Ohio State announced today that Terrelle Pryor would not be returning for his senior year at the school. No reason for the star quarterback’s departure was given at the time by OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith or current interim football coach Luke Fickell.
(Pro photographer Dennis Talbott’s Ebay account: Pryor-signed item)
In addition to Pryor’s past NCAA transgressions, today I confirmed that Ohio State was recently cited by NCAA enforcment officials for dozens of payments Pryor received in past years from a Columbus sports memorabilia dealer that are considered outside of NCAA rules.
The NCAA violations were discovered when the name of the local memorabilia dealer, Dennis Talbott, was seen on checks Pryor was depositing in his personal bank account.
During Pryor’s time at Ohio State, Talbott paid him tens of thousands of dollars to sign Ohio State Buckeye memorabilia. Talbott currently lists a Pryor-signed item for sale on his Ebay sellers account, which is identified by the account name “infickellwetrust.”
Talbott, who has sold hundreds of sports memorabilia items on Ebay, recently switched to that account name from his old handle: “ntresselwetrust.” Talbott currently lists 250 items for sale on the auction site, including Ohio State Buckeye football memorabilia.
Talbott, who also happens to be a professional sports photographer who has shot images appearing on SI.com and ESPN.com, often obtained media credentials from Ohio State officials that gave him undue access to Buckeye football players.
Midway through the 2010 football season, Talbott was ordered by Ohio State officials to completely disassociate himself from the program. That move by the OSU athletic administration may indicate that members of the school’s athletic department knew of Pryor’s activities involving Talbott long before the NCAA recently discovered the payment paper trail from Talbott to the former Buckeye quarterback.
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9:20 pm on June 7th, 2011
Total punk . . .
9:26 pm on June 7th, 2011
One of these things is bad, but all of these is a lack of institutional control. The NCAA needs to make a statement and bring back the death penalty.
9:40 pm on June 7th, 2011
Two words…death penalty
9:44 pm on June 7th, 2011
Really? Really? Really? Making 40 thousand dollars, driving 6 different cars and getting a 60 thousand dollar education for throwing a football doesn’t sound like much of a victim to me. Grow up. No one is exploiting these kids. They are using the system as much as it is using them. If the system is so unfair, they don’t have to accept the scholarship. Please stop with that nonsense… you are embarrassing yourself.
9:46 pm on June 7th, 2011
@idiot Huh? A few bucks?
The rules are idiotic, and the tattoo stuff was petty. But if he’s making money in the $40,000 range like ESPN alleges then he’s a punk.
9:58 pm on June 7th, 2011
Whos the punk? The memorabilia dealer? Because blaming a young kid who’s for making a few bucks while he’s being exploited by a bunch of adults for hundreds of thousands if not millions would make you an absolute idiot.
10:04 pm on June 7th, 2011
Shock-G, how do you know the decision wasn’t made in 2010 because they knew of money being paid to players by Talbott for their signatures? Usually you get your credential pulled for getting autos as a credentialed media member….but asking a guy to disassociate himself from the program is a whole ‘nother story
10:10 pm on June 7th, 2011
No death penalty - just a 5-year bowl ban and loss of 50 scholarships over a 7-year period.
10:18 pm on June 7th, 2011
Pryor = clown.
10:23 pm on June 7th, 2011
Just got done watching ESPN Outside The Lines report on this guy (scant details) and reading Brooks’ in-depth report here:
SbB -> ESPN
and it wasn’t close.
10:42 pm on June 7th, 2011
Brooks, where are you getting the info on the checks? Hope it’s true. Screw O$U!
10:45 pm on June 7th, 2011
So with those autographs from virtually every major Buckeye in basketball and football sold on ebay by this one dealer, does that open up the NCAA investigation into hundreds of current and former players? Some in the media could uncover a major story by chasing down some of these items.
11:10 pm on June 7th, 2011
I’ve met Talbott at multiple OSU player signings (behind the table with the players), so he’s obviously had connections with the players in some fashion. I’ve met him at signings with Laurinaitis and Beanie Wells, so his connections don’t just start with TP either. However, I’ve also heard of players (not just OSU) negotiating signing deals before bowl games are even played and before the NFL Draft. I’m sure there’s a lot more of this memorabilia stuff going on than we’d care to know about nationwide. I doubt that it’s restricted to OSU.
11:20 pm on June 7th, 2011
Did anyone check the name listed on that ebay account? That is not dennis talbott
11:22 pm on June 7th, 2011
Good to see you can read it on espn Brooks.
12:19 am on June 8th, 2011
eric- how do you know it’s not him? i don’t know how brooks knows it is for that matter. looks very bad for osu now tho.
12:30 am on June 8th, 2011
Talbott also took down his facebook account early tonight. He was friends with Pryor, Posey, Herron, and Cam Heyward. My guess is that he was paying more than one player.
1:37 am on June 8th, 2011
Nothing to see here. Move along:>))
It appears that Ohio State will be joining USC very soon… Except this case appears to have new layers being exposed on a daily basis.
6:23 am on June 8th, 2011
well the gf has been saying death penalty all along. could she be right? OSU is off the fricking chain.
7:21 am on June 8th, 2011
TP is a cancer; I’m tired of anonymous, drug addict/convict, and former friend sources. ESPN.com’s latest about Pryor receiving $500-$1,000/item is ridiculous and totally unbelievable. Your eBay screen shot proves it. Did he most likely sell stuff….YES….but $20-$40K/year seems exorbitant. I’d like to see real sourcing in stories….Columbus Dispatch wouldn’t cover the stuff the SI.com story did because they didn’t trust their sources. Please report responsibly.
7:38 am on June 8th, 2011
How many FBS f-ball and b-ball players do not have tats up and down their arms? The percentage is very small. How’d all these student athletes pay for them for they’re not cheap. As an avid college sports fan I’ve wondered for years how these kids could afford $100’s - $1,000’s worth of tattoos. It’s not just an Ohio State problem, it a completely widespread problem that touches each and every NCAA program. Let’s have all the stone throwers examine their own programs and send in hoards of investigators to see how clean they are. The results will mirror Ohio State’s
7:53 am on June 8th, 2011
But the NCAA cleared him to play in the Sugar Bowl? Holy cow….
7:54 am on June 8th, 2011
@mh
The “anonymous, drug addict/convict” sources are the company that TPeezy kept. You don’t really expect current players or those with a continuing interest in OSU football to narc him out do you?
8:17 am on June 8th, 2011
as a former college athelete myself, people need to drop this argument that players are exploited, and need to be paid. News flash, college athletes do get paid, its called a scholarship. In many cases that is worth 40-50k a year.
9:17 am on June 8th, 2011
You know, students in other academic departments make plenty of money for their department and university with grant research. But, you know what? Those students live with it because college is about them taking the amateur steps towards their own career. Pryor abusing the university for his own gain is an immature and selfish move. You can’t try and justify it by saying, “They make money off of us, why can’t we make money off us?” You’re in college .. grow up like the rest of your student body.
9:26 am on June 8th, 2011
Raise your hand if you think he reported this income on his 1040. Pryor will be lucky if he doesn’t get investigated for tax evasion. The feds are in Columbus investigating anyway…
10:07 am on June 8th, 2011
the argument that a scholar is worth 40k so they get paid is crazy who makes that price that’s right that college does it doesn’t cost the college anything and the players or football make so much money that it allows other kids to go there cheaper.
10:12 am on June 8th, 2011
It’s certainly possible that OSU knew about the Pryor-Talbott connection, but it could also have been a situation where Ohio State discovered that Talbott was selling photos from games without authorization. I can tell you first hand that Ohio State vigorously defends it’s trademarks, copyright, etc. …
Also, I’m pretty certain the 40k number is not even close. 20k is possible, but I’d say even that’s high.
10:22 am on June 8th, 2011
Maybe Auburn would want Terrell Pryor as QB for the upcoming season. He would fit right in..
10:31 am on June 8th, 2011
Picture Guy is absolutely right. This is most likely a licensing issue. Brooks should know that universities like Ohio State spend big bucks trying to make sure their images are not sold without authorization. It’s a big source of revenue for schools like Ohio State.
10:44 am on June 8th, 2011
I have covered OSU football on the sidelines as a photographer since Pryor’s freshman year and know of Jay Talbott. He mysteriously disappeared from the sidelines last year and I wondered what happened to him. I know OSU has denied credentials to other photographers in the past when they discovered they had been selling photos of players individually that they had taken during games. I always thought this was more of a licensing issue involving the NCAA and the university that was stopped because they weren’t getting their cut. But no one really ever said. Some of the photographers had even been past players for Ohio State.
So, I wouldn’t say OSU knew of this recent autograph selling scheme, but they did probably know photos/items were being sold without authorization. I’ve seen all kinds of items signed over the rail at the stadium and through the fence after the games. A lot of memorabilia dealers have kids pass them through and they players will sign anything quickly and hand it back. I’m not sure you could jump to the conclusion that a lot of players were selling autographs. Although, the evidence against Pryor, if true, seems pretty convincing.
12:39 pm on June 8th, 2011
Listening to 97.1 the fan in columbus they are going to speak with Dennis Talbott at 2:16 ET. I’m interested to hear how much of a deeper hole this guy can put this program in.
1:44 pm on June 8th, 2011
When TMZ falsely reported that AJ Green was at the infamous Miami party last summer, the ncaa descended on UGA immediately. AJ Green proved he had never traveled to Miami, and when questioned about receiving benefits he told the truth about selling a jersey for $1000, handing over his bank records as well. As a result AJ served a 4 game suspension, donated $1000 to a local Athens, GA charity & apologized profusely. His undoubtedly absence altered UGA’s season.
Terrelle Pryor & OSU are reaping tens of thousands of dollars, covering up violations that countless players for years received added benefits. And the players get away with it. OSU will likely get away with more than they deserve because now Terrelle can’t be forced to tell the truth.
You did a spectacular job of missing an opportunity to catch the real bad guys as usual ncaa.
1:52 pm on June 8th, 2011
Buckeye fans can whine about how “everybody does it” all they want, but the current investigation isn’t about “everybody:” it’s about the Buckeyes. The tats are just the nameplate that says “Peterbilt.” It’s the rest of the tractor-trailer rig that’s going to get THE Ohio State University THE most severe punishment since SMU.
Remember all of those insults tOSU fans hurled toward the school they like to call “scUM” over 15 minutes of stretching? What goes around is just starting to come around to Columbus.
The dirtiest program in the history of college football is about to get its due.
2:20 pm on June 8th, 2011
All this proves is that Auburn is better at cheating than OSU is.
9:19 pm on June 8th, 2011
This gets better every day. How in the hell is this NOT lack of institutional control now? Ad, Tressel, Pryor et al are crooks. Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of arrogant fans. You clowns have made SMU look clean. Now please go fuck yourself.
9:58 am on June 9th, 2011
@mike These athletes rake in tens of millions of dollars for universities, networks, and bowl organizations, yet it’s against NCAA rules for them to flip burgers at min wage. You cannot put a scholarship in your gas tank, stomach, or use to take a girl on a date. If not a stipend, then let’s insert a farm system b/t college and the NFL similar to baseball. Who are we kidding? College level IS the NFL’s farm system. And any athlete not academically inclined is told what his major is…and it’s not rocket science or molecular biology, either. Try, “Social Stuff For Athletes.” Yet the universities love to bray about their “student athletes.” The workout regimen for top teams leaves no time for study. Only a seasoned “test taker” can handle difficult academics.
The system ain’t working, folks.
10:10 am on June 9th, 2011
lovemytide45,
Wow - stay classy dude.
10:47 am on June 9th, 2011
So odd that infickellwetrust is not selling any items at the moment. I did notice this feedback comment:
“great seller-great bat .thank you denny”
11:01 am on June 9th, 2011
Brooks,
Do you keep a scorecard on stories that you report here? Based on what I’ve seen, it can’t be too high. I guess when people really want to believe something, it really doesn’t matter. You da man dude!
1:02 pm on June 9th, 2011
@SEC #1, I did notice that when the police were called on the recent robbery by athl…er…Auburn players, they knew from the description of THE CAR where to find the perpetrators.
(Hey NCAA…hint: “THE CAR” was a tipoff…get it ???)
5:26 pm on June 9th, 2011
lovemytide45
LMAO - Classic