Talk about your unforeseen consequences — Texas’ newly minted NIL compensation law expressly prohibits high school athletes from cashing in, so who could have seen this coming?
With his bleach blond mullet and more than 82,000 Instagram followers, quarterback Quinn Ewers is unquestionably the best-known high school football player in the country. He’s the No. 1 overall Rivals.com recruit and is a verbal commitment to play at Ohio State.
Ewers, 18, is heading into his senior season at Southlake Carroll, a public high school in the suburbs of Dallas. He is at a vexing crossroads that could re-define high school football in Texas and elite recruiting.
Ewers has emerged as such a precocious and recognizable star that he has the potential to earn nearly a million dollars in the next year by profiting off his Name Image and Likeness. A local company called Holy Kombucha is among those offering a deal to Ewers, and it includes cash and equity in the company. There are several other offers, including national brands.
While this avenue of making money off NIL has become formally available to college athletes in the past month, it’s not allowed for high school athletes in Texas. The state’s University Interscholastic League informed the Ewers family in an email Monday that any attempt for Ewers to profit off his NIL would be in violation of Texas’ recent legislation regarding Name Image and Likeness.
Ewers and his family are facing an imminent decision of whether to play his senior year without the deals or enroll at Ohio State a year early and cash in on endorsements. Ewers is expected to decide this week.
Gee, whatever will they do?
He gone, and who can blame him? At least Texas high school football will remain as pure as the driven snow, though. Think of the offensive linemen at his high school who will be the better for it!
Get The Picture 
This is not a new phenomenon for high school kids, albeit new for football players. There is a track athlete from Rockdale County, iirc, who was an outstanding sprinter for her age. A shoe company, Adidas, I think it was, signed her to a long time contract endorsement contract. She was thereafter not eligible for HS or NCAA track. Thd contract provided for college tuition and expenses for her.
The sports world survived.
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Let alone spell Kombucha, can they say Kombucha (with no help) in ohio…
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Oh, wait…buckeye Kombucha…
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LOL.
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This will end well, and he’ll be a well-rounded young man who will look back fondly on being a mega star during his childhood. His parents will be lauded for encouraging him to “get dat money.”
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Ya gotta take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves in life. He could flame out in college. Get it while you can.
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I simply can’t understand the reasoning behind denying anyone the ability to earn money.
What the fuck, over?
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Roger. WTF indeed, over.
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Hope he’s preparing for that tax hit.
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The same way Bezos get drilled by taxes every year?
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Is Amazon evading taxes? If so, the IRS should go after them. If they are appropriately using their net operating loss carry-forwards to minimize their tax liability, change the law.
I’m not a fan of him, but if he and his company are following the tax law, he has no obligation to pay more than he legally owes.
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Funny, I never read comments about Saban having to pay more taxes when he gets a raise, or Smart having to pay more taxes when he gets a raise. The only comments snarking about taxes are when the topic about players getting money.
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Bringing up my usual left field off the wall tangential curiosity, isn’t a high school diploma a prerequisite for college enrollment? How do they get around that is he enrolls early?
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I take it you didn’t read the linked piece:
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If he has completed his required credits, he can enroll now like JT did at USC.
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Why does this story sound familiar? Does Emmert have a side gig as a Texas legislator?
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Kombucha is nasty. Why would anyone want to endorse a product like that?
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My daughter drinks that stuff sometimes. I tried it once. Tasted like shit.
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I smelled it once … there is no way I would voluntarily ingest it.
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How does one legally prevent someone from using their NIL regardless of level? Could a HS athlete not sue and win if prevented from doing so?
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Yep. If he is a talented musician and makes some money playing at weddings, is he not allowed to play in his High School band?
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Not unless you can prove that HS football is a business activity and the HS association is combining with another entity in the HS sports market to restrain trade.
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But its their personal name, image and likeness, how do you prevent them from earning off that? Not off the sport….
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Okay, let’s say you own a State Farm Insurance agency. Your employee wants to appear in a GEICO commercial. Do you really believe that your employee could sue you for prohibiting her from selling her name, image and likeness to GEICO?
No. Organizations are free to make regulations governing its participants so long as those regulations do not impact a protected class. The name, likeness and image restrictions in college sports was due to the colleges, through the NCAA, entering into an agreement among themselves to cap players NIL income at zero. That is a combination of participants in a market agreeing to set a price. That is a violation of the Sherman Act. It is an antitrust violation.
An individual can restrict it’s own trade as long as it is not in combination with others in the market. For example, it is not an antitrust violation for Syracuse to have it’s own rule saying its athletes cannot sell their NIL and be eligible.
Getting back to the Texas High School Association, it can make rules setting eligibility requirements players have to meet. Not selling their NIL is one of them. Since that rule applies to everyone and does not impact any particular class of persons in a different way, it doesn’t violate civil rights statutes. Since Texas High School Association is not making that rule in agreement with any other relevant group it is not violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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I don’t think they can’t keep him from capitalizing on his NIL, but they can keep him off any Texas high school football field.
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Better way of saying what I wrote and with a lot fewer words.
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I wonder if he will be the super stare Tate Martell was at Ohio State?
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“star” obviously.
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Well, ol’ Tate spent most of his collegiate career either staring at himself in a mirror or staring at other people playing while he rode the bench, so either way probably works.
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Unforeseen? Really??
No way the company has any rooting interest in ohio state, right?
I mean, why should we even ask the question?
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I bet you five bucks that the Texas legislature will be changing that law as soon as this young man decamps to Columbus, Ohio. The new law will either have language allowing athletes to cash in beginning during the summer before their senior year, or perhaps just do away with the high school ban entirely.
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I might take that bet. The Texas legislature can’t seat a quorum because the dems have fled Austin to block legislation. I don’t see them coming back to pass laws about high school athletes.
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LOL.
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Didn’t we already go through this with the RB from Texas opting to sit for his Sr year? It was pre-NIL but one of the reasons he chose has to be to make some NIL $ from his 10k Instagram followers.
https://www.burntorangenation.com/2021/5/20/22446527/jaydon-blue-opts-out-senior-season-texas-longhorns-recruiting-2022
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Ewers would be wise to graduate, then just take the year off and make bank. You can train for the next 5-10 months (early enrollment) and save a year of eligibility. With the QBs ahead of him at OSU, those years of eligibility will be valuable.
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Don’t know if y’all know this, but Georgia has the same law. GHSA has come out and said if you cash in on NIL, kiss your HS eligibility goodbye.
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