Anyone else read this? Poor kid. Hope he has a ton of success and gets some independence from the adults around him. This is the sad part of NIL.
theathletic.com
Sep 19, 2022
153
By Andy Staples, Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel
The man who sent the text message on June 1 called himself Big Rev. Looking down at his phone, Darren Heitner tried to place him.
Heitner is a Florida-based intellectual property lawyer, but he recently dove into the world of name, image and likeness deals for college athletes after states across the country effectively made the NCAA rules banning such deals illegal on July 1, 2021. Heitner has provided legal services for companies and athletes working in the space, but the only football player he represents is Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson. As he looked at his phone, Heitner remembered that he had recently given his number to the father of a star college football recruit in the class of 2024 who had reached out via Twitter direct message.
“Wanted an intro,” Big Rev replied. “Heard of you and wanted to see the scope of your services.” Then Big Rev added a gif.
It was Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman.” Ferrell’s words from the scene were captioned. “I don’t know how to put this,” Burgundy says in the movie. “But I’m kind of a big deal.”
Big Rev added a follow-up. “My son is kind of a big deal!”
Big Rev is a 49-year-old Georgia man named Terrance Cunningham. His son T.A. Cunningham is a 6-foot-6, 265-pound five-star defensive lineman who starred last season as a sophomore at Johns Creek High in suburban Atlanta. He has such a high ceiling that one Power 5 head coach said simply pressing play on his highlight video would convince a coach to offer a scholarship. And dozens of top college football programs, including Georgia, USC, Penn State, Michigan and LSU, already have.
“That dude is a freak,” a Power 5 recruiting coordinator said.
But T.A. Cunningham is not playing football right now.
On Tuesday, he filed a lawsuit against the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in California, in an effort to gain eligibility to play this season for Los Alamitos (Calif.) High, after the CIF denied his application for a hardship waiver. At a court hearing Thursday, hours before Cunningham’s new team’s fifth game of the season, a judge denied Cunningham’s request for a temporary restraining order. CIF has until Sept. 27 to rule on his eligibility.
In this nascent NIL market, this is the first time a valuable football recruit has wound up in court. And as more people enter the murky NIL waters governed by a patchwork of varying state laws and state high school association rules, more disputes are sure to arise.
This particular saga involves the 17-year-old Cunningham, a kid with good grades and a potentially bright (and potentially lucrative) future in football. It also includes his brother, an eighth-grader, who also could grow into a top football prospect. Big Rev, the one making decisions for them, was once sentenced to 84 months in federal prison after he was convicted on 230 counts related to his role in a Ponzi scheme. One of the people tasked with helping the boys navigate the world of Southern California football was recently arrested. The deal brokered between a Los Angeles marketing agency and Big Rev has been terminated.
T.A. and his brother remain in limbo thousands of miles from home. “The kid is so talented,” said one college coach recruiting T.A. Cunningham, “but he’s just surrounded by grossness.”
Currently, 16 states allow high schoolers to sign NIL deals, including California. The three top Power 5 talent producers – Florida, Georgia and Texas – do not. The differing rules have motivated some highly ranked players to move to places where they can earn money. In the most high-profile case, quarterback Quinn Ewers skipped his senior season at Southlake (Texas) Carroll High in 2021 to enroll at Ohio State.
Nico Iamaleava, a senior quarterback at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High, signed an NIL deal on March 11 that could pay him slightly more than $8 million after four years. Iamaleava committed to Tennessee within two weeks of the NIL deal being executed. That deal was made with a collective, a booster-funded company — with no official affiliation to a particular school but with an obvious lean toward a particular school — that acts as the player’s marketing agent, making deals for appearances, apparel and other merchandise. The collective keeps any money earned from those deals until the advance is earned back. If that happens, the player receives the bulk of the future monies and the collective collects a commission.
Orange County (Calif.) attorney Michael Caspino brokered the Iamaleava deal. Caspino also is the attorney representing Cunningham against the CIF. Caspino gets paid legal fees by the collective when he brokers such a deal. When the Iamaleava contract was signed, he hoped it would set the market. According to sources, including coaches, recruiting staffers, athletic directors and collective runners, that deal remains an outlier. Established players such as Alabama quarterback Bryce Young – last season’s Heisman Trophy winner now featured in a Dr. Pepper commercial – are making serious money. But few, if any, collectives seem willing to drop anywhere near seven figures on recruits.
So who convinced the Cunninghams to move to California? According to Cunningham’s filing – authored by Caspino – Heitner and California-based marketing agent Justin Giangrande promised there would be “lucrative contracts available that could help support the family.” Heitner disputes this and accuses Caspino of planting the idea that a move to California would be lucrative for Cunningham.
“Big Rev informed me that he had been communicating regularly with lawyer Michael Caspino,” Heitner wrote to The Athletic. “During that phone call, Big Rev specifically asked if I could do what Caspino does, but better. I asked what he meant by that. He said that Caspino was promising him that he could secure millions of dollars for T.A. Cunningham while he was in high school and that all his son would need to do is move to California, where it was legal for high school athletes to earn money from NIL deals.”
What is not in dispute is that Heitner referred Big Rev to Giangrande, who competes with Caspino in the market for securing NIL deals for players. In a presentation deck for Giangrande’s company, Levels Sports Group, that is included as an exhibit in Cunningham’s complaint against the CIF, Heitner is listed as the group’s outside counsel, and Orange County-based trainer Chris Flores, better known as “Coach Frogg,” is listed as a co-founder.
Levels Sports Group, which in that presentation deck touts Kansas City Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and Los Alamitos High quarterback Malachi Nelson as clients, signed T.A. Cunningham to a representation agreement on June 28. The deal, which is included in the lawsuit, was exclusive, meaning all marketing deals for Cunningham would have to go through the company. Cunningham would pay a 20 percent commission – plus any expenses incurred – on any deal. The agreement also granted limited power of attorney to Levels Sports Group. Either party could terminate the agreement with 30 days’ written notice.
In text messages purportedly between Big Rev and Giangrande cited in Cunningham’s lawsuit, Big Rev refers to himself as “out here (in Georgia) struggling.” He added: “That ain’t going to continue!” Regarding housing for the boys in California, a text from Big Rev wrote: “The school or an affiliate of such was supposed to provide that for US.”
T.A. and his brother ended up staying with Flores, 37, at his Bellflower, Calif., home. And the boys worked out at STARS, the training academy where Flores coached. Flores’ previous pupils include Alabama quarterback Young, Uiagalelei and Smith-Schuster.
According to the lawsuit and interviews, Levels Sports Group set out trying to find deals for T.A. Cunningham, though not with the early success that Big Rev sought. In a screenshot of a group text that included Big Rev, Giangrande and Flores, Big Rev wrote: “You just find the marketing opportunities, that’s your expertise, and keep your word!” Flores responded: “You right you got this figured out and you got it all set. I’m sorry your (sic) 100 percent correct. No worries at all I’ll let JG handle it.”
In June, according to text messages and airline boarding passes included in Cunningham’s lawsuit, Levels Sports Group paid for the defensive lineman to visit USC, UCLA, Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas and Texas A&M. In one of the texts exchanged with Big Rev, Giangrande wrote: “I will introduce you guys to all the big boosters.”
Cunningham was eventually earmarked to play his junior season for Los Alamitos High, but that development took too long for Big Rev, and as the summer progressed, he remained frustrated by the lack of progress on NIL deals for his son. “The plan was for me to be back in California very soon. And what are we doing to get some money?” Big Rev wrote, according to a screenshot of a text exchange included in the complaint. “I’ve been asking about that and no one is saying anything! What’s the plan? What are we endeavoring to do?”
On Aug. 11, Flores was arrested and charged with molesting a 15-year-old girl. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six years and four months in state prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
In the days following Flores’ arrest, it became more widely known that Flores had, in July 2010, been charged with kidnapping, rape of an intoxicated woman, and sodomy. (A Los Angeles jury found him not guilty on all charges.)
At some point last month, Laura Hart, a parent of another child in the STARS program, agreed to take the Cunningham boys into her home. Hart, who lives in Los Alamitos and is president of its Pop Warner league, is listed under “parent/guardian/caregiver” on Cunningham’s CIF transfer application.
Big Rev, when asked by The Athletic via phone last Thursday how he felt now about having sent his sons to live with Flores given the news of his arrest, said, “My kids are very resilient because of our faith in God. This is right now a faith walk.”
In a phone interview with The Athletic conducted before the younger Cunningham sued the CIF, Big Rev described himself as “an ordained, preacher superintendent in the Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.” He claims to have been a weight training partner of Michael Strahan at Texas Southern. (Terrance Cunningham played basketball at Texas Southern at the same time as Strahan.) Big Rev also claims to have invented a specialized training method for his sons that he calls “The Incredible Jiggy Blackbandit Workout.” He said he sent his sons to California because they’d have access to superior football training they couldn’t get at home.
This isn’t the first time the boys have lived away from their father. According to federal prison records, Terrance Cunningham was incarcerated from March 2012 until May 2018. He was convicted in August 2011 of 210 counts of wire fraud, 17 counts of money laundering, one count of obstruction, one count of commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to a 2012 news release from the FBI, Big Rev worked to recruit investors for a scheme run by two partners in Virginia by telling the prospective investors that he was a partner in the plan. According to the FBI, the scheme bilked nearly $1.5 million from investors.
When asked by The Athletic about his time served, Terrance Cunningham maintained his innocence. “I ain’t no criminal,” he said. “I’m a convict because I got convicted in federal court. In federal court they say you can indict a ham sandwich.”
While T.A. is attending classes and practicing with Los Alamitos High, he remains ineligible to play in games. Per CIF rules, an athlete who transfers to a new school without a full family change of residence is considered initially ineligible and must sit out for 12 months, but the athlete can apply for a hardship waiver. Foster care/homelessness is listed as one of 10 circumstances that qualify as a hardship.
On Sept. 9, the CIF denied Cunningham’s hardship waiver, determining that it did not meet the definition of a homeless student because they were living with Hart. That prompted Caspino to draft the lawsuit that was filed last week. Cunningham remains ineligible as CIF conducts an investigation into whether he violated a bylaw that prohibits “undue influence, pre-enrollment contact and athletically motivated transfers.”
The arrangement between Levels Sports Group and the Cunninghams fell apart after Flores’ arrest. An attorney for Giangrande said his client didn’t know about the earlier trial involving Flores and that shortly after his arrest Giangrande began the process of dissolving the company. Giangrande hopes to keep his other clients after the dissolution is complete.
Bruce Bible, Los Alamitos High’s assistant head coach, said he began to help look after the two Cunningham boys later in the summer. “(T.A.) ended up with us, and we’re trying to pick up the pieces,” Bible said. “I’m trying to keep all the vultures away. Since he’s been around us, a lot of those people haven’t been around. Being displaced and having to be in different people’s homes, that could be rough on anyone — let alone children.”
In a phone conversation with The Athletic three days before CIF denied his hardship appeal, Cunningham remained optimistic despite the challenges he faced the past few months. “I’m just looking forward to getting back on the field,” he said.
Some of the college coaches who were once fawning over T.A. have begun to re-examine their interest.
“It’s such a s-–show right now,” said one Power 5 recruiting coordinator, who like the other college coaches quoted in this story is barred from speaking publicly about recruits under NCAA rules.
But neither Big Rev’s past nor his aggressive pursuit of NIL dollars is likely to disqualify T.A. from playing college football. Time will pass and T.A.’s talent is that undeniable. He is also a “sweet, well-mannered, nerdy kid,” says one college coach.
“The sad part about this is you’re gonna keep hearing more and more of these kinds of stories,” said a Power 5 head coach who has met with Cunningham and his family.
Added Bible: “I think because he’s so massive people forget that he’s just a kid.”
How a five-star prospect from Georgia ended up homeless, ineligible and 2,000 miles away
Junior defensive lineman T.A. Cunningham has turned to the courts after his cross-country move to pursue NIL opportunities went awry.
theathletic.com
How a five-star prospect from Georgia ended up homeless, ineligible and 2,000 miles away
Andy Staples, Bruce Feldmanand moreSep 19, 2022
153
By Andy Staples, Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel
The man who sent the text message on June 1 called himself Big Rev. Looking down at his phone, Darren Heitner tried to place him.
Heitner is a Florida-based intellectual property lawyer, but he recently dove into the world of name, image and likeness deals for college athletes after states across the country effectively made the NCAA rules banning such deals illegal on July 1, 2021. Heitner has provided legal services for companies and athletes working in the space, but the only football player he represents is Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson. As he looked at his phone, Heitner remembered that he had recently given his number to the father of a star college football recruit in the class of 2024 who had reached out via Twitter direct message.
“Wanted an intro,” Big Rev replied. “Heard of you and wanted to see the scope of your services.” Then Big Rev added a gif.
It was Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman.” Ferrell’s words from the scene were captioned. “I don’t know how to put this,” Burgundy says in the movie. “But I’m kind of a big deal.”
Big Rev added a follow-up. “My son is kind of a big deal!”
Big Rev is a 49-year-old Georgia man named Terrance Cunningham. His son T.A. Cunningham is a 6-foot-6, 265-pound five-star defensive lineman who starred last season as a sophomore at Johns Creek High in suburban Atlanta. He has such a high ceiling that one Power 5 head coach said simply pressing play on his highlight video would convince a coach to offer a scholarship. And dozens of top college football programs, including Georgia, USC, Penn State, Michigan and LSU, already have.
“That dude is a freak,” a Power 5 recruiting coordinator said.
But T.A. Cunningham is not playing football right now.
On Tuesday, he filed a lawsuit against the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in California, in an effort to gain eligibility to play this season for Los Alamitos (Calif.) High, after the CIF denied his application for a hardship waiver. At a court hearing Thursday, hours before Cunningham’s new team’s fifth game of the season, a judge denied Cunningham’s request for a temporary restraining order. CIF has until Sept. 27 to rule on his eligibility.
In this nascent NIL market, this is the first time a valuable football recruit has wound up in court. And as more people enter the murky NIL waters governed by a patchwork of varying state laws and state high school association rules, more disputes are sure to arise.
This particular saga involves the 17-year-old Cunningham, a kid with good grades and a potentially bright (and potentially lucrative) future in football. It also includes his brother, an eighth-grader, who also could grow into a top football prospect. Big Rev, the one making decisions for them, was once sentenced to 84 months in federal prison after he was convicted on 230 counts related to his role in a Ponzi scheme. One of the people tasked with helping the boys navigate the world of Southern California football was recently arrested. The deal brokered between a Los Angeles marketing agency and Big Rev has been terminated.
T.A. and his brother remain in limbo thousands of miles from home. “The kid is so talented,” said one college coach recruiting T.A. Cunningham, “but he’s just surrounded by grossness.”
Currently, 16 states allow high schoolers to sign NIL deals, including California. The three top Power 5 talent producers – Florida, Georgia and Texas – do not. The differing rules have motivated some highly ranked players to move to places where they can earn money. In the most high-profile case, quarterback Quinn Ewers skipped his senior season at Southlake (Texas) Carroll High in 2021 to enroll at Ohio State.
Nico Iamaleava, a senior quarterback at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High, signed an NIL deal on March 11 that could pay him slightly more than $8 million after four years. Iamaleava committed to Tennessee within two weeks of the NIL deal being executed. That deal was made with a collective, a booster-funded company — with no official affiliation to a particular school but with an obvious lean toward a particular school — that acts as the player’s marketing agent, making deals for appearances, apparel and other merchandise. The collective keeps any money earned from those deals until the advance is earned back. If that happens, the player receives the bulk of the future monies and the collective collects a commission.
Orange County (Calif.) attorney Michael Caspino brokered the Iamaleava deal. Caspino also is the attorney representing Cunningham against the CIF. Caspino gets paid legal fees by the collective when he brokers such a deal. When the Iamaleava contract was signed, he hoped it would set the market. According to sources, including coaches, recruiting staffers, athletic directors and collective runners, that deal remains an outlier. Established players such as Alabama quarterback Bryce Young – last season’s Heisman Trophy winner now featured in a Dr. Pepper commercial – are making serious money. But few, if any, collectives seem willing to drop anywhere near seven figures on recruits.
So who convinced the Cunninghams to move to California? According to Cunningham’s filing – authored by Caspino – Heitner and California-based marketing agent Justin Giangrande promised there would be “lucrative contracts available that could help support the family.” Heitner disputes this and accuses Caspino of planting the idea that a move to California would be lucrative for Cunningham.
“Big Rev informed me that he had been communicating regularly with lawyer Michael Caspino,” Heitner wrote to The Athletic. “During that phone call, Big Rev specifically asked if I could do what Caspino does, but better. I asked what he meant by that. He said that Caspino was promising him that he could secure millions of dollars for T.A. Cunningham while he was in high school and that all his son would need to do is move to California, where it was legal for high school athletes to earn money from NIL deals.”
What is not in dispute is that Heitner referred Big Rev to Giangrande, who competes with Caspino in the market for securing NIL deals for players. In a presentation deck for Giangrande’s company, Levels Sports Group, that is included as an exhibit in Cunningham’s complaint against the CIF, Heitner is listed as the group’s outside counsel, and Orange County-based trainer Chris Flores, better known as “Coach Frogg,” is listed as a co-founder.
Levels Sports Group, which in that presentation deck touts Kansas City Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and Los Alamitos High quarterback Malachi Nelson as clients, signed T.A. Cunningham to a representation agreement on June 28. The deal, which is included in the lawsuit, was exclusive, meaning all marketing deals for Cunningham would have to go through the company. Cunningham would pay a 20 percent commission – plus any expenses incurred – on any deal. The agreement also granted limited power of attorney to Levels Sports Group. Either party could terminate the agreement with 30 days’ written notice.
In text messages purportedly between Big Rev and Giangrande cited in Cunningham’s lawsuit, Big Rev refers to himself as “out here (in Georgia) struggling.” He added: “That ain’t going to continue!” Regarding housing for the boys in California, a text from Big Rev wrote: “The school or an affiliate of such was supposed to provide that for US.”
T.A. and his brother ended up staying with Flores, 37, at his Bellflower, Calif., home. And the boys worked out at STARS, the training academy where Flores coached. Flores’ previous pupils include Alabama quarterback Young, Uiagalelei and Smith-Schuster.
According to the lawsuit and interviews, Levels Sports Group set out trying to find deals for T.A. Cunningham, though not with the early success that Big Rev sought. In a screenshot of a group text that included Big Rev, Giangrande and Flores, Big Rev wrote: “You just find the marketing opportunities, that’s your expertise, and keep your word!” Flores responded: “You right you got this figured out and you got it all set. I’m sorry your (sic) 100 percent correct. No worries at all I’ll let JG handle it.”
In June, according to text messages and airline boarding passes included in Cunningham’s lawsuit, Levels Sports Group paid for the defensive lineman to visit USC, UCLA, Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas and Texas A&M. In one of the texts exchanged with Big Rev, Giangrande wrote: “I will introduce you guys to all the big boosters.”
Cunningham was eventually earmarked to play his junior season for Los Alamitos High, but that development took too long for Big Rev, and as the summer progressed, he remained frustrated by the lack of progress on NIL deals for his son. “The plan was for me to be back in California very soon. And what are we doing to get some money?” Big Rev wrote, according to a screenshot of a text exchange included in the complaint. “I’ve been asking about that and no one is saying anything! What’s the plan? What are we endeavoring to do?”
On Aug. 11, Flores was arrested and charged with molesting a 15-year-old girl. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six years and four months in state prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
In the days following Flores’ arrest, it became more widely known that Flores had, in July 2010, been charged with kidnapping, rape of an intoxicated woman, and sodomy. (A Los Angeles jury found him not guilty on all charges.)
At some point last month, Laura Hart, a parent of another child in the STARS program, agreed to take the Cunningham boys into her home. Hart, who lives in Los Alamitos and is president of its Pop Warner league, is listed under “parent/guardian/caregiver” on Cunningham’s CIF transfer application.
Big Rev, when asked by The Athletic via phone last Thursday how he felt now about having sent his sons to live with Flores given the news of his arrest, said, “My kids are very resilient because of our faith in God. This is right now a faith walk.”
In a phone interview with The Athletic conducted before the younger Cunningham sued the CIF, Big Rev described himself as “an ordained, preacher superintendent in the Church of God in Christ, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.” He claims to have been a weight training partner of Michael Strahan at Texas Southern. (Terrance Cunningham played basketball at Texas Southern at the same time as Strahan.) Big Rev also claims to have invented a specialized training method for his sons that he calls “The Incredible Jiggy Blackbandit Workout.” He said he sent his sons to California because they’d have access to superior football training they couldn’t get at home.
This isn’t the first time the boys have lived away from their father. According to federal prison records, Terrance Cunningham was incarcerated from March 2012 until May 2018. He was convicted in August 2011 of 210 counts of wire fraud, 17 counts of money laundering, one count of obstruction, one count of commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to a 2012 news release from the FBI, Big Rev worked to recruit investors for a scheme run by two partners in Virginia by telling the prospective investors that he was a partner in the plan. According to the FBI, the scheme bilked nearly $1.5 million from investors.
When asked by The Athletic about his time served, Terrance Cunningham maintained his innocence. “I ain’t no criminal,” he said. “I’m a convict because I got convicted in federal court. In federal court they say you can indict a ham sandwich.”
While T.A. is attending classes and practicing with Los Alamitos High, he remains ineligible to play in games. Per CIF rules, an athlete who transfers to a new school without a full family change of residence is considered initially ineligible and must sit out for 12 months, but the athlete can apply for a hardship waiver. Foster care/homelessness is listed as one of 10 circumstances that qualify as a hardship.
On Sept. 9, the CIF denied Cunningham’s hardship waiver, determining that it did not meet the definition of a homeless student because they were living with Hart. That prompted Caspino to draft the lawsuit that was filed last week. Cunningham remains ineligible as CIF conducts an investigation into whether he violated a bylaw that prohibits “undue influence, pre-enrollment contact and athletically motivated transfers.”
The arrangement between Levels Sports Group and the Cunninghams fell apart after Flores’ arrest. An attorney for Giangrande said his client didn’t know about the earlier trial involving Flores and that shortly after his arrest Giangrande began the process of dissolving the company. Giangrande hopes to keep his other clients after the dissolution is complete.
Bruce Bible, Los Alamitos High’s assistant head coach, said he began to help look after the two Cunningham boys later in the summer. “(T.A.) ended up with us, and we’re trying to pick up the pieces,” Bible said. “I’m trying to keep all the vultures away. Since he’s been around us, a lot of those people haven’t been around. Being displaced and having to be in different people’s homes, that could be rough on anyone — let alone children.”
In a phone conversation with The Athletic three days before CIF denied his hardship appeal, Cunningham remained optimistic despite the challenges he faced the past few months. “I’m just looking forward to getting back on the field,” he said.
Some of the college coaches who were once fawning over T.A. have begun to re-examine their interest.
“It’s such a s-–show right now,” said one Power 5 recruiting coordinator, who like the other college coaches quoted in this story is barred from speaking publicly about recruits under NCAA rules.
But neither Big Rev’s past nor his aggressive pursuit of NIL dollars is likely to disqualify T.A. from playing college football. Time will pass and T.A.’s talent is that undeniable. He is also a “sweet, well-mannered, nerdy kid,” says one college coach.
“The sad part about this is you’re gonna keep hearing more and more of these kinds of stories,” said a Power 5 head coach who has met with Cunningham and his family.
Added Bible: “I think because he’s so massive people forget that he’s just a kid.”
