Flo-Rida
When big money infiltrates youth sports, you have to dig deep, real deep, in order to get at the heart of the matter. Through some investigation last week, we discovered how an oil/gas fracking business was tied to youth baseball. So let’s dig into Florida Youth Football League and see what turns up.
Review
Let’s review what happened this past week in Florida football. Nine men, many of them coaches in youth football, were arrested on various gambling charges. The media and police originally reported that these men were from the South Florida Youth Football League. At one time they did participate in that league, but in the early part of this year, with the exception of one man charged, they splintered off to form to help form the Florida Youth Football League. You can read about the story here in ESPN’s in-depth report.
The Website(s)
Let’s go to Florida Youth Football League’s website. Lucky for us, we have two to choose from. My bet is that the league created this one first when they first started earlier this year and abandoned it in favor of this one later on.
What do we learn about Florida Youth Football League on either site? Absolutely nothing. Do we learn the names of the officers and directors, if there are any? Nope. Well, how are parents going to complain about the gambling they see if they don’t know where to voice them? Oh, sure, the newer site has a generic email address. Big deal. Does anyone think parents are going to contact league officials with gambling complaints to an anonymous email addresses? Give parents the name and contact information for each officer or director and give them the name of a governement official (parks and recreation?) that is in charge of overseeing the league. Is it any wonder that authorities received so many telephones tips after the arrests because they set up a hotline as reported by ESPN?
Is Florida Youth Football League a non-profit corporation? The sites tells us nothing. Is it a IRS 501 (c) 3 designated non-profit or the like? The sites tells us nothing again. Does the league have bylaws or a constitution? The first site has a mention of what they plan to do in creating these documents, but they are nowhere to be found on either site.
Follow the Arrested Men
There has been some confusion about what league was involved. Some reports identified the South Florida Youth Football League; others identified the Florida Youth Football League. If you tracked most of the men involved, they moved from the former South Florida Youth Football League to the Florida Youth Football League, and that’s what important here.
Why did they leave? I don’t know for sure. But the original 2011 ESPN report concerned the South Florida Youth Football League. As a result of that report, the league was trying to crack down on gambling this season. Click here to see the press release from that league.
Did the arrested men leave the South Florida Youth Football League because of these enforcement efforts? That’s definitely a possibility as reported by ESPN. So maybe the alleged gamblers needed to find a new home and decided to build one called the Florida Youth Football League.
Florida Youth Football League
Even though the Florida Youth Football League’s websites do not offer any information on its structure, I was able to secure information from the Florida Department of State.
Florida Youth Football League Corporation (a non-profit corporation) was formed on January 9, 2012. You can see its Articles of Incorporation here. The news here is that the Florida Youth football League Corporation is no longer called by that name. On October 8th, it filed paperwork with the Department of State and changed its name to the Big Dreams for Kids Corporation.
Is that change anywhere to be found on the Florida Youth Football websites? Nope. You might as well call the league the “Big Dreams for Kids Corporation” because that is what it is as of now.
In its October 30, 2012 report, ESPN seems to have been mistaken when it reported that it had talked to Martin Maultsby, the president of the Florida Youth Football League. Instead, ESPN seems to have spoken to Martin Maultsby the vice president of the Big Dreams for Kids Corporation. In fact, ESPN tried to contact Martin Maultsby again in an effort to reach the president for the Florida Youth Football League in preparing its article posted this morning.
There is no indication on file that Martin Maulstby has ever been president of the Florida Youth Football League. The original papers filed on January 9, 2012 along with the October 8, 2012 papers (changing the name of the league and identifying the officers and directors) did not identify Maultsby as anything other than vice president of either the former Florida Youth Football League or the Big Dreams for Kids Corporation. So was Maltsby shielding someone when he talked to ESPN? Good question.
The Flo-Rida Connection
If it’s not Martin Maultsby, then who is president of the newly named Big Dream for Kids Organization? Al Brown was removed as president in the papers filed Ocotber 8, 2012 effective June 21, 2012 and Lee Prince was named as president effective June 21, 2012 in papers signed by Lee Prince as president. So if ESPN wanted to talk to the president of the league, it should have spoken to Lee Prince.
Who is Lee Prince? Lee Prince is reportedly Flo-Rida’s manager.
Better yet, if ESPN wanted to really talk with who was in charge, it should have talked to Tramar Dillard who was named as CEO of Big Dreams for Kids Corporation a/k/a Florida Youth Football League on June 21, 2012 per the same papers filed with the Department of State on October 8, 2012.
So who is Tramar Dillard? He is none other than the famous Flo-Rida, rapper and singer-songwriter.
All over the media, it was reported that Flo-Rida was “backing” the Florida Youth Football League. ESPN was reporting it too. I have no idea what “backing”means for sure. So I will leave it there.
What is probably not known is that Tramar Dillard a/k/a Flo-Rida is actually CEO of the football league itself. He was, in effect, at the helm of an organization that had members allegedly involved in gambling on kid’s games, according to Florida Department of State records. He was not simply “backing” the league as has been reported; on the contrary, he is a leader and head of the league in his position as CEO.
Further Investigation Needed
I enjoy Flo-Rida’s music and applaud him for trying to give back to his community. It is unfortunate that a group of men may have taken advantage of his generosity and seized an opportunity to set up their own gambling operation.
With that said, some news organization or government agency needs to investigate the matter further to see if there is a link between Flo-Rida, Lee Prince and the gambling on youth football. Don’t we hold presidents of corporations for bad things that happen on their watch? If a major gambling ring was discovered on a company’s corporate offices, investigators and the media would surely question the president.
I don’t think Flo-Rida should be given a pass because he is popular recording artist. I don’t think Lee Prince should be given a pass either. One wonders whether the situation between the two men concerning a security system installed at Flo-Rida home is similar to the situation they might be in with respect to both Florida Youth Football and Big Dreams for Kids. You can read about this incident here. If this is the case, then the future of the league is doubtful. The future of the league is even more doubtful if this report concerning IRS returns and back taxes owed by Flo-Rida is true.
And while investigators and/or the media are talking to both of these men about the gambling, maybe they should ask them another question. You see, at the same time Lee Prince signed paperwork changing the name of Florida Youth Football League Corporation to Big Deams for Kids Coporation, Flo- Rida (Tramar Dillard), as president, signed papers renaming the original Big Dreams for Kids Corporation (which he founded) to become the new Florida Youth Football League Corporation. In essence, the two corporations switched names. You can see these papers at this link.
They also might ask Flo-Rida (Tramar Dillard) why his signature appears different in those linked papers when compared to this amendment he signed to the original Big Dreams for Kids Corporation Articles of Incorporation on December 14, 2009.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you call the football league Big Dreams for Kids Corporation or the Florida Youth Football League Corporation. Flo-Rida (Tramar Dillard) was in charge of both as president or CEO according to the filed paperwork.
Conclusion
If this football league is to continue (that’s a question open to debate), I think Flo-Rida and Lee Prince need to step down from the board. I don’t know who the other people on the board are. I’m not suggesting any wrongdoing on anyone’s part. That’s to be determined by others. What I am suggesting is that Flo-Rida and Lee Prince do not have the time or the expertise to run a youth sports program. Knowing nothing more, the arrests speak for themselves on this matter. The league needs to appoint or hire professional league administrators and place them in board leadership positions.
Here are some measures that can be taken to help fix youth football in Florida. I am going to assume that this league is using publically owned fields. If this is the case, then local governments should require the following from organizations before they are allowed to take the fields:
- Websites have complete information concerning officer, directors, bylaws or constitution, contact names, email addresses and phone numbers of league and government officials.
- The organization is a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Florida.
- The organization has a 501 (c) 3 or similar designation from the Internal Revenue Service.
- The organization has local government board representation.
- The local government has performed background checks on the officers and directors.
- Either the organization or the local government has performed background checks on coaches and their assistants. (Six of nine arrested had criminal backgrounds).
In sum, I am going to reiterate what I said in my post concerning Baseball Heaven’s oil and gas relationship with Steel Excel:
It is time for state attorney generals to investigate these outfits; it is time for state legislatures to require them to accurately post their structure and the nature of their operations on their websites.
Will the government an the news media continue with their investigations and reporting by looking at the issues raised here? Their response will tell us a lot about how they really view gambling on youth sports in Florida.
What are your thoughts? Join the discussion below.