Starting Florida Gators defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd is the subject of a lengthy and in-depth USA Today report by Rachel George exploring his relationship with Kevin Lahn, a wealthy businessman who adopted Floyd after getting him in impermissible benefits trouble in 2011. Floyd was suspended two games last year due to Lahn as part of that South Carolina thing. (Lahn is now a disassociated Gamecocks booster.)
Florida’s Sharrif Floyd, adoptive father raise questions about NCAA’s role
A story in USA Today details Florida player Sharrif Floyd and his adoptive father -- who adopted him after being accused by the NCAA of giving him impermissible benefits.
Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
With 34 career games worth of experience, Floyd currently leads Florida in tackles for loss and ranks fifth among all SEC defensive linemen.
It's not likely the story, which details his dramatically different new life as Lahn's son, including a leased 2012 Ford Explorer XLT and a much-tweeted-about yacht trip with friends, will lead to new NCAA trouble. It's similar to the Michael Oher story on the surface, and, as John Infante says, the NCAA's in no position to tell an adoptive father just how legitimate his parental status is.
If all’s clear for Floyd, as it was for Oher, there’s potentially another gray area beyond the NCAA’s control, but ... let’s just wait and see whether anyone actually adopts with clear intent to affect competition before we ask the NCAA to do something about it. Floyd went from poor to supported (or at least that’s the story), and I have a really hard time getting mad about that, unless it’s clearly being done to make teams better.
TIL: you can get adopted at the age of 20. RT @apmarklong: USA Today story is up now on Gators DT Sharrif Floyd
— edsbs (@edsbs) November 13, 2012
Yeah, I also did not know that.
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