More news on Eric Bledsoe

Eric Bledsoe is back in the news.

If you remember (and how could you forget), back in late May, Pete Thamel of the New York Times filed an article stating that Eric Bledsoe received improper benefits during his high school career. One of his accusations was that Bledsoe's coach at Parker High School, where Bledsoe played his senior season, paid rent for Bledsoe and his mother on more than one occasion"

Brenda Axle, the landlord for the house where Bledsoe and his mother moved for his senior year of high school, said that Bledsoe's high school coach [Maurice Ford] paid her at least three months’ rent, or $1,200. By moving there, Bledsoe was eligible to play for Parker, which he led to the Alabama Class 5A title game. Maurice Ford, the coach, denied paying the money.

Obviously, Ford denied those claims. A report from today's Birmingham News backs him up:

Billy Fagnes, who is a first cousin to Bledsoe's mother, Maureen Reddick, said his family paid most of the rent on the house where Reddick and Bledsoe lived during his senior year at Parker. Also, Jerome McMullin, who described himself as a close family friend, said that although Ford found the family an affordable home, McMullin helped the family pay the rent during some difficult financial times. Ford did not pay any rent, McMullin said.
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In late May, The New York Times quoted landlord Brenda Axle as saying she never received any money from Reddick or Bledsoe and that Ford paid the rent three or four times in cash, usually when Axle was at Parker as a volunteer worker. Axle disputes The Times' reporting of her account. Axle told The Birmingham News that Ford gave her cash a couple of times but she always assumed the money came from Reddick. Her lease was with Reddick, Axle said, and she never wrote a receipt in Ford's name. Axle said receiving the money occasionally from Ford -- she declined to estimate a number of times in case she was wrong -- provided an easy way to collect Reddick's rent because Axle frequently worked at Parker.

Now, I'm not going to try and convince what actually happened during Bledsoe's senior season. It is plausible that Bledsoe's family used Ford as a middle man to pay rent to Axle, as the two worked together at Parker High? Sure. Is it possible that Ford actually paid Bledsoe's rent in order to keep the player at Parker High? Absolutely. The only people that truly know the answers to these questions are those involved. Based on the above information, you can make your own assumption as to what actually happened.

But before you do, consider this: in both of these reports, no one disputes the fact that Bledsoe's mother needed help paying her rent. And when you need help scrounging up $400 a month to keep a roof over your head, I think it is safe to say that money isn't exactly easy to come by. Let's say the Birmingham News article is incorrect, and that Ford actually did help chip in and pay some of Bledsoe's rent, is that really that terrible of a crime? I know that it is a serious violation, but isn't it possible that Ford actually cared about Bledsoe as more than just a talented basketball player? That he wanted to make sure Bledsoe had a place to sleep at night? Put yourself in his situation. If you are a high school coach, and one of your players needs a couple hundred bucks to keep from being evicted, is there anyway that you don't pony up that money?

Helping pay rent is a far cry from paying for a car and handing out envelopes stuffed with benjis.

I know the opposite is just as likely. Maybe Ford was getting paid by college coaches and using some, or all, of that money to pay the rent. Maybe Ford truly just took cash from Bledsoe's friends and family and gave it to Axle.

My point is that we don't know.

Until we do, any speculation is just that -- speculation.

For now, as skeptical as I may be, I'll wait to hear a ruling from the Alabama High School Athletics Association.