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Allegations: Kenny Phillips

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Nevin Shapiro on Phillips: Play audio

Miami booster Nevin Shapiro alleges he provided multiple extra benefits to Kenny Phillips starting in his freshman season with the Hurricanes. Among the benefits he claimed to have provided:

Kenny Phillips
  • Position: Safety

  • Rivals recruiting rank: Ranked as the No. 12 player overall in the Class of 2005.

  • Miami career: An immediate impact player in a long line of top-end Hurricanes safeties. Phillips started all three of his seasons at Miami and was widely regarded as the best safety in the country when he left following his junior season. Phillips was selected by the New York Giants in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft. He is a starter for the Giants.

• Food, drinks and entertainment at Shapiro's $2.7 million Miami Beach home, the booster's $6 million Miami Beach mansion and the $4 million Miami Beach home of the booster's ex-girlfriend, Mimi Menoscal.

• Meals at Miami-area restaurants.

• Entertainment on Shapiro's $1.6 million yacht.

Corroborating accounts

• One source corroborated Phillips receiving food, drinks and entertainment at homes belonging to Shapiro and his ex-girlfriend.

In Shapiro's words

• “Kenny was at my house a number of times. Wasn’t much of a club guy with me. Pretty quiet kid. Decent kid. I liked him a lot. I just know that we spent a lot of time together and he was present for a lot of meals with me. He was on my boat.”

• “He came to me when he decided to forgo his senior year at the University of Miami. We were watching NCAA basketball, I remember specifically, and then we were watching a boxing match and he asked me if I believed he should leave. I don’t want to say I was part of his involvement of leaving, but he consulted in me and confided in me about his thoughts regarding that.”

Documents
Documents

Nevin Shapiro's cell phone providers condensed his calling records from 2002 to 2008 and deleted the booster's text messaging records prior to 2009. Despite a significant portion of his records being expunged, Yahoo! Sports was able to identify 33 calls or texts between Shapiro and Kenny Phillips from May 2009 to December 2009. This is a page showing communication between the booster and a phone number linked to Phillips. PDF file

Response
Response

Phillips did not return a phone message seeking comment. When contacted by Yahoo! Sports in January, Phillips denied knowing who Shapiro was. “I remember the name. Me, I didn't go out that much. I did go out, but I tried to stay away from any negative type attention or stuff like that. So I used to hear the name, but I didn’t know much about him.”