In an interview on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast hosted by Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, former Gator great [autotag]Fred Taylor[/autotag] was asked about an event from his past that sounds like it was taken right out of a Hollywood film. A rivalry, a large sum of cash and a swindle are all parts of this wild plot.
Initially, the host made an inquiry about an alleged duffel bag that contained $30,000 given to him by liaisons from the University of Georgia in an effort to recruit him for their football team, which Taylor took and never paid back after choosing Florida. The co-host quickly corrected him, suggesting the amount was actually $50,000. You can watch the exchange below.
This is awesome.
The Univ. Of Georgia gave Fred Taylor about $50,000 to come to their school and my man kept the $50k and went to Florida pic.twitter.com/5CboIUnQek
— Will Compton (@_willcompton) March 30, 2022
Taylor did not deny the allegations but humorously noted that the money was not delivered in a duffel bag. When pressed about the full amount paid out, the star running back offered, “It was up there… it was closer to 50 (thousand).” He went on to describe the distribution of smaller amounts of cash he received when he made visits, typically in the low thousands.
This story is one of many from the wild west of collegiate athletics that existed back in the 1990s involving shady hush-hush payments to preps. The cherry on top for Gators fans is that the Orange and Blue also won that deal, getting four years out of one of the best running backs to ever tear up the Swamp turf while producing a should-be NFL Hall of Famer for the nearby Jacksonville Jaguars.
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