Ryan Knudson

Bell got on the radar of high school scouts, otherwise known as street agents.

So there's some booster at a high school that'll pay someone for introductions to talented high school players that they may not have heard about.

The street agents don't work for the schools.

They typically represent deep-pocketed alumni, or parents who want to see their kids play with talented players.

Through these agents, players and their families can get paid tens of thousands of dollars, and some are even offered rent money, cars, and jobs.

Is this legal?

Right.

The cops aren't going to show up, but you might get kicked off the team or something like that.

But is anybody out there enforcing that, though?

But for some families, the risk that their kid gets kicked off the team is worth taking.

The money is just too good.

As Philip Bell's high school career was kicking off, his mother, Samantha Barnes, was dealing with money issues.

She'd recently married a man who, according to court records, had no full-time job, unpaid child support bills, and depended on her for living expenses.

So when Bell got an offer to a school in L.A., Barnes took it.

Bell and his mother were also put up in a mansion that was formerly occupied by the rapper Soulja Boy.

They got help on the lease from a parent whose son was the quarterback on Bell's team.

According to Harriet's reporting, Barnes started telling her friends, quote, "'My son is going to be a millionaire.'"

In the past, players couldn't become millionaires unless they made it to the NFL.

But thanks to name, image, and likeness deals that are now legal in college and allow players to sign endorsement deals, players can become millionaires much sooner.

And that money also flows to the people around the player, their families, and their agents.