[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 14, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               SPORTS AGENT RESPONSIBILITY AND TRUST ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, recently the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Gordon) and I joined to introduce the Sports Agent Responsibility and 
Trust Act.
  Each year, hundreds of college athletes are offered illegal 
inducements to enter into contracts prior to the exhaustion of the 
athletes' eligibility by unscrupulous sports agents. Often these 
actions result in three major problems.
  Number one, the loss of the athletes' eligibility. Personally, I 
experienced having a player back in the 1980s who was offered some 
illegal inducements, lost his eligibility, and pretty much ruined his 
career. That same player was involved with some agents who really had 
given illegal inducements to several players around the country. They 
were eventually indicted on a number of felonies. They threatened some 
of the players with bodily harm. However, in the State of Nebraska, we 
lacked the laws to pursue these agents.
  Secondly, there is a financial loss to the athlete and the school 
when illegal agent offers are involved. Again, a personal note, I had a 
player back in the 1980s who thought he signed a contract for giving 3 
percent of his proceeds to the agent, but somewhere buried in the 
contract was 13 percent. So he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
Fortunately, that player was able to recover more than $300,000 because 
the agent with which he had signed the illegal contract had previously 
come from the State of California, where there are laws that govern 
agents, and since that agent had not registered under California law, 
we were able to recover $300,000. However, in the State of Nebraska we 
could not do this because Nebraska, again, had no law that would enable 
us to prosecute.
  Recently, an agent named Tank Black was sentenced to 5 years in 
prison for swindling athletes for more than $12 million, and so we 
think this is important. It also allows the schools to file civil 
lawsuits against unethical agents.
  Thirdly, another issue that is very important, a negative perception 
of intercollegiate athletics often results when athletes enter into 
illegal contracts with agents. So the recent previous cases would 
involve the University of Alabama, University of Louisville, University 
of California, University of Utah, Texas Southern, University of Miami 
at Florida, University of Southern California, Tennessee, Ohio State, 
Texas A&M, Florida State and others, and in each one of these cases the 
school really did nothing illegal. It simply had some players that 
entered into illegal negotiations with agents, and of course, this 
reflected negatively on the school.
  Currently 17 States in our country, including my home State of 
Nebraska, have no regulations governing sports agents. The legislation 
that we are proposing provides a uniform Federal backstop that applies 
to all States. This bill does not supersede State law. It simply aids 
and abets those States that do have regulations governing sports 
agents.
  This act brings sports agents under the jurisdiction of the Federal 
Trade Commission, which provides for a fine of $11,000 per day per 
event. State laws cannot cross State borders. So until all 50 States 
adopt uniform standards there is not uniformity in the law regulating 
sports agents.
  The Sports Agent Responsibility Act provides a separate Federal 
remedy for States Attorneys General to prosecute sports agents who 
attempt to exploit student athletes across State lines.
  I urge my colleagues to join the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Gordon) and me as we try to protect intercollegiate athletics from 
unscrupulous sports agents.

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