In the wake of allegations made during a much-villified-ballyhooed HBO special by Stanley McClover, as well as three other ex-Auburn players, that they were paid cash by alumni/boosters before and during their time on The Plains, it was assumed and widely expected the NCAA would want to have a discussion with McClover regarding his claims.
That was indeed the case, although the NCAA, in essence, wasted a couple of hours of their lives that they’ll never get back.
McClover confirmed to the Sun Sentinel that he spoke to an NCAA investigator for two hours shortly after the airing of the HBO special Wednesday. And, despite publicly decrying the money handshakes and backpacks stuffed with cash, McClover declined to name any of the individuals he claims were responsible for impermissibly greasing his palms while he was a member of the Auburn football program.
In explaining his reasoning behind not fingering the supposed culprits, the paid crusader decided to step up on his soapbox and deliver an impassioned speech about some bizarro “greater good”.
“I told [the NCAA investigator] I’m not doing it for that,” McClover told the paper about naming names. “I didn’t give her anything. She wasn’t mad. I think she respected where I was coming from. I told her I don’t want to get all caught up in that. That’s another way to cover up the truth, to talk about this money. Let’s talk about what it’s doing to these kids. They don’t want to talk about that.
“I told her, ‘You and me need to be talking about how to change the NCAA system.’ I told her I’m trying to help her change. I’m an athlete. I went through it. Let’s work together and see how we can better the situation.”
Of course, at least a small part of the way to change the system, to ensure other similarly-skilled athletes aren’t put through the same set of horrors McClover endured would be to name names so those individuals could be exposed and kept away from the program. Most certainly those anonymous individuals who McClover accused of handing him thousands of dollars in cash are still lurking in the bushes of the Auburn football program; name them, and begin the process of a change you so crave. Apparently, however, that particular tack isn’t in line with whatever agenda prompted McClover to come forward and air his grievances nationally in the first place.
If your going to talk, why not talk? Don’t half-ass it; spill it all and lay everything out onto the table, especially with the people who may be able to most affect the change you supposedly desire. Going public with charges that may or may not be true is the easy part. If you’re so concerned about the future, so concerned about what happened to you not happening to someone else, take any and all steps necessary even as continuing down your chosen path may be more difficult the further you go.
Unless, of course, you were simply talking out of your backside in the first place.
McClover’s right about one thing, though; something needs tweaked in a system that, apparently, allows these money handshakes to continue unfettered, starting with adding personnel to the woefully-understaffed investigative arm of the NCAA. However, it’s going to take a bigger man to prompt change than the one more than willing to lob an accusatory, verbal grenade into a crowd of people, then cower amidst the carnage of the initial blast when it comes time to deliver specifics — specifics that could greatly aid your “crusade”.
