Columnist Ron Kantowski: NCAA teams should hire a detective

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Until the day NCAA institutions start paying athletes a stipend commensurate with the revenues they produce, illegal contact (read: $100 handshakes and other payments made under the table) will always be a bigger problem than uprooted goal posts with jagged edges.

But that day probably will arrive simultaneously with a Division I football playoff system on the 12th of Never.

That is why if I were Fresno State or Michigan or myriad other schools who have trouble keeping the NCAA gumshoes away, I would hire a cop of my own in an attempt to discourage all this risky business being conducted among power forwards, boosters and street agents.

I'm not talking about one of those campus cops who check the locks on the student union building late at night. I'm talking about a full-fledged detective who would work for the athletic department -- a Steve McGarrett in Nikes, if you will.

I'm serious about this. What gave me the idea was a photo that ran in the Sun on Monday that showed a guy dressed in Packers coaching gear trying to get between Green Bay coach Mike Sherman and Packer sacker Warren Sapp of Tampa Bay.

Turns out the peacemaker wasn't an assistant coach but the team's director of security.

While I'm not exactly sure what a director of security does at the NFL level (guard wallets?), I'm sure there are a lot of athletic directors who could write his job description: "Alumni who own car dealerships, wise guys nicknamed "Fixer" and overweight summer league "coaches" wearing medallions the size of wheel covers are not allowed within the same area code as our players."

Granted, a team detective is not going to totally eliminate the shenanigans between the unscrupulous and the gullible, especially when the unscrupulous and gullible are willing partners.

Consider this revealing quote from former Fresno State basketball standout Terrance Roberson, one of two ex-Bulldogs targeted last weekend for taking money and free meals during the 2000-01 season under Jerry Tarkanian's watch.

"I was a college student," Roberson told the Fresno Bee. "If someone is going to offer me food, I'm going to take it."

And this, when Roberson was asked if he received a money order for $300 from a defunct Las Vegas sports agency via a middleman.

"It probably happened," Roberson said. "I don't remember it, but if you have a document with my name on it, then more than likely it did happen. Then it would be more like $600 or $700 he gave me."

That's not exactly the strongest denial I've ever heard. I mean, when your dad, playing the role of Spanish inquisitor, asks if you chopped down the cherry tree in the backyard, you don't say: "Yeah, I did it. With the axe I ripped off from Home Depot."

Both Roberson and the other player targeted in the handouts, Tito Maddox, the former Fresno point guard now a rookie with the Houston Rockets, said Tark know nothing of the money changing hands.

I'm sure there are those who will say he should have, that a coach is responsible for the actions of his players 24-7.

I don't necessarily agree, if for no other reason that if my folks knew all the stuff that I did when they weren't looking, I probably would have been grounded for my entire junior year of high school.

But had McGarrett been on my butt, I might have thought twice before trying to buy a six-pack with a fake ID.