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For generations, Americans have played high school sports. Whether it was for exercise, brotherhood, friendship, or competition, everyone shared a common motivation: the love of the game. For the vast majority of student-athletes, varsity high school sports are the highest level of competition they will ever reach. High school sports promote discipline, confidence, and a sense of belonging. Introducing money into high school sports will taint the purity of our sports and lead to students competing for the wrong reasons.
Student athletes discover their identity through sports. While on a team, young people find their group. Players form support systems among themselves and develop a sense of community. These sports can be a healthy outlet for teenagers across the nation, but when money gets thrown into the equation, team sports suddenly become focused on the individual. Once the goal becomes something more than just winning games with your team, the sense of community starts to fade.
Another issue with high school NIL is the transfer process. Athletes will no longer grind and grow their small program. Instead, the best athletes in the city will transfer to the largest schools with the biggest brands, where they can capitalize most on their NIL opportunities. It will also completely transform the landscape of college football recruiting. Now, schools will be able to directly pay high school athletes to commit to their schools, benefiting larger schools. High school NIL deals will keep the small schools small and the big schools big on both the high school and collegiate levels.
Students who participate in high school sports are left with a lifelong impact. They develop their resilience, confidence, teamwork, and leadership. These students form lifelong bonds with their teammates and reinforce ties to their communities. Often, athletes can find role models in their sport whom they can base their actions and work ethic on. These are the right reasons to play high school sports. However, when it becomes the norm for the best athletes to get paid, teens will start playing for the wrong reasons. Once we allow our young athletes to chase money, they will quickly succumb to materialism and a shallow identity. These young people will be quick to equate their self-worth as an athlete with the amount of money they can earn. This money will distort the priorities of student-athletes. Once players are paid, they will become athletes before students. Money will lead to so many other problems for these young people, including addiction, stress, and entitlement. For all these reasons, money will muddy up the purity of the game.
Student-athletes put in a lot of work, and it does make sense to compensate them. However, directly paying athletes is throwing them to the wolves of greed, money, and business, completely unprepared. Athletes are already getting compensated for their work in ways they may not even realize. In the wide world of sports, it’s so easy to get swept up in the entertainment, lifestyle, and money, but then we lose track of why we really play: for the love of the game.
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