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A lot of times people think nil and they're thinking of like the most high level player in the world than somebody that's getting five million dollars. But explain how players are getting nil deals that you've never heard of, players that, like you said, a fourth round draft pick that's getting million dollars, or players getting thirty thousand dollars
from a mid major or a low major. D one like set that level of expectation, because I think that that's something that a lot of people could relate to, and they might not be aware that you can still get money in the nil world even if you're not a household name. And like I said, all you guys can chime in on that.
Okay, you want to start or.
Whoever time do you want to start?
Yeah, I was just talking about that the other day. It's a kid that rafit University that's getting seven hundred thousand dollars. So and these are facts. So what I say to the youth is that in parents, it was a time where people used to say, don't put your eggs in one basket. Sports matters, It matters a lot. It's taking kids from high school to become entrepreneurs.
Like we don't need the NBA anymore.
Which is an organization. Well, we need parents to really focus on that that sports can make a huge difference. And I'm not saying, you know, it's the it's the all and be all, but because in my life has been you know, help with sports, I think that's that's very important. So like he was saying, you don't have to be the McDonald American. You you don't have to be the start and five on on on your high
school team. You stay with it and you can you could benefit from nil, which is you know, which is excellent.
There's nil which is a real nil, which is what it was originally made for, where you can actually go out there and get a brand endorsement deal where you promote a brand or create a partnership with a brand and you get paid for that. The number two ways from collectives colleges now have created since this inception. They created uh collectives which are not run by the school.
At first it was run by boosters, which is alumni, and they came in and they set up partnerships for you, and it was kind of hid and pay for play, but that was the way they disguised it in marketing brands. The third way now which came in to play July one through Congress. It's called revenue share, and now schools can pay you directly from their funds, and that for the most part is pay for play. So those are
the three ways you can get paid. And with the revenue share, schools can play up to twenty two million dollars. They have a budget, they're allowed to use up to twenty two million dollars for college rep share and that's for their whole budget. For all their teams. For the most part of that, football is going to get the biggest part if they have football. Every school has a different percentage, but it has to be broken down and
that's the way. Those are the three ways they can pay a college athlete.
Yeah, football is gonna get the most because football is making the most money when you talk about rev share. But I guess to answer your question, the cop kids can make significant amount of money in college and it's not just a high D one level to Power five level. You know, you got kids at mid major level making one two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. That's
more than some of these kids families make. So college sports is actually a serious, serious business, and it's very important that these kids get the right advice and have the right team around them. I did a deal for a kid making five hundred thousand dollars who might not even start at college. If you could do that for four or five years, you would have made more money than some kids parents would have made in a lifetime. So you can't just you know, gloss over this what's
happening and what's going on. It's serious business and it's serious. It's money.
So you are a lawyer, you drew up contracts and you actually was just educating me backstage, all of you guys. As far as nil deals, they're not all the same. I thought it was like a standard like a scholarship right where you signed scholarship papers, that all the scholarship papers are the same. So you're negotiating nil deals, right, So what's some things to look out for and what's some things to add? What's some clauses, like, what's some
things to be aware of? Greg, you can answer that as well.
Well. I'll start off by saying this. The colleges now are going to a pro model. It's pro sports. If you google and look what's going on. All these schools, starting at the top, they're hiring people from pro teams basketball and football. Most powerfied schools now football and basketball. I say about eighty percent of them have what you call as a general manager. You know, we're supposed to have Danie Abrams, which is that's his position in Boston
College basketball. He couldn't make it today, but they hire those guys. And some of these schools also have guys which is the salary cap. So their jobs between those two guys. They manage the roster roster construction, and they manage the portal acquisitions, and they talk with the agents. So when you're hiring people to talk with agents, their job is to do school friendly deals to make sure they protect that money for the school. Same way if you're with the New York Jets, their job is to
make sure that they benefit from the contract. So when you have that and you may have somebody that's negotiating for you that does not have the experience of someone like a lawyer or an agent, now you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. So I do NFL contracts, we did with a collective bargain agreement, and most of those contracts the template is the same. One thing that we're going to negotiate is, of course the amount of money and
of the language. When you're dealing with a college, you're dealing with over three hundred and something different Division I schools. I haven't seen the same contract yet. Every contract's different, and they're every every contracts different. So their job is to protect the money for the University of Maryland. So trust me, when they have somebody come in and they might say, oh, it's the dad that they realize that dad has no experience in negotiating and all that they
will love. They love that they will try to take advantage of you.
Yeah, especially if they're trying to get the killed I'm tak at one point that you made earlier. So a lot of kids, you know, they don't have their friend or family member representing them. It's not necessarily that they have the bad intention, it's just they don't have the experience or the knowledge or the acumen to make sure that you're doing what's in the best centrist of the athlete,
the student athlete. So there's a lot of different things that could be in in a agreement with the university. How the money is paid out, which can be tricky. Kid can say college coach say, hey, you come to my school. I'm gonna pay you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to play. They could be provisions in there if the kid plays that year, you know, if he's not red shirt. They could be how the money is
broken down. Some schools will pay it monthly. Some schools will try to back end the money so that if the kid enters the portal, then the payments stop right away. I mean Some of this is technical, but that's why you should get a lawyer to review the agreement because there could be different provisions in there or conditions in there that could prevent the kid from actually getting the money or all the money that the kid signed up to go to that university for I'm.
Going to add to that. So let's go down a little level. Let's go down before you get to that level. I'm on the high school level right and recently I seen contracts of kids with Nio Dell's that's still in high school. To all you guys that's still in high school, you know you have a chance to benefit, but it's tricky and it's dangerous. What I'm trying to say is this, it's a lot of people what I call the BAC,
the Bad Advice Crew. They will forward you you're in io deal, say you're the top south one in the country. They give you one hundred thousand, they get it back from the colleges, so you're not really and no money coming out your pocket and no money coming out they pocket. But now they got you tied down.
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And now you gotta follow what they asked you to do because you're getting paid. That's on I will level. So this is serious business, serious businesses. We gotta watch out. We got to watch all youth, but we gotta watch our communities. So chiny of On follow up with you. As far as on the high school level, we have another legendary high school coach is to coach Amino.
Appreciate them coming. What's your advice for young people as far as how they're managing their brands on social media? Some of the things that you're seeing currently you coach the Nike Elaite team this time, I spoke to the guys when you were there, So like, what are you seeing from the grassroots level right now twenty twenty five that can either be helpful or harmful for young people?
Yeah, that's that's that's deep. I went to this school back in the nineties and we didn't have the social media that we had now, so it was totally different. But what I am saying it's two things. You know, I believe social media is probably you know, one of the worst things and the best thing that happened to us as a community. The kids are becoming a little bit more professional, they are becoming entrepreneurs, but they take
the integior out of the game. It's impossible for you to uh make every shot to play play good all the time, so that's not the reality of it. So the social media part is really I believe, taking an integratty game. But I also feel that the high school coach has got to be more of just being an excell no guy. They really got to get involved because social media do matters. And if you're a coach that don't want to get involved with the social media, you're not they trying to help the kid go to the
next level on all phases. So it's it's a give and take. And I think, you know, I go back to the parents, I go back to the mentors, the high school coaches, the grassroot people. It's got to be a collective uh teamwork. You know, it's this is called it's called grassroots for a reason. It's not about the high school coach. It's about the whole community understanding that there's a chance of us, you know, benefiting.
So, Matt, let me ask you as far as I'm a, I'm a I'm a good player in high school right I'm averaging seventeen points and I'm getting recruited by a bunch of mid major schools right now. Do I go to an agent like Greg? Do I go to a lawyer like yourself? Do I go to both?
Like?
Who do I contact first?
That's that's a good, good question and that we could probably go spin around for this. So hopefully, as a high school athlete, I'm doing well in high school, Hopefully I'm affiliated with the good grassroots mentor coach organization that's going to help guide me, that has experienced God and other players. Those are questions that parents we should ask. The reason why I could jump into it because I
have a kid that's going through this now too. You want to see the organizations or the school that your kid is playing for or participating in. What's their history, what's their track record? What other kids have they successfully helped matriculate do college or you know, everybody's not gonna make it to the league, so you know what you know. So those are the things that I look for, like what what kids went through that program? But for me,
I think a lawyer. I mean I'm biased, but I think a lawyer is a critical part of the team for any family making any decisions, because once contracts are involved, you need to make sure somebody's going to fully advise you and explain you know, every provision that's in there,
and don't take things for granted. You know, the agent is more probably more so important in college basketball than ever before somebody like a greg because now kids are entering the portal after one year going to another school to get more money. As a lawyer, I'm not in that world every day to know what college is looking for a point guard or or running back or a quarterback.
An agent is probably way more verse at helping the kids just navigate its way through college before you even get to the pros, because now you got the portal that's helping kids go to school and get paid more money than what they did when they came out of high school. But I think it's a whole collect of the team. You know, the person they trust from the grassroots, the lawyer that's going to advise you and the family
and the parents, the agent that you could trust. And it's kind of like a checks and balance is you know, you don't want the agent putting something in front of you that you don't understand.
Either, you know. That's my two cents, Greg talk about the because we're seeing kids that's transferring every year, and it's even crazy than the NBA or NFL because at least you have you have to stay with your team for a certain amount of years unless you get traded. But this is like everybody in the NBA has a one year contract. That's how crazy it would be, right, So you have that hundreds of thousands of kids that's transferring every single year, even if it's not a bad situation,
just because they can get more money. So, how do you advise players in the portal as far as like making the right decision and what'sh your process as far as making sure you're in tune with all of the general managers to see, like, you know, what's going on in the world.
Good question. Every situation is different. Some kids you you.
Don't want to move.
You may think the grass is greening. On the other side, brown grass might be brown grass if you're moving. What you also got to take into account is and also they're already trying to review that and switch that role, not switch it, but trying to go back to the one one time transfer rule in the portal, which I think makes a lot of sense. You got a lot of these guys. You know you might be getting two hundred thousand from one school. You want to jump into
the portal and try to get two fifty. You got some guys. Now on the average, you're going to have kids that have four schools on their resume. Where are you going back for homecoming? I mean that's number one. Number two, all these credits aren't transferring. Coach from this school is going to have you eligible to play for those However, when you go across the bridge and you try to get that business degree, some of those credits.
If you're at Morgan and you coming from a lower school like Howard, I'm just messing with my man, right, and your credits might not transfer over. But now you get out of there in four years, you think you're graduating, but you're not. Now you look, you probably got another year and a half semesters. So that's one thing I'm
trying to tell the kids. I would never try to advise a kid to move just for some money, unless maybe it's some life changing money, or it's a situation where you're a quarterback and this system's not working for you, but you know, you look like you have pro potential and I'm telling you to go in this offense they want you, and I know what they got there, and I know where you would be on the depth chart.
I think that's the advantage of going with That's the difference in sometimes going with an agent versus a lawyer.
You know what the Lamar Jackson Jones, right, the athlete that said, I don't need an agent, Right, I'm gonna have my mom represent me because I'm gonna save the five percent that I'm going to play the agent and I'm gonna do it that way.
Ok Jaylen Brown too, Yeah, Okay, so it wasn't five percent and you saving three. But let this go viral. He did not do the contract, all right, Mark Levin from the NFLPA did the contract. I mean, she did not do the contract. She's not a certified agent. Teams in the NFL cannot negotiate with anybody unless they're a certified day So that's number one, and I'm not knocking him, but he played well enough to establish himself to say, listen, I'm just going to have somebody from the PA help
me with this contract. They are not up to doing that for fifteen hundred players or whatever amount of players in the NFL. So if you're an elite like that, then that's fine, you can do that. The average guy cannot do that. That's I don't I wouldn't recommend it for them going into free agency and trying to find out which of these thirty two teams is going to pay him the most and be better fit him. If you're not certified, and if you're representing yourself, you know
what they say. You know you represent yourself as a lawyer, You got a fool for a client.
I would just add to that just that there's so many examples in this because I don't want to like starve bad mouth and athletes. There's so many examples of athletes that have that could have benefited from having an agent or a better agent like that, have me moves that have cost them millions and millions of dollars. I think the value of the agent comes from is somebody that knows the business, knows the landscape that could help
you navigate. Because, yeah, the NFL has boilerplate, they have a collective bargain degree in NBA has a collective bargain agreement. There's only so much money you're gonna make depending on where you're drafted, what your position is, what your level is. This that part is fair. So from an athlete saying it's already determined what I'm gonna make, I get that. But what about when it's time to get traded or
free agency and moving around, you can't. You can't pay for the value of an agent that has relationships and connections to talk to owners and managers and help you navigate that. And now that's trickling down into college and even in the high school. So that's the value to me and on Like.
For example, on the NFL, we was back there and Tony saw me looking at my phoney. He's like, we missing some games. But what I'm mainly do on a Sunday, I'm looking at stats. But the other main thing I'm looking at, unfortunately, is the injury report, because if a player gets injured now I have to manage him through that situation. I had a cornerback I represent on the Arizona Cardinals last year, last just right now, last week, he got hurt. He got back in the locker room.
I called the GM and they said it looking like the ACL. All right, well soon you got to get the MRI. Send it to me. I'm sending it to what is called a second opinion that's not affiliated with the team. Sending it down to a second opinion. Turns out it's a Grade three MCL only eight weeks where the team was automatically assuming he was going to be out for the season. So that's not something you can do if you're representing yourself. So managing the athlete is
more than just negotiating the contract. If he's unhappy, he's talking to the team and the personnel. Can we move him? Should we move him? What is really going on? If he's fine, I gotta go and do an appeal. On tuesdays, I got to sit on the phone to do a p he was fined for having the wrong colored socks in the NFL. That's something you cannot do. I don't think you can do if you're you know, a plumber or HVC. You know, if you're doing something else, not
knocking those professions. But that's what we get paid to do, is managing the athlete. So it's more than just negotiating the contract.
After the athlete stop stop playing, what are the I guess best prospects to get them seeing themselves as a brand and how they can build intellectual property and have longevity in their name, image and likeness.
It's trickling it now. So now in high school, if you're getting paid, you should be investing your future in high school. So like we were talking about, a guy can make money at twenty at the age of twenty, money in life shurance, some money somewhere for twenty years. So they got to trickle down. Those are the conversations that got to start earlier. Having a sports school it's probably probably a best route right now.
I think the financial advisor piece is probably the most important piece right now for these kids in college because we already know the majority of the kids are not
going to make it to the league. So they got four or five years where they're making two fifty three hundred, five hundred thousand, some of them a million dollars, and that might be it, you know what I mean, besides whatever they do after that, but if they have the right financial person involved in them that has helped them invest it and it's not just the whipping the chains
and they actually got some solid investments like that. Those are the success stories that I would love to start hearing, and the financial person is probably the most important part.
I think. Also just building your brand while you're still in college too. Like Sharloh Sanders, I think it's a great example of that not the best player in the world, but got a great personality. And so when he does get cut, I don't know if he got cut, I don't know if he'll be able to get another shot. But he's not desperate. He's already making content. He already has a social media following. I think he's going to do good as far as like his brand has already
been built and he was building that brand through college. Yeah, so I think playing that set, especially if you already have some level of emotion, some personality, social media gives you a great platform to kind of already brand yourself. So even if it doesn't work out for you, at least you have a springboard