Opinion: Just Because You Played High School Football For Free Doesn't Mean Someone Should Stick With A Team After Getting Shafted Out Of Thousands Of Dollars
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.The Matthew Sluka story is currently the biggest story in sports right now and it's absolutely fascinating. It's pretty much exactly what you could/should have expected to happen in this new NIL era of college sports. The power dynamics in college sports have been completely flipped on their head within a couple of years. You had coaches who were in complete and total control over 100 or so kids, and held their futures in their palms. And then overnight, someone flipped a switch and now all this 19/20-year-old kids run the show. They're making hundreds of thousands of dollars, transferring to 5 different schools, and now we're seeing that they'll simply stop playing if you don't pay them the money that you originally offered.
Now personally I find myself in a bit of a predicament here. Because on one hand, I'm really not a fan of the NIL. I think it's really short-sighted to give these kids so much power because for the most part, most kids are a bunch of fucking idiots who have no ability to think about the big picture. They don't have the right people in their ear telling them to focus on building relationships that'll help them further their career rather than getting a new car to drive around campus with. They don't have the right people in their ear telling them to prioritize going to a school or program that is the best fit for them as opposed to where they can get the most money. I'm all for advocating for yourself but sometimes these kids need to understand that they're not the main character all the time. NIL is just taking a bunch of shithead kids and making them even shittier.
But on the other hand, the shittiest people in this specific scenario is everyone at UNLV who was involved with promising this kid one thing and then not following through. I get that's a part of life, and that you can't trust anything that isn't in writing. But that is a god awful way to do business if you're trying to build a program that anybody gives a shit about outside of this year.
I'm not crazy about the NIL in general, but if it's going to be a part of life in college sports these days then it is what it is. And offering a kid $100,000 to come to your school and then end up paying him next to nothing of that money? It's hard to see what exactly Matthew Sluka owes to UNLV to not sit the rest of the season out. I get the old school football hardo in everybody wants to get pissed off about him bailing on his team, but it's not like those are the guys he grew up his whole life playing with. These aren't his lifelong brothers that he's quitting on. These are coworkers he's known for the past few months. He was hired by UNLV to do a job, and then they just didn't pay him to do that job.
Just because you played high school football for free doesn't make you any more of a football guy than Matthew Sluka sitting out the rest of the season. You just weren't as good, I guess. You can act like you'd never quit on your team all you want, but you know for damn sure that you'd quit your job right now if they just stopped paying your previously agreed to salary.
Sidenote: And for anyone who thinks this would hurt his future in the NFL, pretty sure every contract in the NFL is legally binding. So unless there's a team out there who operates as shadily as UNLV appears to be right now, I don't think this would be a recurring issue.