David Pollack offers advice to John Mateer on dealing with NCAA

New Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer was forced to do some damage control last week after screenshots of a pair of 2022 Venmo transactions made the rounds on X/Twitter, both of which were captioned as “sports gambling.” Mateer, who transferred to Norman from Washington State this offseason, released a statement Tuesday explaining away any perceived malfeasance as nothing more than “inside jokes between me and my friends.”

“The allegations that I once participated in sports gambling are false,” Mateer wrote in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “My previous Venmo descriptions did not accurately portray the transactions in question but were instead inside jokes between me and my friends.

“I have never bet on sports. I understand the seriousness of the matter, but recognize that, taken out of context, those Venmo descriptions suggest otherwise. I can assure my teammates, coaches, and officials at the NCAA that I have no engaged in any sports gambling.”

Sooners coach Brent Venablessaid Friday that Mateer has already “moved on” from the brief public-relations hiccup. But, if “Venmogate” continues to hang over Mateer this season, former Georgia star and ex-ESPN analyst David Pollack recently gave the first-year Oklahoma QB some free legal advice should he ever have to meet with the NCAA about the matter.

“Mateer’s denying it, and if I’ve learned anything that I can fill you in on the NCAA and how this works. Here’s all Mateer has to do with the NCAA: when they come and ask you a question, (say) ‘No comment.’ That’s it – ‘no comment,’” Pollack said on Thursday’s episode of See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack podcast. “I don’t have to give you information, I don’t have to tell you the truth. I don’t have to tell you a dang thing. You don’t have subpoena power. You can’t tell me to do anything and you can’t punish me unless I give you the facts. That’s what he can do, but hopefully this is nothing, man.

“Because I don’t want to see (anything happen to Mateer). It’s a lesson to kids though, like what you do three years ago, what you do four years ago,” Pollack continued. “Josh Allen was a great example at the (2018 NFL) Draft. When he got drafted, the night before, somebody saved the exact tweet to put up (against) him. To show and paint him in some kind of light. Laremy Tunsil the night before his draft with the (smoke) mask – that was crazy, I know, different – (he looked like) Bane getting high.

“But these things matter, man. What you’ve done in the past will come back to affect you. So, kids, stay off the social media. Stay off the stupid stuff.”

As Pollack mentioned, Allen’s draft night eve was ruined when old Twitter posts po showing the former Wyoming QB using homophobic and racial slurs as a high schooler. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to have any impact on his draft stock as the Buffalo Bills still selected him at No. 7 overall in 2018. Tunsil’s situation was different, albeit still not career-altering, as the potential No. 1 overall pick fell to the 13th pick in the 2016 NFL Draft — as the third offensive tackle off the board — after a video showing him smoking a bong while wearing a gas mask dropped 10 minutes before the start of the draft.

And while sports gambling implications might continue to hang over Mateer’s head — especially when it comes to opposing fan bases — it’s unlikely to derail his time in Norman unless something far more substantive comes to light connecting Mateer to actual gambling activities.

Of course, that hasn’t happened — yet — which is why Pollack’s suggestion that Mateer simply “no comment” any further inqueries into “Venmogate,” even from the NCAA, would seem like the most sensible tact moving forward for the Sooners quarterback.