Every time there is a reference to NIL – that dastardly acronym – I flash back to another era, reflecting on how things have changed. I enjoy reminiscing, but I wonder if the athletes of yesteryear – the few still living – feel cheated by the largesse now available to today’s young players.
Before NIL, as recently as five years ago, a student athlete was entitled to a free education (if they wanted it), room, board, free medical, free dental, travel allowance, clothing allowance, and cost of attendance, which amounted to about $10,000 per player, per year.
I know if I had that in my time, I would have thought I was a rich, young man. While times were different back then, athletes on full scholarships were entitled to everything but travel and clothing allowances and cost of attendance.
They also were free, if their coaches were compatible, to find parttime work to make extra spending money. Most of them worked summer jobs, which was always a big story for the newspapers about this time of the year. Dan Magill, UGA’s enterprising sports information director, would mail out form letters, asking the players to inform him about their summer work. If the players didn’t want it, their coaches certainly suggested they find outdoor construction work, especially the linemen.
This was an era when weightlifting was not part of the training regimen. Today, weightlifting takes place every day of the football season. It is as much a staple of training as wearing a helmet.
If a player got a summer job working inside, that was not anything to talk about. That meant there might have been ceiling fans and players couldn’t prepare for the forthcoming season by having such a cushy job.
I remember one summer in the ‘50s, when quarterback Tommy Lewis, who was serious about the military and had enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program, wound up at an Air Force base somewhere and engaged in pilot training. We thought that was the most exciting summer job anybody could have.
Flying off into the “Wild Blue Yonder.”
I recall a player having a Coca-Cola route in his South Georgia hometown. He was working to get in shape for football season and had all the free Cokes he wanted. That perk of drinking an ice-cold Coke whenever you were thirsty was about as uplifting a treat as there was – especially if it was free!
Today’s football players stay in Athens and work out with the strength and conditioning coach all summer. They have time to go to class if they have that preference – and some do – but for the most part, there is serious training for the upcoming season with an eye on the NFL draft when they reach that point in their career.
They no longer need a side job to earn a little spending money. Players today are rolling in cash with the NIL coffers filled to the brim and overflowing. They get all the Powerade they want, anytime they want, and live as comfortably as anybody in Clarke County.
If you reflect on the past, has there ever been a greater circumstance to be able to play a sport and get a free education in return? That was the way it was originally, but greed and selfishness have gotten in the way.
Now we have entered the age of professionalism. The National Football Foundation gives an award through its local chapters throughout the country each year: Contribution to Amateur Football.
There has been a need to change the name of the award which now is called Contribution to College Football Award.
There really is no such thing as amateur football anymore. Are we going to see players at the high school level getting money to play? Then, will the grade school level be next? Where will it stop? Will it stop?
Playing for the love of game or alma mater? Forget it. Nowadays, that’s about as unlikely as a helmet without a faceguard.