Cal Bears QB Joe Ayoob Rumored to Have Received Death Threat

Joe Ayoob, quarterback of the football team at the University of California at Berkeley, reportedly received a death threat. I received this unfortunate information from a Cal Alumni Donor who was sitting next to me at the Cal v. USC football game yesterday.

She -- who I will not identify to protect her -- reports that she is acquainted with the parents of the young man who replaced Cal's record-setting passer Aaron Rodgers, who was the 25th selection of the Green Bay Packers in the 2005 NFL Draft, and that the information came directly from them.

It's no secret that Ayoob has been a disappointing player for the Cal Bears. He was 9 of 19 against USC and eventually removed from play; the woeful statistics were more a product of Ayoob's poor throws and a terrible passing game plan than the Trojans defense. Cal lost 35 to 10.

Still, all of this does not warrant any kind of threat. The FBI should investigate this immediately, if this isn't already happening. I feel that the source of this death threat may be someone with gambling interests. The spread of gambling activity has been aided by the growth of the use of the Internet, and sports programs like those shown on ESPN. For example, the ESPN College Game Day and College Game Day Radio annoucers routinely discuss whether a team will "cover the spread" or what the "over / under" might be.

Indeed, "Bodog.com" a new gambling website was openly promoting itself at the Cal / USC game (in a fine example of ambush marketing), even to the point of hiring 30 scantly-clad young women to handout cup holders, hats, and cards with special offers for those who join the siite. The effort was managed by a sports marketing company called "Level One." How do I know this? Because I talked to some of the women, one of which introduced me to their "manager" who said he worked for Level One.

I'm not associating Bodog with the threat action at all. But it is demonstrative of the rapid mainstream spread of online gambling.

There's a lot of money being spent on what a simple young college player does or may do. I'm not sure the tide can be stemed given the Internet, but I do think some kind of specific action should be taken to protect college athletes, and before someone actually makes good on one of these threats against the life of someone who's barely old enough to drink.