Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin, Part XV
Making sense of NIL by remembering life before it was legal ... links to stories that moved me ... shedding tears of joy and sadness ... and how Gen Z History Lessons went viral
"Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin" is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together loose topics on my mind.
Scribbling from Albuquerque
Disclaimer: the transfer of San Diego State basketball star Lamont Butler to Kentucky and the ongoing debate about Name Image Likeness in college athletics is still weighing on my heart and brain. This week’s “Scribbled Notes” is basically Part Two from this essay.
I was talking to a former University of New Mexico basketball player about a decade ago in Southern California. He told me a story about how a car dealership in Albuquerque gave him a free truck when he played for the Lobos in the 1970s. He got homesick and decided to transfer to a college back in California. The coaching staff told him he needed to return the truck. He laughed.
“What are you going to do” the player replied, “tell everyone that you illegally gave me a free truck?”
I was at a party a few years ago, and when the subject of college athletes now getting paid via Name Image Likeness came up, I told that story to a different former Lobos basketball player. This guy played in the 1980s. He smiled when he heard the story.
“I got a free car too,” the guy told me.
This second player said he was given the car during a recruiting trip, before he even committed to the Lobos. He drove the car back to California. He was thinking of keeping the car and playing somewhere else. His mother told him, “if they gave you a free car, you better play there.” He did, played his entire collegiate career at UNM, and has lived in Albuquerque ever since.
Those were the days that cash and free gifts were illegal.
Now it’s the Wild West. What began as an opportunity for individual collegiate athletes to earn money form their Name, Image and Likeness from specific businesses has morphed into “collectives” that legally funnel money directly to players.
In 2023, all 85 scholarship players on the University of Utah football team were given free Dodge Ram trucks from a NIL partnership.
A popular joke in the 1980s was SMU star running back Eric Dickerson took a pay cut when he joined the NFL.
In 2023, USC quarterback Caleb Williams reportedly made around $10 million from NIL partnerships. The slot value for Williams, as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL a few days ago, is a little over $7 million. I’m sure his endorsements will continue, but his base salary will literally decrease.
Another famous story, this one from the 1990s, involves University of Michigan basketball star Chris Webber. Best-selling author Mitch Albom wrote the most comprehensive book about the Fab Five and shared this story for an ESPN documentary.
“[Webber] knew that he would be the No. 1 pick, or pretty darn close. I was with him once when we walked past a store in Ann Arbor, and it had his jersey hanging in the window,” Albom said on the documentary. “I think it was $75 or something like that. And he had just asked me if I could give him money for gas or pizza or something like that. I couldn’t, but he asked anyhow. He saw this jersey in the window for $75 with the No. 4 and he said, ‘They’re selling that for $75 and that goes to somebody, and I have to borrow money to put gas in my car.’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘He’s not coming back here.’ ”
Webber left the Wolverines after two years for the NBA. Webber never received a penny from Michigan, which banked millions from ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, alumni donations, NCAA tournament appearances, jersey sales, and saw an increase in student application from Webber and the famed “Fab Five.”
Of course, Webber reportedly still got paid. The NCAA investigated then-illegal payments by the late Ed Martin to Michigan players, ultimately calling it “one of the most egregious violations of NCAA laws in the history of the organization.”
The Wolverines were barred from the postseason for one year, scholarships were lost, the program was put on probation. Webber and teammate Jalen Rose didn’t speak for about a decade. Michigan took the 1992 and 1993 Final Four banners down, wrapped them in plastic, and they are still tucked away on the bottom shelf of a narrow cage near other artifacts such as Civil War diaries at its historical library.
In 2010, USC star running back Reggie Bush forfeited the 2005 Heisman Trophy he won, in the wake of significant sanctions against USC.
Earlier this week, the Heisman Trophy was returned to Bush. The Heisman Trust announced the reinstatement of the trophy amidst what it calls “enormous changes in the college football landscape."
Bush is still pushing forward with a lawsuit against the NCAA to clear his name, pointedly telling reporters this week he “never cheated.”
You can’t tell the complete story of UCLA’s basketball dominance in the 1970s without including the impact of booster Sam Gilbert. A multi-millionaire contractor, Gilbert provided food and clothes to players, helped them scalp their season tickets for money, co-signed for cars, provided discounts on stereos and airlines tickets, and even arranged and paid for the abortion of players’ girlfriends.
That doesn’t fit the clean narrative of John Wooden and his “pyramid of success” very well. But it’s the uncomfortable truth. Before his death, Wooden acknowledged that he felt uneasy about Gilbert’s relationship with players, but denied knowing what was happening.
Here’s one more story. The NCAA once took away three scholarships from the University of Utah men’s basketball program because … head coach Rick Majerus paid for 20 meals for his players over a 14-year stretch.
Once, star player Keith Van Horn’s mother phoned Majerus and asked him to break the news that the star player’s father had died. Majerus took Van Horn to breakfast, they talked about fathers for over three hours, and Majerus picked up the tab. That was a violation.
The NCAA was always helpless to stop the massive gifts. The rules made no sense. Their selective enforcement made even less sense.
Now it’s all legal. It’s crazy and the money makes no sense, and I feel like the tipping point is coming in a few years when businesses get a better grasp on the ROI for their NIL investments.
This week’s not-so random Immaculate Grid story: Bo Jackson
Bo Jackson was the greatest two-sport star in history. How much would Bo be worth nowadays in the NIL era?
I’m guessing someone paid Jackson to attend Auburn University. I sure hope so. He was the most dominant college football player in the 1980s. He won the Heisman Trophy his junior year, did not turn pro, returning for his senior year.
Despite being hella raw, Jackson dominated on the baseball diamond too.
Bo was drafted first overall by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but refused to sign with them because a visit to the team facilities – which the Bucs said was NCAA-approved – was not, which caused Bo to miss most of his senior year in baseball, due to a NCAA suspension. Bo thought the Bucs did it on purpose to sabotage his baseball career and vowed not to sign with them.
(Also, seriously, Bo was ineligible to play baseball because he visited an NFL team’s facility? Come on, bruh.)
The Royals drafted Bo in the fourth round, he signed a three-year contract for $1 million, and after 53 games at Double-A Memphis, Bo was in the major leagues.
Michael Jordan made Nike the most popular basketball shoe on the market, but the “Bo Knows” campaign in the late-80s is what allowed Nike to leap over Reebok in the cross-training shoe market, catapulting from $40 million to $400 million, and 80 percent of the market share.
In 1989, when Jackson was a Major League Baseball all-star, and had already played two partial seasons for the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders, the Royals were paying him $610,000 (or just over $1.5 million counting for inflation).
In 2023, Colorado State football coach Jay Norvell said quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi — who threw 16 interceptions and won five games last year — was offered $600,000 to transfer to another school.
Seriously, how much NIL money would Bo Jackson be worth right now?
This week’s “Where Ya At?” podcast guest: Lauren Cella
I host a podcast for San Diego State’s School of Journalism and Media Studies titled “Where Ya At?” Each week, I interview an alum to learn about their experience at SDSU, transitioning from student to professional, and their current job.
Lauren Cella (2010-13) is a world history and Journalism advisor at McFarland High School in Central California, although she's more known for her "Gen Z History Lessons" that have been seen by millions on TikTok and Instagram, and the success of those videos landed her a spot on the NBC game show "Password" as teammates with Jimmy Fallon.
The videos were originally created during remote learning caused by the pandemic, then students encouraged her to share them on social video. Lauren details her process of ideas, the hook, filming, and provides lots of advice for others to grow their audience. The videos have also led to her working with Apple TV+ and The History Channel.
Here's a short clip on how the Gen Z History videos began:
I hope Lauren adds some “Gen Z History lessons” about the hypocrisy of the NCAA.
Known as Lauren Yap at SDSU, she reflects on the podcast about professors who inspired her, the first time one of her tweets went viral as a student, and how focusing on the visual elements of stories at The Daily Aztec laid the foundation for her storytelling future.
Lauren’s high school Journalism students are learning quickly from her. They created one video that received 116.1K views on TikTok, then another with 420.7K views. I hope the students are already monetizing their product and making money off it. Good thing the NCAA can’t put them on probation.
Listen to the whole podcast here on Apple Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
“Games aren’t about them — they’re about us”
I’ve spent what’s probably an unhealthy amount of time thinking about Lamont Butler’s transfer to Kentucky this weekend.
I’m proud that the overwhelming majority of SDSU fans are, like me, not mad at Butler; instead, genuinely happy he’s going to get paid handsomely. I hope Butler profits every day the rest of his life from his buzzer beater that sent the Aztecs to the 2013 National Championship Game. However much he earns, it’s not enough.
What really helped me grasp the emotions of it all was this essay by Will Leitch here on Substack, especially this paragraph:
If I have one overarching principle of my sportswriting career, it’s that the games aren’t about them—they’re about us. At the end of the day, I don’t really care that much, if I’m being entirely honest, how Corey Seager thinks about the Texas Rangers winning the World Series; I want to know how people who cheered for that team their entire lives up to that point, without ever seeing their team win a title, how they felt when the Texas Rangers won the World Series. Did they cry? Did they scream? Did they call their parents? Were they with their kids? Did they experience it alone, or with a huge crowd? What did they do the rest of the night? Did they cry again? I will listen to these stories forever. This is another reason I’m not interested in sports gambling, why I think sports gambling are oppositional to what sports are supposed to be about in the first place. Sports are emotional. They allow us to express emotions, whether it’s leaping in the air in joy or pounding the couch in frustration, that aren’t so easy to access in real life … and usually not so acceptable to display so demonstratively either.
Yeah, Butler made the shot, but it’s about our reactions: students and alums, diehards and casual fans, at the game and the Viejas Arena watch party, all over bars in San Diego, homes and apartments, dorm rooms and nursing homes, and people watching on smart phones in airports and offices.
If you feel like to re-living the reactions again, grab a Kleenex and watch this video.
(The 1:23 mark of that video includes a few seconds of me and my friends celebrating.)
Seriously, I can’t recommend Will’s post enough, so I’m going to link to it again.
It includes eight more videos of fans celebrating a win and they seriously never get old. Grab a few more Kleenex and watch a few … or search for your favorite team on YouTube.
“Grief is the price you pay for loving someone”
If you have any extra Kleenex left, grab a few more and settle into this power masterpiece, written by my friend Daniel Brown about former Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax on the marine pilot (his son) who he calls “my hero.”
The story is behind a paywall. I think The Athletic is worth every penny and this story alone is worth the investment.
He recalls going to bed at 9 p.m. Ten minutes later he heard a knock at the door.
There was a Marine in full dress on his doorstep.
“I knew right away,’’ Sax said.
Recounting this part of the story, Sax went quiet for several moments. This is the pattern. When talking about the crash, Sax’s words often trailed off. He would start sentences with a full head of steam before running into a wall of grief.
Then, after a few beats of silence, he would push through. He did not fight tears; he embraced them. Among the few worthwhile condolences Sax received after the accident was when a nun told him: “Grief is the price you pay for loving someone.’ ’’
That passage will stick with me forever.
Excellent observation's on the NIL thing. You mentioned Eric Dickerson, and you mentioned other players with free cars, but as anyone who's seen the ESPN 30-for-30 doc on SMU knows, Dickerson got a gold Trans-Am for committing to Texas A&M, but then changed his mind and went to SMU. He kept the car.