Watching Deion Sanders, now the football coach at Jackson State, on ‘‘60 Minutes’’ on Sunday reminded me of my first meeting with the man who now calls himself ‘‘Coach Prime.’’
It was 1987. Sanders was a senior at Florida State and was ‘‘Neon Deion’’ back then. The undefeated Seminoles were preparing to play undefeated Miami for what likely would be a straight shot to the national championship (it was), and Sanders was resting in the weight room before practice.
I asked the All-America cornerback what it was all about. I asked this as I gazed, bedazzled, at the gold chains and pendants glimmering atop his T-shirt. One read, naturally, ‘‘Neon Deion.’’ But the main attention-getter was a huge, diamond-encrusted dollar sign.
‘‘Money,’’ he said, without hesitation.
I always liked him for that.
Forget the ceaseless homage to amateurism foisted on the public by the NCAA, college athletic departments and TV moguls making a living off the unpaid labor of young athletes. ‘‘Neon’’ knew the score.
Unfortunately, the Hurricanes, led by quarterback Steve Walsh and wide receiver Michael Irvin, would upset Florida State that weekend in a 26-25 thriller. But Sanders sparkled, as always.
Still, to think that even after a Hall of Fame NFL career, plus brief stardom in Major League Baseball, Sanders would be a college coach someday? No way.
His presence at Jackson State, one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, shows how much the college game has changed in the last few years. With players anywhere now able to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL), you don’t hear much talk about the ‘‘amateur ideal’’ that was the old mantra of the NCAA.
That is, unless you’d call Fresno State twin women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder and their million-dollar deals (partnerships with 31 brands, according to Forbes.com) amateurs.
And there’s Alabama sophomore quarterback Bryce Young with an NIL valuation, according to sports data company On3.com, of $2.6 million.
And, yes, Sanders’ son Shedeur, Jackson State’s quarterback, is cashing in with sponsorships from Gatorade, Beats by Dre and Tom Brady’s apparel company. The apple doesn’t fall far from the daddy tree, clearly.
But almost any enterprising college athlete can get some money these days at a variety of sales points. Consider that Nebraska freshman football player Decoldest Crawford signed a deal with a heating-and-cooling company (Brrrr!) and that Alabama cornerback Ga’Quincy ‘‘Kool-Aid’’ McKinstry inked a deal with — ta da! — Kool-Aid.
Many aspects of the college and even the high school sports scenes have changed because of NILs.
Star college basketball players, for instance — particularly centers, who these days aren’t as valued by NBA teams — are staying in school to reap the monetary rewards that might rival rookie contracts.
Kentucky senior center Oscar Tshiebwe, the national player of the year last season, already has earned a reported $2.75 million from NIL deals. Gonzaga’s mustachioed All-America center, Drew Timme, is staying for his senior year, in large part because of deals with a casino, a resort, Boost Mobile and, of course, Dollar Shave Club.
Says Timme of the money trough opened up by NILs: ‘‘Honestly, it’s great for college basketball.’’
For high schools, not as much. As college athletes chase dollars and move here and there via the transfer portal, often for a fifth year (another new freedom), high school players — particularly in boys football and basketball — are seeing less recruitment.
Then again, capitalism always has helped and hurt in almost equal measures. ‘‘Get yours’’ is the American mantra.
It long has been college athletic departments’ battle cry, even if kept on the down low. Not anymore. Consider Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s opening statement at his conference’s football media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas: ‘‘The Big 12 is open for business.’’
Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips, previously the athletic director at Northwestern, has come out and said the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments need to get much bigger than the 68 teams now included, the quota since 2011. Why?
‘‘You have a lot of schools that are spending a tremendous amount of resources in sports and not having a chance to access those championships,’’ he said. (He might as well have said not having a chance to access the big money that comes with the tourneys.)
Deion Sanders said on TV that him coming back to college took divine intervention — and pocket change.
‘‘God called me collect,’’ Coach Prime said.
No doubt he’ll make that up soon.
