Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports
About this book
The inside story of disgraced fraudster turned undercover FBI informant Marty Blazer and the greatest scandal in the history of the NCAA. When the federal government catches hotshot financial adviser Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer defrauding his NFL-player clients, it’s time to come clean. He has no reasonable defense. What he has is a bigger story to spill to the feds—that of a multibillion-dollar conspiracy that exploits the most talented college athletes and implicates one of the most popular entertainment industries in the nation. The DOJ is listening, and the truth could literally set Marty free. All he has to do is prove that the NCAA is a vast ongoing scam. Sent undercover by the FBI, Marty infiltrates the innermost circles of college basketball, a high-flying world of Miami clubs, New York luxury suites, and Las Vegas back rooms. Over a period of three years, covertly recording thousands of hours of conversations with coaches from many of the leading college teams, Marty reveals a large-scale epidemic of deception, bribery, and fraud within the NCAA. The stars seem aligned for the operation—if only Marty can keep the FBI itself from blowing the case. Journalist Guy Lawson digs deep into a true story about the lure of celebrity, sports, wealth, and crime, and the motivations of a man—on both sides of the law—who exploded a land mine of systemic all-American corruption.