Senior Bowl players disagree on NIL money
Contrary to what a Dolphins player said, I found the youngsters to be mature and motivated
MOBILE, Ala. — Oregon State right tackle Taliese Fuaga, a certain first-round NFL draft pick, perhaps even a top-10 selection, drives a 2010 Ford F-150 pickup truck.
Yeah, he’s got NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money, but …
“I’m not the biggest guy to show off money and whatever,” he said last week at the Senior Bowl. “I think it kinda downs my other teammates.”
UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu, an almost certain firstround pick, went much further on NIL.
“In my opinion,” said Latu, who transferred to UCLA after attending Washington, “I feel like it’s ruined college football.”
A few weeks ago I was casually chatting with a veteran Miami Dolphins player and he remarked that you have to be careful how you treat young players nowadays. He said they feel entitled and spoiled because of the transfer portal and NIL money and that they don’t work as hard as their predecessors.
I hadn’t noticed such an attitude shift.
I consulted two prominent agents and they agreed with me, saying they hadn’t noticed such a phenomenon.
But the comment from the Dolphins player intrigued me.
As an NFL writer, I don’t get to ask college football players what they think of the transfer portal and NIL (I’m in favor of both), and I don’t get a chance to gauge their attitudes. So I took the opportunity to do so at the Senior Bowl.
I spoke with seven players, three of which are likely firstround picks.
I liked what I heard, and I liked their attitudes and logic.
All were in favor of the transfer portal, but opinions were mixed on NIL for various reasons.
Latu thinks that many times the wrong players are being rewarded with NIL money.
“I don’t agree with paying the high school students coming out,” he said, echoing a complaint of NFL veterans about rookies before the rookie salary scale was implemented.
“I feel like they’ve got to prove what they can do on the field.”
I understand Latu’s frustration.
When Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers attended Ohio State as an unproven freshman, he reportedly signed a threeyear, $1.4 million NIL deal with GT Sports Marketing. There were probably some veteran Ohio State players that didn’t like an unproven kid getting big-time cash.
Latu said the money creates hard feelings in some locker rooms.
Fuaga said NIL didn’t ruin college football for him, but he said it hasn’t always been successful as a motivating factor.
Most players at the Senior Bowl, such as South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler, who transferred from Oklahoma, spoke favorably about the transfer portal and NIL.
“A lot of guys need to hit the transfer portal,” he said. “I was one of them that wanted to have an opportunity somewhere else, and I think if you’re in that situation it’s something very positive.”
As for NIL money being divisive or a distraction, Rattler said it’s not a concern.
“I’ve been in two locker rooms where NIL has never been an issue,” he said.
Players acknowledge there’s room for abuse within the transfer portal.
(I wish colleges could offer two- and three-year scholarships to keep a certain number of core players from each recruiting class in the program. But I digress.)
Regardless, players at the Senior Bowl said their contemporaries use the transfer portal more as a practical tool.
“It’s just a good thing to help players out, this new generation,” Baylor defensive lineman Gabe Hall said. “I don’t think as many people as you think use it as a weapon.”
Toledo cornerback Quinyon
Mitchell, a likely first-round pick, confirmed the obvious, that the NIL money isn’t as good at Toledo as it is at, say, Ohio State.
“But it’s straight,” Mitchell said.
He said NIL didn’t cause any problems at Toledo.
“No, because in our locker room and in our building, it’s about the relationships,” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to hate on my brother, or dislike my brother. It didn’t really affect any of us.”
And while it’s tougher to keep a team or recruiting class together nowadays because of the transfer portal, Mitchell said you deal with the revolving door of the transfer portal just as you deal with everything in college football nowadays, in a business-type manner.
“A guy comes in, you accept him for who he is, he’s part of brotherhood,” Mitchell said. “We’re all working for one common goal.”
For better or worse, that seemed to be the overriding sentiment.
These players are in college so they can get to the NFL. Whatever happens along the way, whether it’s transferring to another school, getting a six-figure NIL deal, getting no NIL deal, it’s all background noise, stepping stones on the path to glory.
Anecdotally, I don’t find these college football players much different than the ones that came five or six years earlier.
From my brief interactions with players at the Senior Bowl, for the most part, I think their heads are screwed on straight, they haven’t been ruined by the transfer portal or NIL money, and their attitude toward hard work is good.
“Everybody comes for the same goal — to get to the NFL,” Penn State edge rusher Adisa Isaac said of college, “so you just have to keep the main thing the main thing.”