SEATTLE — Alarming accusations against the University of Washington.
Former star Nate Robinson is claiming that a booster offered him $100,000 per year to keep playing college football.
Robinson made those comments on a Sports Illustrated podcast.
Robinson, who initially came to Washington on a football scholarship, left after one season so he could just focus on playing basketball.
He would go onto become a first-round pick in the 2005 NBA draft.
2002 was the only season Robinson played football at Washington.
“When they fired [head football] coach [Rick] Neuheisel my freshman year that made it easy for me to make my decision to quit and go play basketball,” said Robinson on that Sports Illustrated podcast called Holdat. “For my three years at UW, I had a booster offer me $100,000 a year to come back and play football because they needed Nate Robinson back on the football field because we weren't winning any games.”
Nikhil Misra, a University of Washington student who attended a basketball camp Robinson coached in Mercer Island, Washington, said he's very surprised a booster would offer so much money.
"[I've] definitely been a fan of Nate Robinson and I knew he played football,” said Misra. “That's crazy that he was offered that much to keep playing."
"But why would someone pay someone to play a school sport?” asked Makenzie Hermann, a University of Washington basketball fan.
Dan Raley, who covered Huskies basketball as sportswriter with the Seattle Post Intelligencer for 14 years, will tell you why.
"The boosters feel they have extra power, and they're very invested in everything,” said Raley. “A lot of boosters around the country feel like that there are no laws that bind them. That's been the case at Washington in the past."
The Sports Illustrated article did not mention who the booster is.
The UW family is just happy that Robinson made the right decision.
"I think that's awesome that he turned that [$100,000] down and he stuck with what he wanted to do,” said Misra.
University of Washington issued a statement on Wednesday, Feb. 28, about the Sports Illustrated report.
UW said based on Robinson's statement it appears there were no NCAA violations, but "we look forward to following up with Nate and any other relevant parties to learn more about this matter in hopes of continuing to foster a full environment of compliance within all of our athletic programs."
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