High school football 'Money Man' says he paid families' expenses plus '50k' (video)

Brett Steigh, the 'Money Man' at Narbonne, St. Bernard, and Bishop Montgomery, comes clean about paying families to play high school football in an exclusive interview on FATTAL FACTOR.

Narbonne won a LA City Section Open Division title in 2024, with the help of Brett Steigh, but the championship has since been vacated due to CIF violations, falsifying documents. / Tarek Fattal

Brett Steigh, known as the 'Money Man' of high school football scene in Southern California, said his piece Monday night on FATTAL FACTOR, a live show on Youtube hosted by sports reporter Tarek Fattal.

Steigh, a self-proclaimed gambler, Narbonne High graduate, booster and businessman admitted to paying families to play high school football at stops that included Narbonne High (in 2018-19, and again in 2024), St. Bernard, and most recently Bishop Montgomery.

When Steigh was asked what's the most he's given a family, he said:

"If the kid is nice and he's a pro about it ... like $50,000," said Steigh. "(On top of) rent — $50,000, yea. It might sound like a lot of money, right? But when you win $300,000 on a bet ... that's my money for the year to pay the guys."

FULL INTERVIEW WITH 'MONEY MAN'

Each program Steigh said he's been associated with from Narbonne (both times), St. Bernard, and Bishop Montgomery (here in 2025) a fallout has ensued due to CIF violations, and it has all come in similar fashion: an egregious amount of football transfers followed by ineligible players, forfeits and vacated championships due to falsifying transfer paperwork/documents.

"It's all my fault," Steigh said. "I take the blame. I'm retiring. I'm done. It's wrong of me and I shouldn't have done it."

Bishop Montgomery coach Ed Hodgkiss has already been fired, and the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese canceled the 2025 football season at the school.

The most recent debacle came at Bishop Montgomery in Torrance, Calif. within the last month where Steigh claims the school president, Pat Lee, knew all about the plan to ramp up the football program.

"I'm a City Section guy," Steigh said. "I was tired of all the private schools in Orange County winning all the time. I'm a gambler, I want to win. I always felt like high school football was about the haves and have-nots, and we were the have-nots."

Steigh helped to orchestrate 24 football transfers to Bishop Montgomery this season. When five players were deemed ineligible at one time due to Bylaw 202 (falsifying paperwork) on August 20, that's when this story caught fire ... the 'Money Man' was at it again, and everyone seem to know it except the Bishop Montgomery football coach Ed Hodgkiss, according to Steigh.

Brett Steigh, the high school football 'Money Man', says he paid families to play football at Narbonne, St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery in an interview on Fattal Factor. / Tarek Fattal

"I lied to him," Steigh said when asked of Hodgkiss knew him. "I gave him a different name. He was just coaching the kids that were showing up. He was following marching orders from the President, who wanted football to win now."

Steigh claims that he helped all the families moved legitimately, but blames clerical errors and administrative incompetence for why CIF was able to discover the forgeries on the transfer paperwork.

"There was so much paperwork, a team Mom was doing it," Steigh says.

The same week after a bevy of players were deemed ineligible (or still waiting for a decision from the CIF Southern Section office), Bishop Montgomery got into a fight in Hawaii while playing Honolulu Saint Louis. The result of that on-field, sideline-clearing scuffle resulted in so many players getting suspended, the Knights had to forfeit its next game against No. 1 Mater Dei.

MONEY MAN BEFORE BISHOP MONTGOMERY

Steigh helped Narbonne in 2018 and 2019. The Gauchos' 2018 Open Division City championship was vacated after an investigation found the program was playing with ineligible players.

He then jumped to St. Bernard High in 2019-20 where he met school president Carter Paysinger and agreed to be the 'Money Man' there with coach Manny Douglas, who was the coach at Narbonne.

"I bought new scoreboard for them, that was $600,000. New turf field, that was $100,000. I painted the school. I put $1-million into it," Steigh said. "Remember, I get nothing out of this. I just want to help kids. But we didn't know the LA City Section had notified the FBI ... next thing, we get a knock on the door from the FBI while we are at St. Bernard."

"They said we were money laundering. We weren't. Tuition was being paid. Everything was on-board," Steigh continued. "But the St. Bernard people all claimed they had no idea who I was. They threw me under the bus."

Marine League football coaches agreed to boycott Narbonne during the 2024 season due to allegations of paying and housing players. / Photo courtesy of Jay Parker

The season at St. Bernard never even got off the ground, per se. And then COVID came in 2020.

Before Bishop Montgomery, Steigh was back at Narbonne in 2024 where the Gauchos won the City Open Division title again last year. The Marine League coaches knew what was going on, so the teams in the league boycotted Narbonne by not playing in any games against the Gauchos.

Narbonne didn't play any league games last season, enduring a 49-day layoff before its first playoff game a football game on November 15, 2024.

Four months after winning the City championship over San Pedro, 75-31, on November 30, 2024 at El Camino College. Four months later, the same song and dance unfolded. The City Section and Los Angeles Unified School District joined forces on an investigation that found players ineligible due to falsifying documents.

Narbonne's 2024 title was vacated.

MONEY MAN'S ANTICS AGAINST CIF RULES

Steigh believed that because he wasn't on the coaching staff or affiliated with the school in a official manner, that his helping families and student-athletes isn't illegal or against CIF rules.

However, the CIF Blue Book states under 510B the following:

 "A student shall become ineligible for CIF competition for a period of one (1) year for accepting material or financial inducement to attend a CIF member school for the purpose of engaging in CIF competition, regardless of the source. This includes, but is not limited to, student individual endorsements that involve anyone from, or associated with [see D.(2) below], a school or its athletic programs."

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