Michigan football player Marcus Ray's punishment was to miss six games of his senior season. But James Gould, the agent Ray was involved with, won't learn his punishment until April 8, when he has a hearing in front of Roger Kaplan to appeal the two-year suspension and $15,000 fine recommended by the NFL Players Association.
"Often, the arbitrator has upheld" the NFLPA's decision, Tom DePaso of the NFLPA said.
The NCAA suspended Ray last season for his contact with Gould, who paid for a hotel room occupied by friends of Ray and his mother because they were unable to pay for the room at the time. The hotel threatened to have one woman arrested, Gould said.
Gould said the University's investigation into the matter exonerated him because neither Ray nor his mother stayed in the room.
DePaso said the NFLPA has never had its sentence reversed or reduced.
"There's always a first time," Cohn said.
Both Cohn and Gould said they are positive they will get a fair hearing. Gould said the unfair part of the process came last fall.
At a press conference to announce the results of an Athletic Department investigation into the matter, Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr used Gould's name, even though it had been removed from the report released to the public.
"When a coach decides to tear me apart because he's emotional, he better stop and think about the person he's attacking," Gould said.
Carr did not return phone calls from The Michigan Daily.
Gould said he had no plans for a lawsuit before his hearing.
"It would probably have been in Lloyd Carr's best interest not" to have mentioned Gould's name, Cohn said.
02-24-99
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