Johnny Rodgers Fined $10,000 for Tampering With College Player

The Texas secretary of state today fined former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers of Nebraska and a Nebraska-based sports marketing firm $10,000 each, alleging they violated Texas’ athlete agent law.

Rodgers and Total Economic Athletic Management of America Inc., or TEAM America, of Lincoln, Neb., are accused of illegally contacting 1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware, junior quarterback at Houston, according to Secretary of State George Bayoud.

The fines are the largest assessed since the law was enacted in 1987.

“By imposing these record fines, the message I am sending to agents should be loud and clear--don’t mess with Texas athletes,” Bayoud said.

The law requires that athlete agents be registered with the secretary of state and prohibits agents from making contact with a player who has college eligibility remaining.

A report released today by Bayoud alleges that Rodgers and TEAM America had failed to register as athlete agents in Texas; illegally contacted Ware, and offered gifts, cash and other inducements to Joyce Ware, Andre Ware’s mother, in an effort to lure the player into signing a professional services contract.

The report and fines, which resulted from an 18-day investigation, can be appealed at an administrative hearing. Rodgers and TEAM America have 20 days to pay the fines or request a hearing.

Telephone calls to TEAM America’s offices were answered by an answering machine today. There is no telephone listing in Lincoln for Rodgers.

Earlier, Rodgers denied any wrongdoing.

“There’s definitely nothing wrong with contacting the family,” Rodgers said. “I have done nothing at all other than talk to his mother. She was interested. I haven’t broken any rules.”

An investigation by Bayoud’s office found that Rodgers, representing himself as an agent for TEAM America, contacted Mrs. Ware by telephone on several occasions around Nov. 30 in an attempt to persuade her son to sign a contract with the company. Mrs. Ware lives in Dickinson, south of Houston.

Also, the statement alleged that TEAM America’s President Howard Misle and Rodgers took Mrs. Ware shopping and bought her several items of clothing, including a fur coat, dress, shoes and purse containing $300.

When Mrs. Ware returned from New York, she told her son about her contact with Rodgers, and Ware informed University of Houston officials.