OPINION
June 16, 2024 at 1:00 a.m.
by Rick Fires
I’ve grown accustomed to stories about hot-shot college athletes raking in millions to play football and basketball via Name, Image, and Likeness deals.
I’ve also read stories about NIL deals filtering down to elite prospects at the high school level.
But an article a friend showed me from his hometown newspaper, the Shreveport Times, left me bug-eyed and bewildered as I read it. The story was about a football player at Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport who signed an NIL deal with Leaf Trading Cards.
OK, I thought, that’s the trend with top college and even some high school athletes. As I read further into the story, I learned the NIL deal was secured with a transfer before he’s even played a down with his new team.
Let me repeat: A boy who left after two games the previous year as a freshman at Calvary Baptist in Shreveport is going to be paid to play at Evangel Christian by trading cards executives who are sure he’ll become a star. How much money? Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed and Evangel Christian is a private school, so we may never know.
At this point, I don’t care. But you know who will care? The players on the team, especially the upperclassmen at Evangel Christian who’ve already put in the work on the field and in the weight room for years. If you don’t think this could lead to problems inside the locker room, especially in regard to young people where petty jealousies can fester, then you likely never played a team sport.
The 15-year-old is a quarterback who’s apparently shown enough skills that several Division I schools have already offered him a scholarship, including Oklahoma and Texas. But what if he doesn’t live up to the hype? What if he’s more of a Drew Henson than a Tom Brady? If you’ve never heard of Drew Henson, well, that’s the point.
I’m not blaming the 15-year-old NIL recipient for the pressure he’ll face to perform at a high level immediately instead of being allowed to grow and develop as most young athletes would. I’m blaming the system with a pendulum that’s swung way too far the other way in regard to college, and now apparently, high school sports.
Maybe the 15-year-old transfer, who is too young to have a driver’s license, can ease the tension by hiring the senior captain of the football team to drive him around. Better yet, maybe he can spread the wealth by hiring all the seniors on a rotating basis to perform different tasks for him.
If this sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is.
I miss the days when even the suggestion about buying amateur athletes was kept quiet, like the crazy aunt hidden away in the attic. Now, NIL deals are discussed openly, even on the radio, where I heard the host of a show encourage fans and businesses recently to do more with their money to attract top talent to the local university.
More, more, more. Money, money, money.
I’ve written before about my disdain about pay-for-play and the transfer portal, and I sometimes receive feedback declaring I need to change with the times.
I have changed, starting in the 1960s with the buzz cut I received in the barber’s chair as a child. I changed with the times during the 1970s and ’80s when I wore leisure suites and bell bottoms and traded in my buzz cut for a white-guy afro at my aunt Janice’s beauty shop. I continued to change through the years, especially after I got married. As any married man knows, it changes you a lot. A whole lot.
But I’m not changing any more; not my hair style, the clothes I wear, the food I eat, or for the game of football I’ve long enjoyed.
Sports at the high school level is the last vestige of amateurism, where athletes mostly still play for their school, community, and teammates. But if we’re going to routinely pay college and high school athletes to play on Fridays and Saturdays, then count me out.
I’ll just wait until the Sunday games when the real pros take the field.
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