Almost as soon as it was official that college athletes could benefit from their name, image and likeness — forever known as NIL — a campaign began to have the Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy reinstated.
Bush won the award for his 2005 season with USC and was later stripped of it for receiving what was then illegal benefits.
The entire season was vacated by the Trojans, so expect someone to start yelling about giving those wins back to USC. All of this just makes the whole thing even more confusing.
Yet, over a slow Fourth of July weekend it did make for some thinking.
What Arkansas Razorbacks would have benefited if there had there been no such rule.
To keep it simple, my list was kept to recent football and basketball players, and this is a totally subjective list and one open to argument.
And no, there will be no guesses as to who would have endorsed them but some thoughts were pretty funny.
No. 20, Oliver Miller
No. 19, Corey Beck
No. 18, Tony Bua
No. 17, Drew Morgan
No. 16, Jonathan Luigs
No. 15, Frank Ragnow
No. 14, Shawn Andrews
The last three were offensive linemen, and while they were very good and very popular, interior linemen are the work hogs, which brings us to one of the all-time great salesmen who was also a talented football player:
No. 13, David Bazzel
No. 12, Joe Adams
No. 11, Hunter Henry, who signed an endorsement deal with Fletcher Dodge almost as soon as he was allowed.
No. 10, Anthony Lucas
No. 9, Alvin Robertson, and he’s not the only basketball player.
No. 8, Lee Mayberry
No. 7, (tie) Todd Day and Scotty Thurman
No. 6, D.J. Williams
No. 5, Joe Kleine
No. 4, Corliss Williamson
No. 3, Sidney Moncrief
No. 2, Matt Jones
No. 1, Darren McFadden
No doubt that there are others who could have benefited from their name, image or likeness, but these are the ones who had the talent and personality.
It is being reported as the single largest deal any player has made so far.
Tennessee State freshman basketball player Hercy Miller has apparently signed a $2 million deal with Web Apps America, a software development company in Los Angeles.
Miller’s father is rapper Master P.
Former University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz may not want to consider a return to his former school, Ohio State, any time soon.
The school is under a huge cloud right now — which has nothing to do with Steinmetz — and is being sued by more than 30 former male athletes who claim long time team doctor, Richard Strauss, sexually assaulted them.
One claims he was fondled 50 times and another claims he was just 16 when it happened as his high school team was competing on campus.
A 2019 independent investigation determined that Struass abused at least 177 men when he worked at Ohio State from 1979-79.
This is a story that isn’t going away for a long time.
In other news, Ohio State got a five-star football commitment this week. Go figure.
Last month, Memphis Coach Penny Hardaway was a hot name to take the Orlando Magic job.
It didn’t take Hardaway long to get the message out that he loves Memphis and is staying put for now. He did say he would like to coach in the NBA someday, just not today.
He backed that up by hiring Larry Brown as an assistant coach.
Brown, 80, has won everywhere he has coached.