The roller-coaster ride that is football player Santonio Holmes’ career made perhaps its most abrupt turn Tuesday.
A day after playing his first game for his new team following a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, a former agent accused Holmes of accepting money during his playing days at Ohio State.
Josh Luchs told Sports Illustrated that he offered Holmes money but was rebuffed by the then-Buckeye wide receiver, who was already being paid by another agent.
In a phone interview with The Lantern, Luchs said he wasn’t the first to contact Holmes while the receiver was at OSU.
“That wasn’t a typical situation. I was basically shut down immediately with the response being that he was basically getting taken care of by somebody else,” said Luchs, who also represented former OSU running back Maurice Clarett. “So I just took it as I was too late for the dance. But, obviously, as I progressed on, I wasn’t going to participate in that stuff anymore.”
Luchs said he appreciated Holmes’ being forthright about taking money from another agent.
“You know what, I applaud Santonio for being straight-up and being forthright with me when I got there and not making me go through my song and dance and wasting my time,” Luchs said. “I wish more players were that honest with what they were doing, and I applaud him for it.”
Through a New York Jets spokesperson, Holmes denied that he ever told Luchs he was receiving money from an agent while in college, SI reported.
“He denied it. That’s fine,” Luchs said. “I mean, what is he going to say? Plenty of people deny things that are true. It doesn’t matter. I still appreciate his honesty one-on-one when it mattered. It doesn’t matter what’s said publicly.”
The OSU athletic department was still investigating as of Tuesday night.
“We just learned of the article,” OSU spokesman Dan Wallenberg said in an e-mail. “Our compliance staff is in the process of gathering information.”
