This morning, I listened to a radio interview with writer John Feinstein, whose new book details the Baltimore Ravens’ last season. Feinstein discussed the legal plight of Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, who spent four months in prison during this past off-season on federal drug charges. The government went after Lewis for being a “middleman” in a drug transaction several years earlier, when Lewis was still a college player at the University of Tennessee.
What I did not know, however, was that the feds had entrapped Lewis on the drug charge when they couldn’t finger him in connection with another investigation. Feinstein said the FBI had been running undercover stings to smoke-out sports agents who were “illegally” paying college players. When the FBI’s source on Lewis couldn’t prove he had taken such payments, the source offered to serve him up on drug charges. The source approached Lewis seeking drugs, and he called a friend of his who was presumably a dealer.
The drug charges were outrageous enough, especially since they came four years after the incident took place. But why was the FBI investigating payments to college players? Is protecting the NCAA’s “amateurism” rules a federal law enforcement objective?
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See US v. Logan Young, tried in Memphis, TN. Mr. Young was alleged to have paid players to attend the University of Alabama. I believe that he was found guilty of mail and wire fraud. See this article: http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson113.html.
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