Given NIL freedom at Penn State, what could Matt McGloin have done? His answer surprised me | Jones

At the dawn, as we are, of a sea change in varsity athletics, I couldn’t help but think of Matt McGloin. Because he could have killed in the new era of the release of name, image and likeness for the future former “amateur” athletes.

Not that it is necessarily would have have, notice. All of this portends a fascinating future for young adults with strong personalities who play popular team sports:

Now that the possibility of sponsorship deals, YouTube channels, and all kinds of monetization is looming, which players will earn how much for what? And what will them and their teammates think? How will team dynamics resolve this?

If you caved last week and missed the news, the United States Supreme Court early last week essentially neutralized the NCAA by saying it had no jurisdiction to determine whether the university athletes could earn money at the same time. To paraphrase the comments of SCOTUS judge Brett Kavanaugh: The NCAA does not have the right to legislate if athletes can make money with their own brands. And to quote it directly:

“Nowhere else in America can companies get away with agreeing not to pay their workers at the fair market rate based on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers at the fair market rate. And under ordinary antitrust law principles, it’s not clear why college sport should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.

All this means is that the amorphous definition of amateurism, as stated by the NCAA and its allies in universities, is dead.

But also, the Wild West is here. State laws defining NIL allowances are developed weekly. And because there is no Czar overseeing the Power 5 or 10 FBS conferences to provide a framework for how gamers can make money, it looks like they will provide their own definitions.

“I hope that doesn’t take anything away from the game,” McGloin said when I called him on Monday. “I really hope that doesn’t happen. College football, to me, is so pure. The moods are just different from the NFL.

“As exciting as the NFL is, it’s a business atmosphere. You understand that it is your job. While in college football you play because you love the game.

At least as he saw it, McGloin would know the difference. First, he built an unlikely All-Big Ten career during his senior year at PSU after leaving West Scranton High and going through two tough seasons. Then he managed to carve out a brief but productive career with the Oakland Raiders, even starting 7 games in four seasons in the NFL (2013-16).

And that’s why I called him in the first place. When I started to think about who might have been the self-branding goldmines among PSU players in the past, one of the first names that came to my mind was McGloin.

Who was more of an ordinary man more attractive to the Penn State fan base? Even those who considered his blunt appreciations off the pitch too frank and honest had to admire his tenacity on this matter. And I think most thought of him as the embodiment of the lovable mutt who maximized his talent.

So I had to call McGloin on Monday just to ask him what he would have done with NIL if he had been available. His answer shouldn’t have surprised me. But I guess I approached it more like a potential agent would than a competitor in a team sport.

We will cover the hypothesis in a moment. First, a review of where it was in 2009-12:

“I was [eventually] able to get a scholarship. For me, that was what it was about. Then, after getting a scholarship, he was to become a starting quarterback and then win football matches. You know, be a leader. Be a good teammate. It was enough for me.

“It never crossed my mind: we should get paid. And look, I understand universities are making tens of millions of dollars every year.

Because, well, college players couldn’t even make money in 2012.

But, now the interesting part: what if it is?

McGloin, of course, realizes that his college reality wasn’t everyone’s. Some university players to have been paid from the start, just under the table by all necessary secret means. His course was necessarily quite different. He was never considered a coveted talent:

“This is the path I took. I had to fight and scratch and claw for everything I had. So I was thankful at the end for everything I won.

But, I applied: what if, say, Bill O’Brien and his new coach QB Charlie Fisher had shown up before his junior year? What if McGloin became a star before his last year?

“I was like: One, this is not something that I was given to do nothing. You played, you started, you won games, you threw a lot of yards and you did good things for the team and for the university. So I think at that point it becomes won.

“But I also think you have to find a way to [endorsement deals or ad revenue] not to be a distraction. Because you never want him to become “I” instead of “us”.

I mentioned to McGloin that star professional players who make money by approval, while their anonymous teammates don’t, face the same type of potential jealousy or the perception by some in the locker room that they do. ‘they are bigger than the team.

“I think at this point, if you’re a Russell Wilson or Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, it’s obviously won, but it also depends on how much money you make. said. It says: this guy is the best.

OK fine. But what about someone like Mark Titus, a contemporary of McGloin, a former Ohio State basketball bench warmer for great teams that included Jared Sullinger? In the late 2000s, Titus ran a hilarious blog that became nationally popular called Club Trillion (based on his common waste timeline in the box score: 1 minute followed by 12 zeros in all other categories of statistics).

If NIL freedom had been available to Titus, he could have earned substantial advertising profits on his website or YouTube channel. It wasn’t until after graduating and removing his OSU warm-ups that he was able to sell his book: Don’t put me in it, coach: my amazing NCAA trip from the end of the bench to the end of the bench. Or even create his Club Tillion Foundation to alleviate the tuition debt of outstanding extras who never gambled enough to make money on the stock market.

McGloin says, more power for such guys. It just wasn’t him:

“Look, there are some guys who get it: Hey, I’m never gonna play and that’s fine with me. But it was never me. I never agreed not to play. And even when I wasn’t, I always felt like the best guy.

So the question is: what if you were fully invested in the team you treat every training like a game you are a good teammate – and you win a little coin on the side because you have a personality that people appreciate? Would he hold a grudge against a teammate who did?

“Of course not. And that’s the thing that comes with it. If you want that side – YouTube, social media, all that – you better show up and work your cock every day.

“Because if you don’t, that’s how you lose respect.” That’s what I’m talking about. When other things get more important than what you’re actually here for – contributing and helping to win games. “

So maybe McGloin wouldn’t have been the big NIL profit center I suspected?

“For me, I think that if I has been one of those guys … “

McGloin paused after uttering the words “those guys” with vague disdain.

“… I mean, I don’t want to start a YouTube channel or do anything like that. I don’t care. But if I have been one of those guys, I think you could have a lot of success with that – once you’re done playing and then you can fully commit to it.

“You see all these guys doing this side thing and it’s like, Well, I hope your game doesn’t fall off because of this.”

I guess I should have known better. Matt McGloin didn’t maximize his career by marketing it. But as he sums it up:

“It’s just me, man.”

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