Football teams across the country are preparing for the upcoming season. Even underclassmen, in many cases, are positioned to benefit financially through name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities while hoping to play well enough to reach the National Football League.
College football fans are now well familiar with NIL and the changes it has brought to the sport.
To put it in perspective, a seasoned upperclassman linebacker can reportedly earn as much as $300,000, roughly $50,000 more than a tenured professor who may be an accomplished scientist. If the professor breaks a leg, he continues working. There is no NFL career ahead.
While I do not know specific compensation figures for the Georgia football team, which I have followed since my time at UGA, online reports suggest that a top quarterback prospect can command up to $2 million.
Professionalism was once viewed quite differently. Jim Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics, a remarkable achievement, but was later stripped of them after it was discovered he had been paid $25 a week to play semi-professional baseball.
Many also know the story of Red Grange, the “Galloping Ghost” of Illinois, who was paid $100,000 in 1925 to play professional football, sparking a rift with his coach, Bob Zuppke. Grange responded to the criticism by noting that if his coach was paid to coach, he should be paid to play.
Today’s players have done nothing wrong, but there is a widespread belief that the system has become unbalanced, and few agree on how to fix it. For decades, however, the old model worked well for many programs and communities.
Think of the athletes recruited from small towns, farms, and urban neighborhoods who became college stars, earned degrees, and returned home to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, bankers, farmers, accountants, and small business owners. They were pillars of their communities and lifelong supporters of their alma mater.
Many joined civic organizations such as Rotary and Kiwanis, supported booster clubs, and encouraged top local prospects to “keep Georgia on your mind.” They brought produce and local goods to coaches on campus visits and helped programs recruit talent from their regions.
There was perhaps no better tradeoff than a free education in exchange for playing a sport. While many athletes are responsible students, others enter college believing professional success is inevitable.
For some, that dream becomes reality. For most, it does not.
In discussions like this, I often think of Theron Sapp, who scored the only touchdown on Grant Field on Nov. 30, 1957, ending Georgia Tech’s eight-year winning streak over Georgia.
Sapp overcame a broken neck to play three seasons at Georgia and nine years in the NFL. He earned a solid income for his era before retiring and settling in Augusta, where he built a successful business career.
His scholarship mattered deeply to him. He attended class as a serious student who valued his education as much as his success on the field. In his era, the pursuit of money had not yet become so central to the game.
Times change, and with them, the game changes as well. Still, many argue that the core principles that once defined it are worth preserving, as they continue to offer lessons that last well beyond football.