According to a report from Sports Illustrated, several members of Alabama’s 2009 national championshipteam Nick Saban’s first at Alabama received payment for autographs before the Tide’s championship matchup against Texas in the Rose Bowl.SI’s centers around memorabilia fraud and Clint Panezich, who, according to the article, traveled to Alabama Paul George Jersey ‘s campus during the team’s winter break in 2009 and got several players to sign autographs for payment.MORE: According to the article, Panezich and his a sociate Adam Bollinger who soldsigned sports memorabilia found Tide cornerback Marquis Johnson outside Bryant Hall, the football team’s residence hall, and paid him around Jerome Robinson Jersey $200 to sign various Alabama memorabilia: roughly 40″white-paneled footballs, each emblazoned with Alabamas logo.”Panezich in the article is quoted as saying Johnson signed a few before talking about getting paid to sign the rest. At that point, Panezich said, Johnson went inside and recruited players who were paid anywhere from $20 to $40 to sign the memorabilia.From SI’s article:”Terrence Cody was probably the biggest. He got paid to sign all the team stuff and then we heard he was interested in making some more money. So he came out and signed a bunch of mini helmets that he inscribed, like 2XALL-AMERICAN, or2 BLOCKED FGSAGAINSTTENNESSEE (sic) Landry Shamet Jersey ,very specific stuff. Panezich recalls that they paid Cody around $400 total.”MORE: SI in the article reported that it received video from Panezich of Johnson, Cody, safety Rod Woodson and tight end Colin Peek signing autographs. Panezich said Peek, running back Ali Sharrief and quarterback Greg McElroy all signed memorabilia but declined payment in order to comply with NCAA eligibility rules.Cody, through his agent, declined comment. Johnson in Chris Paul Jersey the story said he did not know Panezich and did not get paid for signing autographs.A university spokesman, when asked by SI for comment on the story, said, “As part of our comprehensive compliance and education program, we routinely review all situations of potential concern and addre s matters such as these with all of our student-athletes.
