Every time there is a reference to NIL—that dastardly acronym— I flash back to another era, reflecting on how things have changed between then and now. I enjoy reminiscing, but I wonder if the athletes of yesteryear—the few who are living—feel cheated with the largesse that is available to today’s young players.

Before NIL, as recently as five years ago, a student-athlete was entitled to a free education (if they wanted it), room, board, free medical, free dental, travel allowance, clothing allowance, and cost of attendance, which amounted to about $10,000 a player per year. 

If I had had that in my time, I would have thought that I was a rich young man.  While times were different then, the athletes on full scholarship were entitled to everything but travel and clothing allowances and cost of attendance.

They were free, if their coaches were compatible, to find part-time work to make extra spending money.  Most of them worked summer jobs, which was always a big story for the newspapers about this time of the year.  Dan Magill, UGA’s enterprising sports Information director, would mail out form letters, asking the players to inform him about their summer work.  If the players didn’t want it, their coaches certainly suggested that they find outdoor construction work, especially the linemen.

This was an era when weightlifting was not part of the training regimen. Today, weightlifting takes place every day of the football season.  It is much of the staple of training as wearing a helmet.

If a player got a job where he was working inside, that was not anything to talk about.  That meant that there might have been ceiling fans and players couldn’t prepare for the forthcoming season by having a cushy job working inside.

I remember one summer in the fifties, when quarterback Tommy Lewis, who was serious about the military and had enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program, wound up at an Air Force base somewhere and engaged in pilot training.  We thought that was the most exciting job anybody could have. 

Flying off into the “Wild Blue Yonder.”

I recall a player having a Coca-Cola route in his hometown in South Georgia.  He was working to get in shape for football season and had all the free Cokes he wanted.  That perk of drinking an ice-cold Coke whenever you were thirsty was about as uplifting of a treat as there was, especially if it didn’t cost anything.

Today, football players stay in Athens and work out with the strength and conditioning coach all summer.  They have time to go to class if they have that preference, and some do, but for the most part, there is serious training for the upcoming season with an eye on the NFL draft when they reach that point in their career.

They don’t need a side job to earn a little spending money.  They are rolling in cash with the NIL coffers being filled to the brim and overflowing.   They get all the Powerade they want, anytime they want, and live as comfortably as anybody in Clarke County.

If you reflect on the past, has there ever been a greater circumstance to be able to play a sport and get a free education in return?  That was the way it was originally, but greed and selfishness have gotten in the way.

Now we have entered the age of professionalism.   The National Football Foundation gives an award through its local chapters throughout the country each year: Contribution to Amateur Football. 

There has been a need to change the name of the award, which now is called the Contribution to College Football Award.

There is no such thing as amateur football anymore.  Are we going to see players at the high school level getting money to play?  Then will the grade school level be next?  Where will it stop?

Playing for the love of alma mater?  Forget that!  That is as unlikely as a helmet without a faceguard.