Dan Lambert plans $500-a-month endorsement deal for every Miami Hurricanes football player on scholarship

Dan Lambert plans $500-a-month endorsement deal for every Miami Hurricanes football player on scholarship

Michele Steele reports on NCAA athletes to profit off of name, image and likeness deals and talks to Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz on the subject. (1:56)

The owner of a Florida-based chain of mixed martial arts gyms unveiled big plans Tuesday to try to help Miami Hurricanes football players take advantage of new rules that allow them to make money.

Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team and a longtime Miami football fan, has offered each scholarship player (90 total) on the Miami football team a monthly payment of $500 this year to advertise his gyms on social media. American Top Team is the home training facility for more than two dozen professional fighters, including Jorge Masvidal and Amanda Nunes.

Lambert’s offer to the Hurricanes – which could add up to as much as $540,000 this year – is the largest reported sum for a college sports endorsement deal since new state laws and NCAA rules opened the doors for players to make money last week.

“I want to help the kids. I want to reward them for what they do, and I want a better product on the field, too,” Lambert told ESPN on Tuesday. “I want to improve the reputation of the school and the team I love so much. I think it’s a cool opportunity to get involved and make a difference.”

Lambert said the offer is the largest marketing effort his MMA business ever has made. He says he’s not sure he’ll continue to offer the same deal to Miami players in future years, but he already has bigger plans in the works to create a consistent way to provide some money to every player on the Hurricanes' roster.

Lambert has also started a corporation, called Bring Back The U, that will be solely focused on putting money in the pockets of Miami football players. He said the company will attempt to rally support from local businesses to hire the players as spokesmen. He says he also plans to host fundraising events and then donate the proceeds to any local business that agrees to use the donation to pay for Miami players as spokesmen.

Lambert said he has had multiple conversations with the school’s compliance department to tell them about his plans. He also has hired attorney Darren Heitner to make sure what he was doing didn’t violate new state laws.

“There are improper ways of fans supporting their players, and now there is a legal way to do it,” Lambert said. “And if there is a legal way, and you can dot the I’s and cross the T’s, I’m going to do it.”

Heitner helped craft Florida’s new name, image and likeness law and has consulted with several athletes and businesses looking to use college athlete endorsers. He told ESPN that Lambert’s fanhood and previous donations that he has made to the athletic department do not prevent him from creating a company that facilitates endorsement deals for Hurricanes players.

Heitner said Florida’s law only prohibits an entity that has directly supported the university or the athletic department from paying or facilitating these deals. Lambert’s new corporation has no relationship with the university.

“There’s no prohibition on an entity who may have a booster as a member,” Heitner said. “The only restriction is if the entity itself supports the institution or the athletic department.”

Many of the state laws currently in place have similar language addressing booster involvement. The NCAA rules, which dictate what is allowed in the 30-plus states that don’t have NIL laws in place, also have no restrictions that would make an effort like Lambert’s against the rules.

Lambert said he has already had several inquiries about Bring Back The U from other local businesses since launching his new fundraising company on Tuesday morning. He does not have any plans set in stone yet for their fundraising event, but he said every dollar they make will eventually land in the hands of a Miami football player.

“I’m not looking to profit from this,” Lambert said. “I want to try to bring people together and make our team better. I’ve got too many Gator and Seminole friends that have been s—-ing on me for the last 20 years. I want to reverse it.”

Opa-locka Commissioner Took Money to Ward Off Police, Ethics Commission Says

click to enlarge Former Opa-locka mayor and city commissioner John B. Riley Photo by City of Opa-locka

When Opa-locka police officer Daniel Kelly responded to a call at Garden Apartments in January 2017, he was met by then-city commissioner John B. Riley, who told him the police had no business there. Now, four years later, Riley has been found guilty of two ethics violations after it was discovered that he was being paid by the apartment’s owners to deal with city business while acting in an official capacity.Miami-Dade County’s Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) last week found Riley, a former mayor and commissioner in the corruption-plagued city of Opa-locka, in violation of two county ethics rules after a years-long investigation and internal COE trial.According to records of the trial provided toby the COE, on January 12, 2017, Officer Kelly responded to a call from a woman named Vivian Smith, who said she’d been locked out of her unit at the Garden Apartments building at 13436 NW 30th Ave. When Kelly arrived, he said, he was approached by Riley, who drove up to his squad car and rolled down his window to inform Kelly that what was happening with Smith was a civil dispute, not a criminal one, and that the cops shouldn’t be there.Smith, who said she witnessed the interaction, told the COE that Riley proceeded to “go off” on Kelly and tell him the situation was none of his business.After former Opa-locka Police Chief James Dobson complained about Riley meddling in police affairs , the COE investigated and found that Riley had been working as a consultant for CT Agency, the property manager of Garden Apartments, and for Glorieta Gardens Apartments LTD, the owner of Garden Apartments, since 2013, including during his tenure as a city commissioner from 2016 to 2018.From 2013 to 2016, Riley received monthly payments of $1,500 from CT Agency to work as an “on-call consultant” to deal with city issues, according to the COE complaint. Invoices from Riley to Garden Apartments described “24-hour on-call consultant services for the Garden Apartment/Creative Homes II to resolve any and all issues and or problems with local government….“Riley reported his financial arrangement with Garden Apartments to the city in 2015 and 2016 but failed to disclose the $7,500 he received from Glorieta Gardens Apartments LTD in 2017 while he was a commissioner, including a payment of $1,500 sent the day after his interaction with Officer Kelly.In the complaint against Riley filed in 2019, COE attorneys accused him of three violations of county ethics rules: exploiting his official position by interfering with police business, failing to disclose his financial gain from Garden Apartments in 2017, and taking employment that conflicted with his elected position because it involved dealing with the city on behalf of his employer.Under Miami-Dade County ethics rules , “No [county employee] shall accept other employment which would impair his or her independence of judgment in the performance of his or her public duties.“In motions to dismiss the case, Riley’s attorney argued that he didn’t violate any rules because he didn’t order Kelly to do anything. Riley’s lawyer argued that his client simply gave the officer advice by telling him that the caller, Smith, was a sub-leaser at the apartment, and that subletting was illegal because Garden Apartments was made up of Section 8 housing. Riley denied yelling at the officer or ordering him to leave.Riley’s attorney also argued that Riley couldn’t have exploited his power in the incident because it was not an issue that came before the city commission.“The complaint alleges no act on the part of Respondent [Riley] taken in his official capacity,” stated a May 2019 motion to dismiss.But in a subsequent filing in December 2019, Riley asked to pause the case so he could ask the City of Opa-locka to pay for his attorney because the allegations involved actions he took as a commissioner.“All three alleged violations arise from Respondent’s service as a city commissioner in January of 2017. Mr. Riley’s alleged actions fall squarely with the scope of his office as City Commissioner,” stated a December 2019 motion from Riley.The city did not grant Riley’s request to pay for his legal counsel.Riley attempted to remedy the failure to disclose his 2017 income from Glorieta Gardens by amending his financial disclosure this past January. Riley’s attorney, James Greason, tellsRiley did not include his employment with Garden Apartments because his agreement with them ended in early 2017, so he did not think he had to include it by the time he filed his disclosure in 2018.After a lengthy trial, ethics commissioners on May 21 found Riley in violation of two out of the three charges against him — failure to disclose his financial arrangement, and conflicting employment. The commission is set to vote on penalties at its June 9 meeting. The COE can impose fines ranging from $500 to $2,000 for government officials found to have violated multiple ethics rules.Greason says he intends to appeal the guilty finding with the Third District Court of Appeals.“I have to appeal. I’ve known him since he was a mayor. He’s one of these public-service guys who’s not in it for the money. He’s not one of these grifter politicians,” Greason says.The consulting-gig conflict wasn’t the first time Riley came under fire as an elected official in Opa-locka.While serving as mayor in the mid-’80s, Riley was voted out of office after being investigated for allegations of accepting a $5,000 bribe and criticized by residents for exceeding his travel allowance by more than $11,000. Riley denied the bribery claims and was never charged. And he defended his spending, saying it was necessary for the city’s economic development.Three decades later, as a city commissioner in 2018, Riley sued then-Gov. Rick Scott to regain access to his expense account and city car after Opa-locka found itself $8 million in debt and was declared to be in a state of financial emergency.Riley’s consulting client, Glorieta Gardens Apartments LTD, has its own checkered history in Opa-locka. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio ordered an investigation of the property owner in 2018 after numerous complaints of “slum-like” conditions even after the owners received federal money to rehabilitate the Section 8 housing. An asset manager for the property told the Miami Herald that same year that they would welcome Rubio and his staff to meet in person and address his concerns.It’s unclear whether such a meeting occurred. But last year properties owned by Glorieta Gardens again made the news when frequent flooding left tenants virtually swimming through their apartments during hard rains.

COVID, Gillum, and Eviction: Top News Stories in Miami in 2020

click to enlarge Illustration by Jessica Lipscomb

click to enlarge Photo by Karli Evans

click to enlarge Screenshot via NBC

click to enlarge Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg

Courtesy of the Andrew Gillum campaign

click to enlarge Photo by Nadine DeMarco

click to enlarge Screenshot via City of Miami Beach

If aliens land on Planet Earth in 3020 and come across this list, they’ll be able to deduce a few things about readers of this fine newspaper. Y’all hate hurricanes, love feet, and enjoy dunking on Jacksonville almost as much as The Good Place Yes, 2020 was a year of never-ending misery, but you managed to find a little joy by clicking on stories about foot fetish parties and that lady at a presidential town hall who told Donald Trump that he was handsome. On the other end of the spectrum, you furiously Googled COVID-19 test sites and information about how to avoid being evicted.readers have always contained multitudes.Without further ado, here are our top ten stories from 2020. Eyeballs are the metric here — these were the most-read news stories on our site this year, per some detailed analytics.Thankfully, Tropical Storm Eta heeded our advice and stayed the f away.Lots of you read this story about the Footnight parties that, pre-pandemic, took place monthly in South Florida. Lots more of you seem to have Googled “foot fetish” and found our story during isolation. Woman Who Likes Trump’s Smile: “I Wish He Would Smile More and Talk Less.”

Bottom line: Paulette Dale voted for Biden.Back in March, when the coronavirus was still new to Florida, many of us received news of layoffs, business closures, and pay cuts. Hundreds of thousands of you searched for information about how to pay your rent. While some protections still exist for tenants and homeowners, advocates and attorneys fear an “avalanche” of evictions could be filed in 2021 This asshole again.reported the story about former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum’s drug-filled encounter at a Miami Beach hotel on March 13, the first day our editorial staff began working from home because of the coronavirus. It was an insanely busy, news-filled Friday the 13th we hope to never repeat. That Jacksonville Lady Wants You to Know She’s “Not a Moron.”

Wendy Diaz does a Duval impression better than anyone else we know.Remember all those fun times waiting in line to get a swab stabbed up your nose?Ricky Arriola started off 2020 crazy and only got crazier An incredible investigation by staff writer Alexi C. Cardona showed that Norwegian Cruise Line, which is headquartered in Miami, pressured its salespeople to continue selling cruises to unsuspecting vacationers, despite the risk of grave illness or death from the coronavirus. Shortly after we published our story, the Florida Attorney General’s Office announced it would open an investigation into Norwegian.