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NEW YORK (AP) — ighlighting corruption in college basketball testified for a second day Wednesday about money he paid to college football players to secure them as clients as he described how vulnerable young athletes become prey for vulture-like agents and managers.Testimony by Louis Martin Blazer also presented an increasingly sinister angle on bribes paid to college basketball coaches Daniel Jones Jersey , suggesting that the practice was more widespread than previously described in Manhattan federal court.Blazer, 49, answered questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Boone in the trial of aspiring agent Christian Dawkins and former amateur coach Merl Code. Three former assistant basketball coaches set to stand trial with them recently pleaded guilty and await sentencing.On Tuesday, the trial’s first day, Blazer testified that he paid football players from $100 to $3,000 at schools including Pittsburgh, Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina and Alabama.“The purpose was to build a relationship with them and secure the possibility that they were going to hire me as their financial adviser when they turned pro,” said Blazer, a financial and investment adviser who has pleaded guilty to charges and is testifying in hopes for leniency.Blazer said he answered the request of a Penn State coach by giving a $10,000 check to the father of a first-round draft pick in the 2009 NFL draft. The money was paid back. He said he also paid a North Carolina player who was drafted by the New York Giants.“I was later to find out that I wasn’t the only person paying these guys,” he said. “There were other financial advisers and other agents paying them as well.”Blazer, a onetime financial adviser to several professional athletes including NFL players, began cooperating with authorities after he was caught squandering millions of dollars from clients to spend on film and music projects.On Wednesday, Blazer testified that his experience at securing football players as clients served him well in targeting basketball players.“Timing is everything,” he said. “If a family member asks you to get something and you didn’t do it, that relationship could be lost. … If you don’t take advantage of what somebody’s asking, they’re just going to get it from somebody else.”As a prosecutor played audio and video recorded meetings in court, Blazer analyzed them, including one in which the participants spoke of how compromised college basketball coaches were once they accepted cash.“You have a ton of leverage over a college coach,” Blazer said. “They could get fired.”Prosecutors played one recorded conversation in which former assistant basketball coach Lamont Evans, who has coached at South Carolina and Oklahoma State, complained to Blazer that he hadn’t been paid his full $2,500 monthly fee.Boone asked Blazer what Evans meant when he told him that if he wasn’t fully paid, he could “get it back from somebody else.”Blazer said Evans meant “he could easily find another financial adviser, business adviser, to step in and take our place.”Then Evans was heard on the tape bragging that he’d keep competitors out of the way if he was properly compensated.“Anybody else that comes along, I’m going to bury them,” Evans said.Evans has pleaded guilty, along with former assistant basketball coaches Tony Bland at USC, Emanuel “Book” Richardson at Arizona and Chuck Person at Auburn University. They await sentencing. Person had been scheduled for a June trial.Lawyers for Dawkins and Code say their clients committed no crime. Will the New York Giants be able to go into their personal House of Horrors on Sunday and emerge with a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles? Here is how your Big Blue View contributors see the game unfolding.Chris Pflum The Giants are on their first winning streak since 2016, and the Eagles have dropped two in a row Daniel Jones Color Rush Jersey , losing three of the last four since beating the Giants 34-13. So, with both teams (seemingly) going in different directions, this is a game the Giants should win, right? If you’ve been paying attention this year, there isn’t anything like a “should win” game for the Giants. This is a winnable game, however. The Eagles’ secondary is a MASH unit, with Ronald Darby lost for the season, Jalen Mills and Sidney Jones out with injury, and all told missing their top five or six defensive backs. Suffice to say, being forced to (potentially) match back-up wide receivers on Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, Corey Coleman and Saquon Barkley is less than ideal. Oh, and linebacker Jordan Hicks suffered a calf injury last week, which makes the prospects of covering Barkley and (when the Giants finally take him out of bubble wrap in the 4th quarter) Evan Engram even more daunting.On the offensive side of the ball, the Eagles added Golden Tate, and RB Josh Adams is rounding back into his playmaking ways from Notre Dame — But offensive linemen Jason Peters, Jason Kelce, and Lane Johnson have all been battling injury. The Giants might not have a better team than Philly, but with injury being the great equalizer, that might just be the case this Sunday. The best starters in the league can’t help if they’re hurt. Of course, that only matters if the Giants can exploit the match-ups with hurt starters and injured back-ups. They could be looking at a secondary which resembles the fourth quarter of the fourth pre-season game, but they have to attack them for it to matter. And unfortunately, attacking vulnerable secondaries has not been a concentration for the Giants’ offense. I still can’t bring myself to express true faith in this Giants team. Final score: Eagles 23, Giants 20Season record: 4-6Dan PizzutaBBV Radio There are a lot of numbers that indicate the Giants should at least have a chance in this game — and might even be the better team. By DVOA, the Giants rank 21st overall while the Eagles are 23rd. That’s not a meaningful difference and is mostly triggered by a big difference on special teams — 11th for the Giants opposed to 22nd for the Eagles.On offense, the Giants should be able to take advantage of big plays, especially through the air. The Giants are fifth in big play rate on offense, while the Eagles are 32nd in big play rate allowed on defense. Philadelphia is down five cornerbacks, so the Giants should be able to have their way in the passing game all afternoon. But that also should have been the case against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, but the Giants didn’t take advantage of a bad secondary, kept with minimal gains on the ground, and eventually let the Buccaneers back in the game. I worry just because the Giants won the wrong lessons were taken from that strategy.When the Eagles have the ball, the Giants need to get pressure but they haven’t been able to do that consistently. With a clean pocket this season, Carson Wentz has completed 73.5 percent of his passes for 7.9 yards per attempt. On plays when he’s hit, that drops to a 43.8 percent completion percentage and 5.9 yards per attempt.The path to victory is there and it’s realistic on both sides of the ball Daniel Jones Giants Jersey , I just still don’t trust this team to get everything to click at the same time.Final score: Eagles 30, Giants 24Season record: 7-3Patricia TrainaI’ve said before that I won’t pick the Giants to win a game until they give me a reason to pick them.By that I meant I needed to see consistency from all three phases of the ball, I needed to see a pulse, and I needed to see some smarter game planing.The Giants have shown me all that and then some, specifically a newfound energy that I don’t recall seeing from this team since 2016. I don’t necessarily think the Giants are going to grab a postseason berth as I’m not so sure they can overcome their 1-7 record from the first half of the season, but I do think the arrow is trending in the right direction.Now with that said, people keep pointing out to me that the Giants beat two bad teams (the 49ers and the Bucs). I get that—those two teams have a combined five wins. But those two teams also get a paycheck and are expected to go all in, and in the end, it comes down to who wants it more.Lately, the Giants have wanted it more. And I believe they really want this one coming up against an Eagles team that has really had their number for years now. How sweet would it look if the Giants can jump ahead of the defending Super Bowl champions in the division standings? Very.Given the Eagles’ injury issues in their defensive secondary; that the Giants interior offensive line is a lot better equipped (I hope ) to handle Fletcher Cox, who last time destroyed the Giants offensive line all by his lonesome; and that Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen came up with a blueprint on how to limit Carson Wentz and tight end Zach Ertz, I think the stars are aligning in the Giants favor this week. As for me, I wanted a reason to pick the Giants in a game and they delivered. So I’m going to hold up my end of the bargain.Final score: Giants 31, Eagles 21Season record: 3-7Joe DeLeoneThe Giants are on winning streak, and so am I. Let’s see if the G-Men and I can both stay hot this week.Philadelphia has fallen apart since they last dismantled the Giants on Thursday Night Football. Major injuries have hindered their Super Bowl repeat attempt. Now the Giants have the perfect chance to get back at the Eagles. This game will be a tight one, but you should expect Saquon to have his second straight 100 yard rushing day. Their offensive success is dependent on their ability to finish in the red zone, which they did an abysmal job of in their previous encounter.The Eagles are too banged up and too inconsistent to go perfect in the season series. The Giants will squeak out a nail-biter to move to 4-7 on the season.Final score: Giants 17, Eagles 10Season record: 5-5Kevin HaswellWhile the Eagles and Giants are trending in opposite directions, I think both teams revert back to their respective means. I give the Eagles an edge with this game being played at Lincoln Financial Field. I know this pick is going to come back and bite me and the Giants will prove me wrong but I’m going with the Eagles in a close one, decided in the final minutes. Final score: Eagles 24, Giants 21Season record: 5-4Mark SchofieldTwo teams that are totally moving in different directions meet at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. With the Philadelphia Eagles seemingly entrenched in free fall mode, the timing is perfect for the Giants to keep their win streak alive while perhaps closing the window on any playoff hopes their bitter rivals might still cling to.A week ago Drew Brees threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns against this Eagles’ secondary that has been battered by injuries. While one might not expect Eli Manning and company to duplicate such numbers, the New York offense seems to be discovering something of an identity, making this a perfect time to go up against a defense that is so beaten up by injuries wide receivers have been playing in the secondary during practice. With a chance to execute their game plan against a third-straight pass defense that is struggling, the Giants are in great position to pull out a win.Which they’ll do.Final score: Giants 24, Eagles 14Season record: 5-5Ed ValentineDuring a recent episode of the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast I said that I felt like the Giants have a chance to win this one, I just can’t pick them to do it.There are plenty of reasons to think the Giants have a chance here. They have won two in a row and averaged 32.5 points in those victories. The Eagles have lost two in a row and players are questioning each other. The Eagles’ secondary is an injury-ravaged mess. The Eagles’ defense has given up 344 rushing yards the past two weeks, and the Giants have that Saquon Barkley guy. He’s not bad.Still, it seems like every time I think the Giants are ready to turn a corner in a big game and I pick them to win, I end up with egg on my face. I really do believe the Giants will give the Eagles a run for their money here. I really do believe there is a path for them to win the game, and wouldn’t be shocked if they pull it off.There is just no way I am picking the Giants to win the game. Final score: Eagles 34, Giants 30Season record: 5-5