POSTED 10:58 p.m. EDT, April 23, 2006

IF REGGIE IS INELIGIBLE, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE HEISMAN?

A great question that several readers have raised in the wake of the jarring revelation that the family of former USC tailback Reggie Bush apparently was living for free in a house owned by a guy who wanted to handle Reggie's marketing work is what happens to Bush's Heisman trophy if the NCAA ultimately finds that Reggie was ineligible for the 2005 season?

Our best guess is  that Bush would lose the trophy, and that it would go to Texas quarterback Vince Young, who finished second in the voting.

And though we're not suggesting that Bush eventually will have to turn over the biggest individual prize awarded in college sports, this thing easily could spin out of control -- especially since the Yahoo! Sports story has been picked up by the AP and will get a lot more play on Monday as the national talking heads begin to focus on the story.

It's not exactly the kind of attention that the Bush family was hoping to receive five days before the draft, but none of them should be surprised by the fact that their apparent decision to accept a benefit from someone who wanted to represent Reggie has been exposed.

Meanwhile, look for other journalists with more resources that us to dig deeper into the relationship between the owner of the house, Michael Michaels, and agent David Caravantes.  As we explained earlier on Sunday, it appears that Michaels and Caravantes are working together in the representation of South Carolina tackle Jabari Levey.  Since Caravantes is certified by the NFLPA, he might be hearing (as soon as Monday) from the union regarding his role, if any, in the acquisition of the house.

Also, the fact that Caravantes used to practice with Joel Segal -- who now represents Bush -- could prompt the NFLPA to take a look-see at whether there was any connection between Segal and the house owned by Michaels.

This one is a mess, folks.  And we think it's gonna get a lot messier, quickly.

POSTED 5:04 p.m. EDT, April 23, 2006

BUSH FAMILY WAS THE BENEFICIARY OF INDIAN GIVER

Kudos to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports for being the first to report that USC tailback Reggie Bush is the previously unnamed first-round prospect whose family had been living (free of charge, apparently) in a house paid for by a budding agent from an Indian tribe.

Robinson reports that Bush's family abruptly packed up and moved out of the San Diego home within 24 hours after Yahoo! Sports started asking Bush's mother, Denise Griffin, questions about information linking the house to Michael Michaels, who allegedly has a role in steering Bush toward an agent.

Per Robinson, Michaels is a member of the Sycuan Indian Tribe and a business development officer for the tribe's development corporation.  He failed to return multiple calls from Robinson, and claimed to be unavailable when Robinson dropped by his home on three occasions this weekend.

The Sycuan tribe denied any knowledge of Michaels' relationship with the Bush family.  The tribe owns a casino and a resort.

Robinson reports that Michaels bought the house in which Bush's family had been living for $757,000 in March 2005.  Neighbors told Yahoo! Sports that the Griffins (Bush's stepfather, mother, and brother -- not Peter, Meg, Stewie, etc.) moved in at about that same time.  Michaels is the only person listed on the deed, even though an inscription on one of the cement slabs reads "The Griffins '05."

Michaels and an associate named Lloyd Lake reportedly contacted San Diego-based agent David Caravantes regarding the possibility of recruiting Bush.  Michaels was looking for an NFLPA-certified agent to handle the football contracts of players that Michaels intended to sign to his marketing firm, which Michaels reportedly planned to launch under the name of "New Era Sports and Entertainment."

Robinson found a potential web site for New Era Sports.  Our tech guy Sean has determined via his own Internet sleuthing techniques that the domain was created on November 2, 2005, and that the administrative contact is James Choe of New Era Sports & Entertainment.  (Editor's note:  We have removed the address and phone number at the request of James Choe.  It appears that he has been flooded with calls from journalists in the hours since we initially posted his contact information in this space.)  Sean also found a myspace.com profile of a kid from Nebraska who claims that he'll be working for "New Era Sports & Entertainment" in La Jolla, California in May 2006, another myspace profile of a guy who claims to be the "Director of Recruitment" for "New Era Sports Marketing & Entertainment" in San Diego, and the cache of a third myspace profile of a guy known as "Haterproof Homey," who lists "New Era Sports & Entertainment" as one of his "companies."

Finally, Sean found reference to "New Era Sports & Entertainment" as the agency for South Carolina offensive lineman Jabari Levey.  

The contact agent?  David Caravantes.

Bottom line -- Robinson's report seems to be right on the money. 

So what does all of this mean?  Not much for Bush.  He'll still be drafted where he otherwise would have been drafted.  And he'll still likely earn as much money via endorsements as he otherwise would have earned -- unless, of course, the free lodging for his family is merely the tip of a bigger iceberg that expands into a major national story.

Regardless of how it might affect Bush, this whole thing could get very interesting for the folks at Southern Cal.  Since the Griffins apparently were living in the house during the 2005 season, the NCAA could eventually rule that Bush was ineligible -- and likewise could require the Trojans to forfeit all of their 2005 victories.  Though we doubt for now that such an extreme outcome will result, Robinson reports that USC has referred the matter to the Pac-10 for an investigation.

Our own take on the whole thing is that it was stupid and/or arrogant for the Griffins to think that they could squat in the house bought by Michaels without giving anything to Michaels in return, and without the matter ever coming to light.  We've heard that, for the past two months or so, Michaels had been trying to get his money back for the house and/or threatening to take the whole thing public.  So why didn't the Griffins get the hell out of the house long before someone showed up and started asking questions?

More importantly, why did they accept free lodging from Michaels in the first place?  Did they have no appreciation of the problems it could cause for Bush and the Trojans?    

And why wouldn't USC be keeping closer watch on the activities of the family members of the players most likely to be targets for benefits from agents and marketing companies? 

Stay tuned for more on this one.

POSTED 7:51 a.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 8:54 a.m. EDT, April 23, 2006

ARRINGTON'S DEAL STINKS

Initially hyped as a seven-year, $49 million package with an $11 million signing bonus, the contract signed by linebacker LaVar Arrington with the New York Giants is, in actuality, a deal that averages $3.7 million per year.  If Arrington hits some basic incentives, the deal is worth $5 million annually.  To hits the $7 million per year figure, Arrington needs to hit some pretty high performance triggers.

More importantly, the contract pays Arrington a signing bonus of only $5.25 million, less than half the figure that initially was leaked, presumably by his agents.   (Maybe they'll now claim that the bonus was changed by the Giants from $11 million to $5.25 million in the final draft of the contract -- and that they failed to notice it because they read contracts roughly as carefully as Fran Foley reads his own bio.)

The practical consequence here is that, if the Giants conclude that they made a mistake, the cap hit will be manageable.  Cutting him after June 1, 2007, for example, would result in a $1.05 million cap charge in 2007, and $3.15 million in dead money come 2008.

And the package pales in comparison to the contract signed by linebacker Julian Peterson with the Seahawks.  Peterson got $18 million guaranteed as part of a seven-year, $54 million package.

We're also somewhat surprised that the truth on the Arrington deal got out so soon.  Surely, Arrington's camp didn't cough up the real numbers.  From the Giants' perspective, the typical approach by NFL teams is to let the player pretend he got a great deal -- without saying anything while the ink is still wet (and before the numbers are available via the NFLPA) as to what the player really will get.

LAVAR SHOULD SUE POSTONS FOR $4.4 MILLION

At the end of the day on the Arrington deal, we believe that the former Redskins star should ask his agents, Carl and Kevin Poston, to pay him $4.4 million.  If they refuse, he should sue them for it.

Why?  Because the Postons allowed Arrington to give up $4.4 million in earned bonus money in order to hit the open market in early March instead of July, when the Redskins would have cut him in order to avoid paying him a $6.5 million roster bonus.

In the end, however, Arrington got roughly the same deal in late April that he would have gotten in July.  Or August.  Or September.

Put simply, the Postons should have known what the market would bear for Arrington, and they should have advised him accordingly.  Instead, they undoubtedly pumped his head up with ideas of how great he is and how much money he'd made, and we hear that they're now telling him that he'll make a lot of the lost jack back in endorsements.

But will he?  This guy isn't Lawrence Taylor, and L.T. wasn't exactly a marketing superstar during his career. 

Speaking of L.T., we initially wondered whether Arrington will pull a Jerry Rice and try to finagle Taylor's No. 56, the number that Arrington wore in D.C.  According to the Giants' official site, however, it appears that LaVar will wear 55.

He should have asked to wear No. 44, as a constant reminder to himself -- and his agents -- of the money that never should have gotten away.    

MORE FEEDBACK ON ESPN "DECISION MAKERS"

In further response to our recent critique of the ESPN/Scouts, Inc. commentary regarding the team-by-team "Decision Makers," a relatively high-level league source with, in our assessment, no reason of any kind to throw a bone to Pats V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli has come out aggressively against the suggestion that Pioli is merely a "yes man" to coach Bill Belichick.

"Scott is an excellent evaluator and a great motivator for scouts," the source said.  "He isn’t a 'pat you on the back' type of guy, but the results he gets are phenomenal.  Scott's 'yes man' image is completely misconstrued.  Yes, he and Bill share similar philosophies and for the most part see players the same way but this is why Bill has brought him along and leans heavily on him.  Scott did not get where he is because he says 'yes' to him.  Bill simply recognized an intelligent, hard-working personnel guy long ago and groomed him. . . .  Scott has a very thoughtful and logical approach to win his argument.  These are the types of people Bill admires."

The source also said that the Belichick-Pioli approach teaches scouts to "evaluate the entire entity of a player (character, work ethic, passion, talent)," and it "force[s]" the scouts "to make a bold statement on a player instead of being wishy-washy." 

Bottom line, according to the source?  "Any team in their right mind should do whatever they can to hire former Pioli scouts."

Of course, that assessment might actually help former Pats scout and current Scouts, Inc. scribe Keith Kidd get a new job in the NFL.  One of the primary concerns regarding the entire "Decision Makers" piece was that it possibly represents an effort by Kidd to take shots at the people around the league that he apparently doesn't like, such as Pioli. 

Maybe the message here is that Kidd would be far better served by focusing on the positive aspects of what he learned while in New England. 

SUNDAY MORNING ONE-LINERS

It's six days to the draft, and Team Leinart has enlisted the New York Times to counter Matt's Hollywood image.

What will Packers G.M. Ted Thompson do if Matt Leinart or Vince Young is on the board at No. 5?

Fins RB Ricky Williams isn't worried about whether he'll be suspended for a year.  "I'm a spiritual person, so I believe that whatever happens is God's will."  (Apparently, then, it was God's will that Ricky smoke so much marijuana.)

Whoever drafts Vince Young should do that which the Falcons continue to resist doing with Mike Vick.

LB A.J. Hawk has passed on an invitation to go to New York for the draft.

It's been 20 years since Bo Jackson told the Bucs to cram it.

The Titans say that good character has always been an issue for the team on draft day.  (Even Pacman Jones will laugh at that one.)

Bobby Layne for the College Baseball Hall of Fame? 

The Steelers could be looking for another converted quarterback.

Kyle Boller is thinking happy thoughts.

The Broncos called the 49ers last week about a possible trade of WR Ashley Lelie to San Fran.