"They sold their souls to me in 1977," said Sonny Vaccaro, who first for Nike, now for Adidas, makes Faustian licensing deals with coaches, players, schools.
Other Pro Bowl players schooled in Pope's quirky laboratory include Cincinnati's Rodney Holman, New England's Ben Coates, Washington's Stephen Alexander and the Giants' Jeremy Shockey.
Spain's starting XI on Sunday is likely to include at least five players schooled at Barcelona - Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.
Appropriately enough, his role as singing cowboy star Hobie Doyle involved him going through a modern approximation of the 50s studio-players school.
High-to mid-lottery HIGH SCHOOL Player, school, position, height, weight DWIGHT HOWARD Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, forward, 6-10, 240 lbs.
By CHRIS BROUSSARD Player, school, year, position, height, weight EMEKA OKAFOR Connecticut, junior, power forward/center, 6-10, 260 lbs.
"Players to schools, schools to coaches and coaches to players.
Three classes have emerged -- the college player, the high school player and the international player.
Players miss school, play too many games.
