Sports agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom...

Sports agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom said they paid some National Football League scouts for information about college prospects.

“They contacted us first; we didn’t contact them,” Bloom said. “There are scouts within the NFL--I can’t mention their names--for certain teams that would work for us. Other agents would get the service. We paid a little more.”

Scouts asked $500 to $1,500 for basic information, Bloom said in a story published in today’s editions of the Atlanta Constitution. The basic information normally would include a player’s ranking at his position and his telephone number.

Bloom said he and Walters also paid for continually updated evaluations of a player’s progress, adding that he and Walters used the information to identify potential clients.