Arian Foster claims he accepted $40-50K while at Tennessee, then backtracks
NFL running back Arian Foster claims that during his time at Tennessee, he accepted hefty amounts of money as a student-athlete.
During an interview on a radio show, Foster said he cashed in upwards of $50,000 from 2004-08, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel.
"You have people help you out here and there," Foster said on Thursday. "Boosters and alumni and ex-players, they all know how it is, man. It's hard living check to check when you don't have enough money to go out to the movies or any kind of leisure activity.
"And you're not allowed to get a job. Especially when I was in college, they were a lot more stringent on those rules, so at any given chance I got the opportunity, I took a free handout. Absolutely."
Moments after the news broke, Foster took to Twitter, claiming his own comments heard live on the radio were in fact untrue:
Vol fans, it was a joke. I didn't get no where near 50k.
— Feeno (@ArianFoster) January 30, 2015
The news comes a day after Seattle Seahawks players Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett ripped into the NCAA.
"I think the NCAA is one of the biggest scams in America," Bennett said.
One of Foster's former teammates at UT, Ryan Karl, refuted his claims, saying there's no way he cashed in on that much money.
"So Arian Foster I gotta call you out here," Karl wrote on his Facebook page. "You're my boy, but you did not get $40-50k from boosters while at UT. Shoot, you were as broke as me in college driving a crap car living in a crap apartment - like us all. Also, these claims of being wined and dined by agents is a big stretch too.
"You are a baller now but at the time, you were a risky pick who ended up being a free agent. Quit trying to grab attention while throwing your school under the bus."