Gradkowski Involved in Point Shaving?

Profootballtalk.com is reporting that Buccaneer quarterback Bruce Gradkowski's name has come up in a point shaving probe involving Toledo and the MAC Conference. The investigation is alleging that Gradkowski may have taken $10,000 to sit out certain games. Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr, who was going into his senior season, is cooperating with officials from the FBI who are investigating a point shaving that may have hap pend at Toledo in football and men's basketball.

The report as of now does not say that Gradkowski definitely shaved points, nor does it say that he was involved in many games, but there are some interesting coincidences. There are a couple of games in which Gradkowski sat out in 2004 and 2005 that effected the outcomes of the game. One of the games that is being looked into is the 2004 Motor City Bowl in which the Rockets were favored by 3 and lost by 29. In that game Gradkowski was ineffective in the first half and sat out the second half.

The point shaving probe has been going on for some years now and they have wire tapping records dating back to 2005. Last season there were many people, including myself, that felt MAC games were being fixed. Some of the MAC games last year seemed to have strange out comes that effected the spread of the game and not the outcome. Gradkowski has not responded to the media besides to say, "I don't know what to say about that." Gradkowski may want to get an attorney and a better PR person to help him with his response next time. The timing of this probe could not be worse with all the problems the NBA has had recently with gambling. The last thing sports leagues want to happen is that fans believe that the product is fake and not being decided on the field. If this is true it would terrible for Gradkowski as a stigma like this will stay with you forever and anytime you do poorly someone will always wonder if you were throwing the game.