The complexion of football will be forever changed now that collegiate athletes are authorized to be paid for endorsement deals. Bryce Young, for example, has now approached the million dollar benchmark for endorsement deals before ever taking a snap for Alabama. https://sports.yahoo.com/nick-saban...h-of-endorsement-deals-already-180220170.html What does this mean for the sport though? Chris Borland already set an interesting precedent in playing a year in the NFL and banking whatever money he made (unsure of how much he was able to keep - likely only in the hundreds of thousands) and retiring. Jake Locker walked away after his rookie contract because he did not want to play anymore and frankly sucked but that's besides the point. We're going to start seeing college football spitting out multi-millionaires without ever playing in the pros. The NFL is going to see the talent pool slowly diminish over time (decades but maybe sooner) as athletes are plenty rich and might not find a burning desire to play past their rookie contracts as the top end guys would have likely made a significant amount of money. If invested correctly, and that's never a given with how certain pro athletes act with large sums of money, most of these players will be able to retire significantly early. This is not good at all for the sport regardless if you side for or against the Supreme Court ruling.
On the surface it looks like a lot of bad, but I think it might weed out some of the players who are only in it for a quick buck vs guys who are players to the core. There are plenty of guys out there with all the talent in the world that just don't have that in them. Edit: admittedly this is coming from someone that doesn't hold the college game very close, and I imagine this will have a huge effect on the quality of the NCAA first.
I'm not sure it hurts the NCAA much other than in terms of recruiting/parity as the big time players will almost exclusively sign with the top 10-15 programs. But that happens anyway and it's slowly been reduced to 4-5 programs being the only ones with a shot at the title anyways (Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Notre Dame) although 3/5 of those teams are on a down turn this year. Those teams offer the most national exposure and this endorsement opportunities. I'll make the argument that the players in it for a quick buck are not mutually exclusive from those want to be great. Money can motivate someone to want greatness as much as anything else.
I agree, I'm talking more in terms of the players you mentioned. How much less would Jake Locker have wanted to pursue an NFL career if he had already been a millionaire when his number came up? How many of these guys will think better of the prospect of being drafted by a 1-15 team if they are already set for a reasonable portion of their lives? That kind of financial stability would give a lot of people pause to decide if their heart is in anything other than football as a career choice. Some guys would rather not end their lives drooling in a wheelchair or blowing their brains out in a drug den. And that means less of the early abandoners permeating the first round of any draft. Logic would suggest that at least.
Interesting that this money could keep some guys in school for another year or two picking up the relatively "easy money" especially at those showcase schools where big merch sales are the rule rather than putting themselves into the competition for NFL money. Some might stay long enough to get an education.
Interesting take--hadn't thought of the college guys making millions and considering passing on the nfl. With rookie contracts the way they are, if a guy made enough in college he'd be taking a pay cut in the pros.
Here's another question... if players are already millionaires heading into the NFL draft, what's stopping them from pulling a La'el Collins and threatening to sit out of they don't like the team that drafts them?
What about the guy who suffers a career ending injury in college and was on a football scholarship? That student can now focus on staying in school with some of the money he earned and deal with the curveball life threw at him. The other side of the debate is why would a player now hold out for an extra 3 million a year? They don’t have to worry about squeezing every dollar out of their contract. Play a shorter career as a professional and walk away healthy, minimize the impact football had on their brain since they started playing. Something else to think about, once these young student/players start living their lives like a rap video, they will either learn they need to be more responsible with money or they will still leave for the NFL because their lifestyle requires them to make more money. It’s always about making more money anyway so personally I don’t think this will affect the behavior ingrained into people’s mind set. It’s all about the Benjamin’s.
