Illegal Procedure: A Sports Agent Comes Clean on the Dirty Business of College Football

by Josh Luchs, James Dale

For fifteen years, sports agent Josh Luchs made illegal deals with numerous college athletes, from top-tier, nationally recognized phenoms to late-round draft picks. Flagrantly flaunting NCAA and NFL Players Association rules, he made no-interest loans to players in exchange for the promise of representation on their lucrative pro contracts. After cleaning up his act in 2003, he moved to a new agency, only to be targeted and pushed out of the business for a new violation-one he arguably did not commit. Then, in October 2010, Luchs wrote a confessional article in Sports Illustrated , telling the truth about what he did and didn't do.




Since then he has taken on a new role: whistle-blowing, truth-telling reformer. And in telling his own story, Luchs pulls back the curtain on the real economy of college football: how agents win players legally and otherwise, the staggering sums colleges make from an unpaid workforce, the shortfalls of supposed full-ride scholarships, and the myth of a college education given to scholarship jocks. Including new information about major players and scandalized programs such as USC, Auburn, and Ohio State, this book pulls no punches. It's a stunning and necessary read for anyone who loves the game, and the first step toward fixing a broken system.




Praise for Josh Luchs' Sports Illustrated story:




"There are no innocents in all this-including Luchs. The difference now is Luchs isn't claiming to be innocent." - John Feinstein, Washington Post




"[Luchs pulls] the inner workings of an oily business out of the shadows."- Pat Forde, ESPN




"A must-read."- New York Times

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2012

Reviews

[Shaun Jennings]

It's a fun read and relatively interesting, but the ending is unsatisfying and Luchs is a better agent than he is a story teller.

[Scott McCormick]

Very insightful. You know things like this go on but it's really interesting hearing it from a man who did these things and how colleges really do tend to look the other way.

[Paul Miller]

A few years ago there was a cover story in SI about the sports agent 'coming clean' on paying players in college football, etc. This is the 'long form' of that article. Very quick, fun read - full of little quirks about the 'right' way to pay players, how to coach them on the Wunderlic, etc.

Recommended only for the diehard college football fan who won't be crushed to find out that behind the awesome games on Saturday, the actual players / coaches / agents / runners are all generally low lifes. This book is WHY people love Tim Tebow. Such a rare find from such a cesspool.

[Ryan]

This book provides very interesting insight into the corrupt world of college football, recruiting, and agent/player relationships. Spoken from someone who not only took part in activity that violated NCAA rules, but also someone that ended up being a whistle blower and working to correct the corruption within sports recruiting and player management. A very interesting read for anyone interested in sports business, recruiting, or agent/player relationships.

[Rajiv Bais]

This is the ultimate guide to becoming a sports agent and true tell all book of how filthy and worthy of abolishment the NCAA is!!!

I only give it a five because the average rating is way too low. Do you really think that Drew Rosenhaus will give you a book as concrete as Luchs' when he is the biggest bullshitter the NFL agent business has ever seen?

Best line of the book:
"If you put a pile of shit and a pile of money on the table, Maurice [Clarett] would reach for the pile of shit."

[Hollis]

Anyone who reads this book, follows college football closely and can say that serious change is not needed is naive. There is really little to no transparency in big time college football, and the overlap between players, agents, coaches, runners, the NFL, NFLPA, etc. is pervasive. An excellent and entertaining read. A good companion is Dan Wetzel's "Death to the BCS".

[Jim]

This book shines a light on the seedy activities that go on behind the scenes of the sports agent during the recruitment of football players. It is a fairly short book, and once I started reading it, I finished it in a few days. The author is not afraid to use real names of people who he recruited, as well as the real names of other agents.

[Paul]

A must read for any college football fan. I think this is a very good book especially since it offers a first hand look into the world of sports agents and what they do to get their client. Too bad there are not more of these examples out there. The suggestions at the end of the book are good, but wonder how much of it would be implemented in the near future.

[Marc Brandeberry]

If could I would give 3 1/2 stars. A really good look at the seedy nature of college football and how agents circumvent the rules. Really makes you question the "reality" of student athletes. A quick and entertaining read.

[Pedro Calmell]

Unbelievable to have an insider point of view of what is to my taste the most disgusting open-air slavery in today's world. The rules are so twisted on the way the NCAA behaves and everyone just turns a blind eye because the resulting product is so entertaining.

[Chris]

Self serving expose on the dirty game of athlete representation. It perhaps was written to show how far the author has come in his so called redemption while throwing everybody he ever dealt with under the bus.

Good description of a bad business however, would never want my son to be an agent.

[KC]

I have a totally different view with college football now. What a mess of a situation where these players and the fact that they are not protected in any way These young men are in constant threat of injury, make millions for the schools, and are basically slaves. Things must change.

[Anna]

If I hadn't already thought that some kind of reform needs to come to the recruiting process for college sports, this would have sent me over the edge.

[John Easton]

A good behind the scenes look at the sports agency world and the lengths decent people are driven to in order to win the favor of elected athletes. If you enjoy sports, you will like this read.

[Mark]

A sleazy book written by an illiterate high school graduate. No suprises in the book. This has been going on for decades.

[David]

His stories of dealing with the players, coaches and families were interesting, but I found the rest of the book a bit tedious.

[Troy]

Book about a man making money speaking about how he broke the rules. Interesting but not shocking information.

[Mary]

Reads like a really long SI article.

[Eric]

This book is a very interesting twist on the sports industry. John Luchas, the author, Uses is experiences as a former agent to tell his story. John's story is about how the NFL can be corrupt.

[Bryan Skelly]

Entertaining read. I basically got what I expected it of this book.