Staff picks: college football legends who would have collected endorsement deals if NIL rules were in place

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NCAA amateur died. On Thursday, July 1, several states across the country opened their doors to bring Name, Image, and Similarity (NIL) laws into effect, allowing college athletes to eventually monetize their brands. Already, players like Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler, the Bo Knicks and many other players across many sports have either signed endorsement deals or branded their personal brands. The list of athletes, which could include high school players, will only increase while the NCAA awaits the arrival of federal NIL legislation in the coming months.

The change is drastic, but it will take a long time. And it’s hard to look at this massive transformation without thinking about the countless college athletes who came before who should have been able to take advantage of their lack. With this in mind, our college football team has made their selections of former high profile players who would have bundled in endorsement deals had the NIL statutes been around in their time.

This list is obviously much longer than we can hash out here, but without a doubt, these players were perfect candidates in their era.

Oklahoma LP Brian Bosworth

One of the best midfielders in college football history was also the most complete brand the sport might have ever seen, even in the NIL era, from dominant aggressive defensive play to his hair and epic NCAA jersey during the Orange Bowl after he was banned from the game for a Test Steroid positive. Boz had no endorsements, but it was a constant endorsement of living without apology, a trend that seems to carry on across generations. He has proven his ability to perform through his acting career, and his roots in Oklahoma-Texas would have made him an easy choice for opportunities for none locally and nationally. – Chip Patterson

You mean to tell me the guy who, across many sports, has been described as a ‘Prime Time’ and ‘Neon Deion’…has had a career in rap…his alter ego is “Leon Sandcastle”… have you thrived under the laws of nothing? Dear reader, I dare say there is no endorsement deal that Sanders would not have accepted had the amateurish laws not been ditched when he was crushing in Florida. Sanders was a great soccer and baseball athlete, but he was (and still is) as great as a big mogul across multiple media, gaming and sports platforms. I mean, Jackson State is making headlines right now because of him. When we came to this topic earlier in the week, I couldn’t think of a single former college player more suitable as an answer. – Ben Kercheval

Consider for a moment that Tim Tebow hasn’t surprisingly played in the NFL since the 2012 season, however that didn’t stop him from getting a chance to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars this summer. Keep in mind that prior to this opportunity, Tebow was able to convince the MLB teams to give him a shot as a baseball player despite not having played baseball since his freshman year in high school. He then played 306 minor league games over four seasons while occasionally taking time off to fulfill his media duties, playing for the Mets before retiring. Why was Tebow given these opportunities? Because it’s not just Tim Tebow, it’s Tim Tebow: The All-American Boy. Now, imagine what Tebow would have done with this brand if he had been able to cash in on it while still at the National Title and Heisman Award winning college in Florida. – Tom Fornelli

Texas A&M QB Johnny Manzel

Jonny Manzel has perhaps benefited more from his name, image, and likeness than any player in college football history because of the intensity of his star power in the time he played. Manzel’s rise to prominence came right after Texas A&M turned to the Securities and Exchange Commission and at a time when social media use was exploding nationwide. Instead of using his Twitter account to talk about not being able to wait to leave College Station, Manziel could have used it to raise endorsement money.

As it turned out, Manzel was a businessman anyway, even though it was against the rules. He recently admitted to the horrific atrocities of signing autographs in an interview with Barstool Sports. If Manzel had been playing in the NIL era, he could have made exponentially more than the estimated $33,000 he collected from his autograph after his Heisman Trophy winning campaign. The man did not need a business empire around him to help build his brand. It was just Johnny Football, and you’d better think that Johnny Football would have left the college game a millionaire – and probably in a much better place – if it weren’t for the seemingly outdated NCAA rules as of July 1. – David Cope

USC RB Reggie Bush

Reggie Bush owned Los Angeles in the mid-2000s. Sure, he won the Heisman Cup, and that’s all well and good. But Bush transcended the sports world and became an entertainment icon who was so successful that he had Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, and countless other stars from across the entertainment spectrum on the sidelines to watch him fire up opposing defenses. This was, of course, at a time when the city did not have an NFL team and those entertainment icons were owned by Hollywood. The cash flow Bush would have had as a college football player would dwarf the value of the home his parents had acquired, eventually banning him from the program and forcing him to return the Heisman Cup. – Barrett Sally

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