Each person entering Room 500 in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday passed 20 cardboard boxes stuffed with documents and stacked chest-high against the wall. A half-dozen similar boxes were stashed in a corner nearby.
Despite the reams of deposition transcripts, emails and other evidence amassed in former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair's defamation lawsuit against the NCAA, the case always returns to a brief phone call in January 2006.
That call between McNair and would-be sports agent Lloyd Lake consumed the second day of testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court, raised questions about the NCAA's infractions process and could shape the rest of the trial.