear the t-shirt presses in Stillwater burning the "****** Repeat in 2006" shirts.