Following the Louisiana State Tigers’ National Championship Game former wide receiver and current Cleveland Browns player Odell Beckham Jr gave cash to players on the team. This sparked a lot of heat including reports that the NCAA and Southeastern Conference is looking into the matter. A clip was shown that OBJ did indeed hand players money which is a violation of NCAA rules.
Former Texas Longhorn and current ESPN analyst Emmanuel Acho stated that the 2009 team was offered money to perform in the National Championship game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“We went to the national championship game in 2009 and … it was public to the team, for every interception the defensive back got, they were going to get $1,000. For every pick y’all got against Alabama in the national championship game, you’re going to get $1,000.’ Now, the difference is we just didn’t do it publicly on the field.”-excerpt from 247 Sports.
Acho went to Twitter to clarify his comments on ESPN regarding the claims that Texas players would be rewarded financially for their performance in the title game.
The former coaches nor University of Texas had anything to do with it. This was just a motivational conversation between players, past and present.
Thanks, and Hookem.🤘🏾🤘🏾— Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) January 16, 2020