Citing a strong appetite for its "Dirty Game" series on Oklahoma State football, Sports Illustrated released the fifth and final chapter a day earlier than originally announced.
"The Fallout" appeared on SI.com shortly before noon Monday and was billed as the culmination of previous installments that alleged a variety of improprieties, including illicit payments to players; academic misconduct; widespread drug use; and sexual relations between recruits and hostesses.
Monday's story examines the post-football lives of OSU players, some of whom SI says have been incarcerated or live on the streets, battled substance abuse and even attempted suicide.
SI focuses prominently on former receiver Artrell Woods, who after a spinal injury while at OSU came back to play for the Cowboys before transferring to UCO. At the time of Woods' interview with SI, he was working as a waiter in a chain restaurant in his hometown of Bryan, Texas, and couldn't remedy back pain because of a lack of health insurance.
In checking up on other former players, SI found others were unemployed.
"No football program can be expected to guarantee a bright future for every player it courts and embraces, and the athletes certainly bear significant responsibility for their fates," the story reads.
"But in the past decade so many players have been kicked out or driven out of OSU, many returning in shame to neighborhoods and lifestyles they hoped desperately to escape, that the sheer number of those downtrodden and embittered raises the question: How much did the program really care?"
Another SI example, former running back Kevin White, said he was dismissed from OSU for a violation of team rules after being a passenger in a car in which marijuana was found by police. He had previous strikes, including a charge of concealing stolen property that had been dismissed.
White told SI he tried to get his transcript from the university so he could resume his career at a lower-division program but was informed he owed hundreds of dollars for miscellaneous charges (including a sofa he had allegedly stolen from a dormitory).
Now, White works at an industrial battery company owned by his uncle (he called it his "last resort") and said he breeds pit bulls to make extra money to support his 2-year-old son.
According to SI, former Cowboy linebacker Marcus Richardson was in a gang before his 12th birthday and sold drugs and committed robberies while growing up in Florida. After parting company with OSU, he returned to a life of crime and now is in a Texas prison serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated assault.
"I've seen that college football is a business," Richardson told the magazine. " ... The only type of relationship (coaches) really have with the players is, 'OK, if y'all don't produce then I get fired.'"
SI details the story of former running back Herschel Sims, saying if OSU "bothered to dig into" his past, coaches would have discovered he was abused as a child and put him in counseling.
Instead, Sims' stay in Stillwater was brief. He was dismissed from the team in 2012 after withdrawing $700 from a teammate's checking account. He was reportedly given chances to pay the teammate back, but, when he did not, he was charged with two felony counts of second-degree forgery and pleaded guilty, receiving a deferred sentence.
Sims, the only five-star recruit to attend OSU directly out of high school, told SI: "I wasn't playing much and I wasn't helping out the team much, so it was easy for them to let me go. It was just all about football. They didn't care about anything I was going through."
Sims transferred to Lamar and now is at Abilene Christian University. Said Sims, "They care a lot here."
Called into question was why starters like Jamie Blatnick and Bo Bowling were allowed to stay at OSU despite indiscretions while reserves often were dismissed.
After the 2005 dismissal of Thomas Wright, one of the players quoted in Monday's story, head coach Mike Gundy said: "All of those (dismissed) players knew what was going on, and they all had multiple chances to do the right thing.
"I've had discussions with our team, and I reminded them that it's a privilege to be on this team. It's a privilege to get a scholarship. I reminded them that their reward is a free education, along with an opportunity to play on Saturdays and have fun. It's our coaching staff's responsibility to prepare our players for life after football - not just for playing football."
When asked in April 2006 about recruiting players with possible character issues, Gundy said: "When they're in this program, I'm responsible for them. There are (recruits) that we've turned down here, because of certain situations. It's not like we're perfect. We can get tricked.
"But if a guy takes care of his business here, we'll fight for them forever. If they make a mistake here, we'll try to fix it. If they make another mistake, we'll probably try to fix it again. If they make another one, they're probably going to be out of here. If I'm wrong on a guy, he won't sit in here and simmer in this program for very long."
SI's findings about the percentage of athletes (43.5, according to the article) who failed to exhaust their eligibility will be disputed by OSU. A source inside the program indicated the percentage was 34.45 from 2002-2010, 30.98 in the Gundy era and 29.03 over the last four years.
Initially, SI included Vernon Grant, who died in a 2005 car accident, when counting those who didn't exhaust eligibility. The source said SI did not include players on medical scholarships and players who graduated and chose not to use a final year of eligibility.
In response to the conclusion of the series, OSU announced the hiring of former NCAA director of enforcement Chuck Smrt as the university's independent investigator into the allegations.
"While the articles do not implicate any current coaches or players to have direct involvement in any alleged misconduct, we have a responsibility to confront these disturbing reports head on and with complete transparency," OSU President Burns Hargis said in a statement.
Smrt, president and founder of The Compliance Group, based in Lenexa, Kan., was on the NCAA enforcement staff for almost 18 years.
"I appreciate the unfettered access and cooperation that President Hargis has offered to help me carry out my review," Smrt said. "He has asked me to pursue the facts wherever they may lead. I assured him that I will do so, and that I will conduct the review with care and urgency."
Said Gundy: "I support a quick and complete review. I am proud of our football program. And I can assure everyone we are committed as coaches and staff to winning the right way."
World Sports Writer Jimmie Tramel contributed to this report.
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Original Print Headline: The blame game
OSU football investigation
In the final chapter of "The Dirty Game," Sports Illustrated said so many players have been jettisoned from the Oklahoma State football program and wound up in bad situations that this question should be asked: "How much did the program really care?"
Former Oklahoma State receiver Artrell Woods was a central figure in Sports Illustrated's final chapter of "The Dirty Game."
