By
Former college football coach Nick Saban’s reported attempt to urge President Donald Trump to wield his influence over the payment of college athletes, which was first detailed by The Wall Street Journal, is rubbing some people the wrong way.
It’s hard to fault them.
Saban, who has denied that name, image and likeness rules allowing student-athletes to get paid, or NIL, led him to retire from coaching last year, has been working with Republicans in Congress to clamp down on those rules ever since he left his post at the University of Alabama.
Last year, I wrote about Saban testifying at a Senate hearing on NIL rules as a guest of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and arguing that players show “less resiliency to overcome adversity” due to the current setup. He said two NFL coaches had told him that players have become too entitled and that his wife had said the only thing players care about these days is how much they’re getting paid. These were rich comments coming from Saban, who retired as the highest-paid coach in college football.
College football analyst Spencer Hall basically summarized my concerns in a recent sit-down with sports commentator Bomani Jones, in which Hall questioned Trump’s capability to navigate this complex issue — despite the two of them acknowledging that the current NIL setup probably is in need of some alterations.
The question, of course, is whether Trump, someone who helped run the United States Football League into the ground, is suited to make the sensible changes necessary.
Sports commentator Jemele Hill doesn’t seem to think so. She sent a cheeky message to college athletes after it was reported that Saban and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., another former college coach who has bemoaned the current system, were pushing Trump to sign an executive order on NIL.
“Pay attention college athletes .. bet you didn’t know this when or if you voted,” she wrote. “NCAA has dropped a cool $250K to lobbyists to seize control of NIL.
“Good luck!”
Attorneys at the Hagens Berman law firm, which helped secure a nearly $3 billion settlement with the NCAA related to antitrust lawsuits involving college athletes, are also skeptical. Per AL.com:
“While he was a coach, Saban initially opposed NIL payments to athletes, pushing to add restrictions and red tape through national legislation to add ‘some sort of control.’ During his time scrutinizing the athlete pay structure, he made tens of millions of dollars and was previously the highest-paid coach in college football,” Berman said.
“Coach Saban and Trump’s eleventh-hour talks of executive orders and other meddling are just more unneeded self-involvement. College athletes are spearheading historic changes and benefitting massively from NIL deals. They don’t need this unmerited interference from a coach only seeking to protect the system that made him tens of millions.”