Don Bosco Prep being investigated for possible benefits violation involving Peppers

Submitted by SAvoodoo on

http://www.northjersey.com/news/after-transfer-from-don-bosco-star-and-mom-told-to-leave-home-rented-from-coach-s-brother-1.1119109

Apparently Peppers and his mother had an apartment arranged for them as a "favor" when he was at Don Bosco, which he was forced out of when he transferred schools.  Any possibility U of M will face consequences for recruiting a player who is later deemed ineligibile (if that's the case)?  Sorry if this isn't an appropriate topic, feel free to delete. 

MgoBlueprint

October 29th, 2014 at 4:01 PM ^

I can't remember the exact details of the Jamal Crawford situation, but that seems like the only situation that would remotely be similar in terms of UM being impacted

BlueCube

October 29th, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^

All our Rose Bowl victories since 1998. I doubt anything from high school is going to affect his status at Michigan. It's more likely to affect Don Bosco.

Double-D

October 29th, 2014 at 4:53 PM ^

He looked like your avatar 543 Church, although bigger and maybe not as yellow. The reason he had a yellow tint, we think, is he would always get drunk and eat our live goldfish. Then we would replace them and the vicious cycle would start over. With the right girl on your arm it could really set the mood. We almost tried Pyranas once......

BlueinLansing

October 29th, 2014 at 4:06 PM ^

in the past the NCAA took a hard line with players like this and the player was ruled ineligible.

 

This happened out in Seattle many years ago, substantial cash was involved but also a similar rent free apartment hook up with a "booster".  The kid was a basketball player and wanted to go to Washington, NCAA said nope and to my knowledge never played college basketball.

 

The hits just keep on coming.

Chipper1221

October 29th, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^

Im not sure what makes you think this could fall back on UM? Maybe im being foolish but this has nothing to do with Michigan doing anything wrong 

 

Maybe if Hoke was recruiting him and knew about this situation but again - Michigan didnt pay for anything or do anything wrong 

 

If im missing something let me know but this situation should not affect Michigan or even Hoke at all UNLESS they were in on assisting housing for his family

Perkis-Size Me

October 29th, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^

Was Hoke aware of this but not fully aware of it?

But no in all seriousness, I doubt this affects Michigan much more than maybe Peppers is ruled ineligible next year. And even that feels like a big if.


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FreddieMercuryHayes

October 29th, 2014 at 4:11 PM ^

I don't think this has anything to do with UM at all.  What impropriety did UM do?  None according to this.  Peppers still graduated and is eligable to play in the NCAA.  Alll this has to do with with NJ's high school athletic association.

Tony Soprano

October 29th, 2014 at 4:17 PM ^

Looks like they signed a lease and made payments.  Seems to me that maybe the school could be in hot water, but I don't think it will affect Peppers at all, as it doesn't look like he did anything wrong. 

MSUDersh

October 29th, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^

The landlord alleged in court that they were months behind on rent, and sued them more than once to recover money that was owed.  This happened two weeks after Peppers announced his transfer.

So a legit question to ask is, Why wasn't Ms. Bryant making her rent payments? Was she promised use of the house so long as her son played FB on the team that the landlord's brother coached?  Also, was her rent ($1,300/mo, which per Trulia is way below market rate there) low in exchange for her son playing football?  Was she given any preferential treatment in her rental application bc of Jabrill's status?

Those are all questions that need to be looked into bc if the answer to any of them is "yes," it means that he jeapordized or even forfeited his status as an amateur athlete.

eschaton811ydau

October 29th, 2014 at 4:45 PM ^

if he's trolling, then point out where he's wrong instead of referencing that god damn nickname.

 

look, i don't want peppers to get screwed by the NCAA, and personally, i think the amateurism stuff is really dumb. many here are dismissing this issue without thinking clearly.

pearlw

October 29th, 2014 at 5:02 PM ^

But were the market rates on Trulia for apartments with these wonderful features as detailed by the article: no screen in the bathroom window; there were holes in the screens in the kitchen and bedroom; the kitchen floor had bubbles that appeared to be due to water; the walls in the bathroom, kitchen and a bedroom had soil stains and needed to be painted; there was a hole in the ground in the back yard that was covered by a basketball hoop.


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Mr. Yost

October 29th, 2014 at 4:22 PM ^

We have too many MGoBloggers on campus not to know the deal with Peppers. I mentioned it HAD to be recruiting or some type of agent/impermissable benefit situation.

We knew about Des Morgan's arm by 10a monday morning when the MGoStudents saw him in class/on campus.

You mean to tell me, there was no one that said "Hey Peppers, how much longer you out?"

He's one of the 5 most high profile kids on campus. There's no way we wouldn't know about an injury.

We were selling ourselves short.

This isn't shocking (considering he's been like a unicorn as of late), let's just hope it's not Michigan-career ending. The kid can ball, by all accounts he's a great kid, hopefully everything is straigtened out and we can see him back on the field soon. Turning this program around and bringing some excitement back to Ann Arbor.

chatster

October 29th, 2014 at 4:23 PM ^

It might not be national news, and it may contain as much speculation as fact, but that story about Jabrill Peppers’ high school recruiting experiences was prominently placed just above the fold on the front page of today’s edition of The Record, one of the major newspapers in northern New Jersey.
 
There was an earlier story in the same newspaper that contains more details surrounding Jabrill Peppers’ transfer from Don Bosco Prep to Paramus Catholic and includes a link to the full text of the email message that Jabrill Peppers sent to the reporter from northern New Jersey who’s covering this story.
 
The story has gotten some traction because of allegations that the northern New Jersey parochial football powers (Don Bosco Prep, Paramus Catholic, Bergen Catholic, St. Joseph Regional, DePaul Catholic and St. Peter’s Prep) have engaged in illegal recruiting practices in order to elevate their football programs to national status.  Just last month, Don Bosco was ranked as the top prep school football team in the nation.  LINK  They've lost two games since then, a 10-3 loss to Bergen Catholic last Saturday amd a 21-14 loss to Paramus Catholic on October 11. All three of those schools are ranked in the top 20 of the MaxPreps Football Freeman Rankings this week.
 
Because there’s also some bad blood between the head coaches at Don Bosco and Paramus Catholic, as revealed in another story that ran in the same newspaper, it seems like the matter won't go away too soon, at least in northern New Jersey. LINK

jerseyblue

October 29th, 2014 at 4:26 PM ^

I'm from northern NJ. Same area as Bosco and Paramus Catholic. The talk has always been that Bosco imports kids from around the state to their school and that boosters have flipped the bill for apartments. Or in this case the brother of an an assistant. There's an arms race between the parochial powers up here. There are 6 of them that are national powers: Bosco, Paramus Catholic, St.Peter's, St. Joseph's, Bergen Catholic and DePaul. Bosco is the one that draws most of the suspicion regarding importing. Though lately people have been wondering about Paramus Catholic. After years of being just decent they lured Peppers away from Bosco and that surprised everyone. Then they lured Rashon Gary away from his school in central Jersey. He's the #1 nationally ranked junior. So I suspect PC is doing some of the same shenanigans as Bosco.

chatster

October 29th, 2014 at 4:47 PM ^

And though they're all Catholic schools, they're always happy to enroll a Jewish kid if he has a fastball that hits 94 mph and a hard, nasty curve, plus a changeup that is progressing -- like Rob Kaminsky who pitched for the St. Joseph Regional team and was a first round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals. . . . or an Armenian Christian soccer player who might have the skills to become the best high school soccer player in America and later win the Hermann Trophy as the best player in college soccer, become the number one draft choice in the MLS Draft and win the MVP of the MLS Cup – like Alecko Eskandarian who played for Bergen Catholic.

 

chatster

October 29th, 2014 at 7:55 PM ^

From what I've read, Rob Kaminsky was raised in a religious Jewish home and had attended a Jewish Day School through the eighth grade; but he was an exceptional pitcher and switch-hitting outfielder in youth baseball and the elite baseball players in northern New Jersey, regardless of religious affiliation, often were recruited by St. Joseph Regional, a frequent league, county and state sectional championship team. LINK - CLICK ON THE HISTORY AND TITLES BUTTONS

I've also been told that the high school accommodated Kaminsky's religious observances, so that he didn't have to attend mass with other students or take Catholic Theology courses, and was excused from attending school on Jewish holidays.  I suspect that during Passover, no one expected him to be eating bread at lunch, and that he would've been easy to pick out of a school lineup on Ash Wednesday. I doubt that the school's adminsitrators made conversion to Catholicism a requirement for Kaminsky's continued attendance.  They might not have wanted to lose a player who was considered the best player their baseball coach ever had on the team, and who would become an all-state pitcher as a junior and senior. LINK - CLICK ON THE HISTORY AND ALL STATE BUTTONS

Kaminsky was getting raves for his play as early as his sophomore season. Even New Jersey's Governor found time to attend one of Kaminsky's games that season -- traveling to the game by state helicopter.

 

 

WolvinLA2

October 29th, 2014 at 8:14 PM ^

You know that non-Catholic students attend Catholic schools all the time, right?  It's funny how you bring up one Jewish kid and one Armenian Christian kid, as if that's a big deal.  Do you think Peppers is Catholic?  It's very rare for African Americans to be Catholic.  

You know Jewish kids go to Catholic schools all the time, right?  Not just for sports.  In most big cities (where high concentrations of Jews are typically found) the Catholic schools are some of the best schools, from an academic and college prep standpoint, and are usually more cost-effective than non-religious private schools.  

Take a look at Josh Rosen out here in LA.  He's Jewish, and he attends St. John Bosco because it's a big time football program.  The star running back for Notre Dame HS in Sherman Oaks, CA (who now plays for Cal) last year was Khalfani Muhammad, who is also not Catholic. This is not a new nor uncommon phenomenon.