Even the most casual of college football fans would've been hard pressed to miss this year's autograph scandals. (Yes, that's playing fast and loose with the word "scandal.")
Georgia running back Todd Gurley, a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy at the time, missed a third of the season after he was exposed by a salty memorabilia dealer.
Florida State's Jameis Winston, then the reigning Heisman winner, was caught ink-handed with an inordinate amount of signed memorabilia on the open market, but avoided being sidelined over the issue, natch.
And while it's also an NCAA violation to knowingly trade your own signature for cash or other benefits, it's not an NCAA violation if the student-athlete is unknowingly signing something for a guy who's going to be putting it on Ebay that night.
Some athletes, like golf's Tiger Woods, protect their #brand by personalizing all autographs. (After all, who wants to buy an autograph addressed to Patsy?) And it looks like Ohio State is taking similar measures to protect its student-athletes from predatory autograph hustlers this week in the lead-up to the championship game.
Fans, our players have been instructed to personalize all autographs to protect them against the sharks trying to make money.
— Stan Drayton (@OSUcoachDrayton) January 11, 2015
Good move on Ohio State's part, because autograph sharks (who are known to employ duplicitous measures to "earn" an athlete's signature) are some of the worst people on Earth. Also, it's a good way of protecting the school from further shenanigans, but they already knew that.
