In 1989, Deion Sanders posted a ridiculous 4.1-second 40-yard dash as part of his workout before the NFL Draft. Now, Neon Deion has pursuers that even he might not be able to outrun.
The Courthouse News Service reported over the weekend that Sanders is named in a lawsuit in which he’s one of several folks accused of defrauding investors — investors consisting of the parents of around 50 high school student-athletes — getting them to throw their money into a book that was supposed to help increase the profile of these kids in the eyes of college basketball and football recruiters.
Here’s how this was supposed to work: prospects and their parents were given the opportunity to sign up to be included in a basketball version of PrimeTimePlayer Pages for a fee of $99, and the publication was to be distributed to college basketball recruiters, meaning college coaches and recruiting gurus. The article even details an event in September 2009 at which Sanders was a speaker promoting the product, and the hoops prospects in attendance were given the chance to get into the book, at that time, at a reduced price of $39.99. The parents of somewhere around 50 high school athletes paid the fee to have their kid included.
Sounds great, right? Forty bucks to help your child’s chances of getting a college scholarship by getting their profile in a book endorsed by one of the most amazing athletes anyone’s ever seen? What parent wouldn’t sign up?
Just one problem. As of four months later, this special basketball version had evidently never been produced. Not one parent, athlete, or college ever received a copy of the publication. In fact, further investigation revealed that the original football version of the book allegedly produced earlier also never materialized.
That’s not all. The producers of the as-of-now phantom publication reached out to the corporate world for advertising dollars, claiming that the money would go toward scholarships for high school student-athletes, and that the book would be sent to over 15,000 recipients. The article notes how one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys contacted Sanders about all of this, received a call back from Prime Time himself who said he was unaware of this whole situation and that he’d take care of it. The attorney never heard from Sanders again. Incidentally, this page on the organization’s website lists two release dates for the basketball edition — in January and July of 2009 — which is interesting, since the gathering above was in September of 2009, according to the Courthouse News piece.
Check out the initial link above for the full story. To us, this is worse than that similar Who’s Who of American High School Students deal most of us fell for a long time ago, because at least nobody from that organization specifically said they were sending that out to the Ivy League schools, or Oxford, or what have you. Don’t despair, though, if you’ve missed out; you can still go to the PrimeTimePlayer website, look at photos of a besuited, smiling, and cocksure Sanders, and take advantage of this great opportunity for yourself. Looks like that $39.99 offer is still on the table.