I know it’s amazing, but we are officially in the new age of freedom for college athletes to make money just like other college students, and the Earth has not spun off its proper rotational axis. Somehow, we are all still OK.
Y’know why? Because a lot of players were making money on the side all along. They just were forced, by the NCAA’s insane hold on power, to do it in covert method. For all these decades, the farcical pretense of the “amateur mission” meant you could not do it out in the open.
Can you imagine what some Penn State athletes might have accomplished in the great American world of commerce had they been afforded the opportunity?
That’s why I decided to make a list of former Nittany Lions who could have made a killing with NIL freedom. I even asked a few of them how they would have handled it. I texted the question like this:
OK, it’s [enter year of player’s senior season] and you can make $ on endorsements. What product would you be perfect selling then?
There was only one man with whom to begin. His final college season and height of his popularity was 1999. The Nit under question was, I believe, the most adulated and adored player ever to suit for PSU.
Texted LaVar Arrington in response:
“Joe wouldn’t have gone for it, so it wouldn’t have benefited me LOL”
Well, that’s a given. But the All-American linebacker who made #11 famous way before Micah Parsons was never known for adhering to Paterno’s boundaries. Which makes him a natural for product endorsement. And this is, after all, a hypothetical. Arrington continued:
“But if all things given, I don’t have to guess. Look at the list of products that were sold while I was there. Now add others that I could’ve. Like, automobiles, places to eat, places to work out, places to stay, my favorite soaps, shampoos, my favorite drinks, snacks. Hell, I could’ve had my own snacks and drinks branded. I could’ve done afterparties for the games, my own show.
Endless opportunities and I may be creating my own business to do just that for this next generation. Be on the lookout! Up on Game.”
OK, but if he had to choose one endorsement of something he genuinely loved back then, what would it have been?
“NCAA college football on PlayStation.”
Was Arrington any good? I asked him to be honest.
“I always played with 11 back then. I never lost. I was unblockable.”
The rest of my list would have blended the kings and queens of Q-rating. Not necessarily the very best players, though many of them naturally would have been. But some who were just big personalities.
The first of which had to be Matt Millen. Famous for having his captaincy removed by Paterno for (at least as the coach saw it) insubordination, Millen’s cash-in years would’ve been 1978-79. He played defense up front like an Oakland Raider even before he became one – down-n-dirty. And so his texted choice of an endorsement makes perfect sense:
“Port-o-pottys. I’d be number one in the number-two business.”
Hey, what do you see more of tailgating around Beaver Stadium? They’re everywhere. Unrivaled product visibility.
Millen even had a slogan ready:
“There’s no better way to go!”
Also, great synergy for a love-him-or-hate him player. Stick a smiling-Millen-face logo on the urinal. It’s suddenly a target of opportunity for visiting fans. Maybe expand the business to opposing venues. The opportunities become exponential!
Speaking of venues, a couple of my next candidates concentrated on the State College standards where they hung out
Fast forward to 1994 and Kerry Collins is the director of what is still the most prolific offense in school history, architects of the last PSU undefeated season.
What would Collins have endorsed? His response was brief and immediate:
“Yuengling Lol”
OK, funny, but I reminded him that alcohol is a prohibited NIL product. Collins texted his Plan B with tagline:
“The G Man, then. ‘Open til 2 drink specials, and someone said they serve food there.’”
Yeah, Kerry, we might have to put this before the NIL verification board for approval and get back to you.
Some other obvious choices for former PSU football players who’d have been NIL goldmines: Saquon Barkley, Trace McSorley, Matt McGloin, Michael Robinson, Ki-Jana Carter, Todd Blackledge, Curt Warner, Mike Reid.
Then, there were some not so obvious possibilities. You sort of had to be around some of these guys a lot to appreciate their quick wits or goofy senses of humor. They could’ve been everyman attractions, the kind of guys who could pitch anything. So many of them were various offensive linemen: Joe Marvin, Chima Okoli, A.Q. Shipley, Keith Conlin. The list really is endless.
Penn State also has a rich heritage of supporting not just the major “revenue sports” of football and men’s basketball but all sorts of Olympic sports. So, the possibility would’ve existed even back to the relative primordial ooze of the 1980s for endorsement deals for them.
In the modern age, how about wrestler Ed Ruth, the onetime Susquehanna Twp., then Blair Academy (NJ) star who became PSU’s first 3-time national champion? At 184, he was a flamboyant pinner, loved by the crowds. And, though soft-spoken, he had a stream-of-consciousness vibe where you never knew what he might say.
Or you could take the women’s basketball WABAC Machine, past Maggie Lucas and Kelly Mazzante to the mid-’80s and Suzie McConnell. From a sprawling basketball family in Pittsburgh, McConnell (now Serio) had the smile and pizzazz that made her still possibly the most beloved Lady Lion ever. The family brand lives on with her nephew, the former Sixer and current Indiana Pacers guard T.J. McConnell.
As for men’s hoops, Joe Crispin and his younger brother Jon were an unsinkable combo during the 2001 NCAA Sweet 16 run, a rare accomplishment at Penn State. Joe finished his career as the Big Ten’s leading scorer that season and first-team all-conference. Meanwhile, Jon was the most quotable member of the team. Though probably no better than the fourth or fifth most important player, he was a natural public speaker. That’s a talent he’s parlayed into a highly successful broadcasting career, first at FOX Sports, now at ESPN.
The brothers began the season with a memorable upset of Kentucky when they combined for 57 points (Joe 31, Jon 26) at UK’s Rupp Arena.
Joe texted about seeing his jersey and his likeness being sold that year at PSU stores:
“Here’s what I have told many about this topic: 1) I was always OK [financially] because I had enough cash for trips to Meyer Dairy. But when I saw a #3 Nike jersey selling for $60, and when I played myself on video games, I wondered how that worked financially. 2) Eight months after my senior year [while playing for the Phoenix Suns] I received a check for those very same things from the NBA licensing agreement. I thought: That’s kind of odd.”
Odd, indeed. That won’t be happening anymore to college athletes; that’s part of what the O’Bannon lawsuit and subsequent NIL reform are all about.
Never as accomplished as Joe as a PSU hoopster but, even then, every bit his equal behind a mic – and then some – Jon had a perfect venue concept:
“Joe and I would be the face of Hoss’s Steakhouse and Northland Bowl. No joke. We were regulars.”
Not that Jon wouldn’t have tried convincing a local luxury auto dealer of his efficacy:
“My ego would tell me I’d be the face of the local BMW dealership, but my reality would always bring me back to Hoss’s.”
So constant was the brothers’ presence there, they were afforded a certain preferred status:
“Joe and I had our own personal Parmesan Peppercorn dressing stashed in the fridge at Hoss’s.”
Slogans?
“Hoss’s: Eat until it hurts.
“Bowling: Basketball is easy. Bowling is for the real athletes.”
I told you, he’d have been a natural.
More PennLive sports coverage:
• Given NIL freedom at Penn State, what could Matt McGloin have made? His answer surprised me.
• Sabrina Ionescu should’ve been making insurance ads for years; NIL freedom will free her successors.
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July 04, 2021 at 05:03PM
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What if Penn State stars of past had freedom to sell? Arrington, Collins, Millen and Crispins tell what | Jon - PennLive
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