Mel Kiper Denies Claims In Sports Illustrated Story

And here comes the fallout from George Dohrmann‘s Sports Illustrated story.

ESPN is looking into Mel Kiper’s relationship with NFL agent Gary Wichard as described by Josh Luchs in this week’s SI cover story on agent tampering in college football.

In the article, Luchs claims Kiper worked with Wichard in order to persuade potential clients by using his NFL draft rankings as incentive for players to sign.

(No wonder those draft ranking arguments with Todd McShay are always so heated).

“Conversations with players, which are occasionally facilitated by agents, are a valuable way to get to know the players,” Kiper responded in a statement. “These conversations have never compromised my integrity, and my 32-year record supports that.”

Luchs stood by his claim of Kiper’s involvement on Mike and Mike in the Morning on Wednesday.

“What Mel did do in these situations, whether he realizes it or not, he allowed himself to be used in the recruiting process,” Luchs said.

This will likely be the first of many folks to publicly deny the allegations described in Dohrmann’s story.

Stay tuned.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.