Former NAFL assistant refutes his earlier statements on Oklahoma linebacker's participation

The lawyer for Oklahoma linebacker Mike Balogun filed an affidavit Wednesday afternoon from a former assistant coach in the North American Football League contradicting earlier statements he made to the NCAA in which he expressed a belief that Balogun played in the semi-pro league after his 21st birthday.

The sworn affidavit apparently further weakens any case the NCAA apparently had in decertifying Balogun’s eligibility on Aug. 14, leaving only unsworn statements and discredited Internet accounts of his participation.

Former Maryland Marauders and Prince George Jets assistant Charles McGriff said he told an NCAA investigator in a transcribed telephone interview on July 3 that Balogun played for the Marauders in 2004 and the summer of 2005 and the Jets in December of 2005.

“I have spent several days and months since the initial interview and now several days since the second interview to carefully consider and search my memory about Mike’s participation in the NAFL,” McGriff states in the sworn affidavit. “Upon careful reflection, I can affirmatively state that I coached Mike Balogun during a time he played with the Maryland Marauders.

“The last time Mike played for the Maryland Marauders was during the regular season of 2004. Mike Balogun did not pay in any play off (cq) football games or any national championship game for the Maryland Marauders.

“Mike Balogun did not play for the Prince George Jets or any other team I coached after the 2004 regular season of the NAFL. The rosters for 2004 and 2005 contain the names of many people, including Mike Balogun, that did not play. The websites and team rosters are often inaccurate.”

Balogun’s lawyer Woody Glass said late Wednesday afternoon that he also submitted the latest affidavit to the NCAA, the sixth that he has filed in Cleveland County disputing the NCAA’s contention that Balogun played semi-professional football after Sept. 28, 2004.

“I have given them all the information I can that should help them make a decision,” Glass said Wednesday afternoon. “I hope they make it quickly.”

Glass has not gone to court seeking a permanent injunction forbidding the NCAA from executing Balogun’s decertification in hope that sworn evidence will convince the amateurism committee to recertify his eligibility.

Glass also disputed an erroneous Web site report that Balogun had already been recertified, as did and Oklahoma athletic department official.

-- Mike Jones