- January 15th, 2022, 7:19 am
#638733
I spoke to a coach at Nebraska this week who told me, “You just don’t get how transactional everything has become now.”
I left college coaching in 2019 for personal reasons. But it was an easy decision to me. When I enjoyed coaching, it was for the ability to build a career out of having a positive influence in the lives of young people through sport. It was the exact same that had been done for me, so I enjoyed Paying It Forward. I was able to provide for my family while doing something noble in a good way for others.
Inevitably, I’m often asked, “Do you miss coaching.” (It’s funny to me that Coaching is a career that when departed often receives this question. Why does no one ask the former mechanic or tax attorney or college admissions counselor if they miss their former career? But, I digress.) The truth is, I don’t miss coaching. In fact, it was about two years before I could watch my sport again as a fan, and I doubt I’ll ever be rabid about it. I miss the ongoing camaraderie with other coaches. And, I miss the positive influence in lives. The former I lost when I retired from coaching. But the latter left the sport for the most part long beforehand, and that made it a little easier to leave.
Now, with the open portal and NIL, the Nebraska coach was telling me that the Player-Coach relationship has become completely transactional. All that matters is what Coach can do for the Player. And coming from the inside, we weren’t that far away from here before, so NIL and the open portal have just crystallized it.
(Certainly more and more coaches aren’t blames. Many also only care about what the player can do for the coach. Sort of a, if you can beat them, join the Mentality. I couldn’t put my mind there, so I never had much camaraderie with those coaches.)
Young student-athletes don’t know any better, so I can hardly blame them. I believe in freedom and capitalism, so I’m not morally or even lawfully opposed to NIL or the open portal.
But I am disappointed. I’m disappointed for the lost opportunities for Players’ and Coaches’ lives to be transformed by relationships in the joint pursuit of personal and group excellence, as opposed to why they are joined now: the pursuit of the best advertising deal.
I still believe in the power of Sport to change lives. I just believe it’s going to happen a LOT less at the intercollegiate level. Now more than ever, we need great coaches at the high school and youth levels.
Of course kids transfer high schools for athletic reasons, too. And I know some money flows there already. More will surely follow. All of this - ALL of it - is inevitable. But some of the effects are no less sad and disappointing.