City Atty.’s Football Claims Deflate

Some guys exaggerate when talking about their youthful sports exploits, but the boasts of one candidate for state office have led to official backtracking.

In various speeches, campaign ads and written biographies in past years, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has said he made it out of his Eastside neighborhood by winning a football scholarship to Harvard University, where he was an Academic All-American before going on to become a professional football player.

But now, as he runs for attorney general, the time as a pro football player is listed in bio material and speeches as “a brief stint,” his standing at Harvard is listed as honorable mention for an All-American award, and he has dropped all claims of getting a football scholarship.

Last week, Delgadillo acknowledged through a spokesman that he never played in a pro football game and that his Harvard financial aid was not an athletic scholarship, because Ivy League schools do not provide them.

Jonathan Diamond, a spokesman for the city attorney, said someone mistakenly “truncated” the reference on his city website to leave out the words “honorable mention” when referring to him as an Academic All-American.

“It was pointed out. It was corrected,” Diamond said.

But the reference has made its way into the public record many other places without being corrected.

The Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which lists attorneys and their accomplishments, credits Delgadillo with being an “NCAA Academic All-American” in several years’ editions. The entries are based on information provided by the attorneys.

In a 2001 campaign mailer, Delgadillo is described as “an Academic All-American at Harvard University.”

And in a written copy of a speech he delivered last year to the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, Delgadillo said, “I was an All-American football player. It was at Harvard, so don’t get too excited. But I was an All-American football player.”

The claim is one of several that are all part of Delgadillo’s Cinderella-like story that emphasizes how athletic prowess led him to a better life.

In a locally broadcast television ad for his reelection campaign last year, a narrator says, “He grew up in East L.A. Won a football scholarship to Harvard. But instead of cashing in, he came home to teach, coach and rebuild our community.”

The football scholarship was news to Robert Mitchell, a spokesman for the college.

“Harvard would not have given an athletic scholarship back then,” Mitchell said of the late 1970s. “The Ivy League does not permit them.”

Campaign spokesman Roger Salazar dismissed the issue.

“Rocky did not receive a football scholarship from Harvard, nor does [he] claim to have received a football scholarship,” said Salazar, who was not involved in the reelection campaign. “He received a scholarship, and he played football. He also played baseball and ran track.”

Questioned about the scholarship, Salazar acknowledged that it was primarily a financial aid package from Harvard. But Salazar said Delgadillo “also received several other scholarships from local groups -- his high school, for example, gave him a $500 scholarship.”

What happened after Harvard is also murky.

In a brief biography provided to participants at a Milken Institute Conference and Digital Coast Roundtable in 2003, identical language was used that said Delgadillo returned to L.A. “after a brief career as a professional football player.”

The “career” is reduced to “a brief stint as a professional football player” on the website for his current campaign for attorney general.

Spokesman Diamond said the city attorney was a professional football player for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, but team spokesman Rom Halverson said he could find no record of Delgadillo being signed to play for the team.

Neither is Delgadillo’s name on the “Tiger-Cats All-Time Roster” on the football team’s website, which Halverson said lists everyone who played for the team.

“If he didn’t play, he wasn’t a Tiger-Cat,” Halverson said.

Diamond said Delgadillo could not provide documents showing that he signed a contract or played for the team. Brad Blank, a sports agent who represented Delgadillo, said he recalls that his client did sign a contract with Hamilton and reported to training camp but was cut before he could play for the team. Blank could not provide a copy of the contract.

Campaign spokesman Salazar said Delgadillo’s assertion that he was a professional football player is a matter of semantics.

“Rocky did sign a contract while in camp with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats but was cut before he ever played,” Salazar said. “Rocky never played for the team and never claimed to. Rocky also attended the New York Giants mini-camp, but was cut. He never played for the team, never claimed to. That was the extent of his stint as a professional football player, and he has never claimed otherwise.”