Brother, Can You Spare a Million?

On Signing Day, "amateur football'' is NIL and void

Jaden Rashada is a 19-year-old kid quarterback from California who’s a few months removed from graduating from high school. He didn’t ask to be the face of the 3-ring s—-show that quasi-am football recruiting has become. But here he is.

Yesterday marked the February signing day for college football. NLI Day, not to be confused with NIL Day. National letters of intent are one thing. Name, Image and Likeness is something else altogether.

I’m not one of those folks who think Saturday afternoons in the fall became dead with the advent of paying kids half the sun and several moons. But I know a S-show when I see one. Unregulated, unscrutinized, uncoordinated, totally non-transparent purchases of high school athletes aren’t good for anyone. Not even the kids getting insta-rich.

Let’s back up. You might want to read this piece from the Athletic first. It offers a handy timeline for the ever-bouncing ball that NIL became as soon as it was born.

Rashada is considered a top-of-the-crop QB. Rated four stars, by the experts consumed with that sort of thing. The No. 7 prep quarterback nationally and No. 82 overall player in 247Sports' revamped Composite rankings.

He signed with Miami last June, for a speculated $9 million. (We say speculated, because in the S-show that is NIL, nobody has to say anything about the height of the cash pile being shoved across the table.)

Jaden Rashada

That lasted until last fall, when Florida swooped in with an offer of $13 mil. The Gator Collective bragged about its war chest at the time. Eddie Rojas, its CEO, declared his desire to make Florida “NIL U.”

Not so fast, Daddy Warbucks. Apparently, NIL U couldn’t deliver the goods.

The Sporting News:

The Athletic reports that, on Dec. 7, 2022 — two weeks before the early signing period — Rojas sent a termination letter regarding Rashada's contract, with the outlet noting "there are conflicting accounts about why the deal crumbled and who pledged to pay what." The Athletic also reported this was the first time some in the Florida athletic department were made aware of what was promised by the third-party NIL collective.

To sum up: The folks minding the mint didn’t communicate with each other, let alone with Florida’s athletic department. Thirteen million, and nobody knew what the hell was going on.

On Jan. 17, Rashada asked to be released from his Florida scholarship, according to 247Sports.

On Wednesday, NIL, er, NLI Day, Rashada committed to Arizona State. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Oh, well. You win some and you lose some in the fun and games department. Boola-boola, moolah-moolah, what’s the difference?

Rashada offered the obligatory tweet. He declared Arizona State his “childhood dream school,’’ though one could be excused for wondering why it was less dreamy before yesterday.

Rashada also went about “thanking the Lord for my journey and the strength to get through whatever was and is put in front of me.’’

Let’s hope that strength helps him shove that cash mountain to some financial advisor’s corner office. Wouldn’t want Rashada tweaking his back dealing with all those Benjamins.

Rashada is ASU’s only 4-star commit in this class and the Sun Devils only top 100 player. As a point of fact, ASU football isn’t very good. They must be doing something right, though.

What happens when football players blow off practice or basketball players ditch the team huddle during timeouts? What’s the fallout when players start braggin’ on how much money they’re making and the starting running back realizes he’s taking home a dime for every dollar his QB’s getting?

Nobody knows where the S-show goes. It doesn’t seem to be altering the competitive landscape, though. The experts say Alabama still has the No. 1 recruiting class.

Now, then. . .

FROM YAHOO. . .

CBS Sports broadcast of the AFC Championship Game was the most-watched NFL Conference Championship in four years with 53.124 million viewers, CBS announced.

I’m sorry, but how could that be? Doesn’t the NFL root against the Bengals because it believes the Men are a ratings anvil? Somebody help me figure this out.

THE ATHLETIC ranks the Reds farm system as 13th-best in MLB, behind every other NL Central team. That’s misleading, given that Lodolo and Greene have graduated from the farm, but still. . .

The Club didn’t do much better when every team’s offseason moves were judged. Even the Pirates spent $30 mil on free-agents-to-be-dealt-in-July-for-prospects. The Cubs added Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon and Trey Mancini. St. Louis signed Willson Contreras to replace Yadier Molina, Milwaukee added William Contreras, a big-boppin’ catcher, and replaced Hunter Renfroe with Jesse Winker.

Sometime this month, I will come out with my Reds Survival Guide ‘23. It’ll be chockfull — chockfull! — of exciting ways to spend your summer with the scrappy local 9. Drinking could be involved. Stay tuned.

I’M GUESSING YOU WANT TO SET THE MEN ASIDE for awhile, but indulge me these few thoughts, and bear in mind I’ve been prescient a couple times with my wishes. Twenty years ago, I was begging teams to Go For It on 4th down. Now, it’s common.

Early in the ‘21 season, two full seasons ago, I wrote that Zac Taylor should no longer defer when the Bengals win the coin toss. Taking the ball shows confidence, it might give a high-powered offense one more possession than deferring does. I argued that MLB teams don’t bat their best hitter 7th, just so they have some punch at the bottom of the order. Mike Trout, I argued, hit 2nd.

After a few games this year, Taylor stopped deferring. The Men started winning.

What now?

Now, I want Taylor to consider incorporating a fullback.

Off the top, I can think of two teams that employ a fullback regularly: The Ravens and the 49ers. So, using one must be wrong, right?

Wrong. NFL teams are notoriously conservative. The idea of innovation is crazy to most of them. They just wait ‘til the colleges try stuff. Getting back to using a FB is nuts.

Until it isn’t.

Look, we’ve seen vividly what great pass rushers can do. We saw Chris Jones last Sunday, Aaron Donald last Super Bowl, TJ Watt in Game 1 and so on. We’ve also seen the hell Joe Burrow wreaks on teams that can’t pressure him.

Why not employ a blocking fullback?

The emphasis on the pass rush isn’t going to let up. No QB is immune. The Bengals do a good job scheming around it, and Burrow is light years better at beating it than he was even at the start of this season.

And Chris Jones still ruined his day.

A fullback giving Burrow another half-second to work would mean more than a 4th wide receiver or 2nd tight end. He’d certainly mean more than keeping Joe Mixon in the backfield to pass-protect. Just sayin’.

And there’s this.

Never kick off into the end zone again. Money Mac’s marching orders? Kick it to the 5-yard line or just inside it. Force a return. I can’t call up the stats, but my eyeballs suggest that at least 75 percent of kickoff returns now end inside the 25-yard line. Why would anyone not want an opponent to return kickoffs?

Forcing a return also brings fumbles into play. More penalties v. the receiving team would be called. Punters aren’t ordered to kick every ball as hard as they can. Why should placekickers?

Who’s with me?

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . On my Favorite Guitarist List, Jimi is #2, just behind Dickey Betts. (I didn’t say Best guitarist; I said favorite-est.) This is off my favorite Hendrix album.