The Money Game (2024) s01e01 Episode Script
The Wild West
1
[rhythmic snap]
[indistinct background chatter]
[rhythmic snap]
[dramatic percussive chords]
[rhythmic snap]
[rhythmic snap]
Oh, hey, how you doing?
Hey, Brian.
[man] The idea's called
March Doesn't Start in March.
We have a bunch of shots,
and they all look amazing so
[intense notes play]
[woman] When we first heard about NIL
- [woman 2] Yeah?
- She was still in high school.
So everybody was trying
to figure it out the first year.
- Yeah, you guys had
- We had time.
- You had time.
- Yeah.
So I was like, girl,
you was born perfectly.
[intense musical buildup]
[crew person] All right, everyone.
Thank you so much.
If you are not needed in this space,
let's have you step out
[intense music plays]
Probably within 30 minutes,
I had like hundreds of texts
from the athletes
"I just got this deal."
"I just got this deal."
What are these people doing, not sleeping?
[man] Right.
[woman] I think it was Google Pixel
was a big thing they were doing.
We had to turn it down,
'cause it was in New York.
It's a lot we had to turn down.
A lot. You would not believe how much.
'Cause that was half a ticket.
[both laughing]
This NIL world is big, huh?
Yeah.
[mellow electronic music plays]
- [woman] Name, image, and likeness.
- [man] Name, image, and likeness.
NIL.
This ruling could, quite literally,
change everything.
Let's go!
[dramatic percussive music plays]
[tiger roar]
[man] College sportsI see it as a story
of this one underdog
that college athlete
against the big,
powerful autocratic institution
that was just sucking up all the money.
The NCAA was reaping the benefit,
and the schools were reaping the benefits
of the billions of dollars
in TV contracts.
And I think someone said, "Enough," right?
This isn't fair.
But the NCAA couldn't figure out
every pebble dropped in the pond
and every ripple it would create.
Now is the Wild, Wild West NIL bubble,
and, uh, it is chaos.
- One, two, three.
- [team] Together we win!
[clapping]
[woman] Let's go, let's go, let's go!
[woman speaking indistinctly]
[moody music plays]
To be a student athlete
and have this level of a following
is a little bit unprecedented.
Like not a lot of people have that.
Can I see how I look before we start?
Yeah.
It's just a little flatyep. That's it.
Good.
Oh, man, I think one of the biggest
misconceptions about gymnastics
is that it's easy.
[punchy music plays]
Oh, that looks easy.
Well, the whole point of gymnastics
is to make it look easy.
If it's not looking easy,
then you're not doing it right.
I started competing
when I was seven years old,
and I loved competing.
- Where's Olivia? Right here.
- Right!
- How old are you?
- I'm nine.
[Dunne] I remember I won every level
for me I competed at.
And I flew through the levels
and became a level eight when I was eight.
A level ten when I was ten years old.
I qualified for Junior Elite
when I was 12 years old,
and I was the youngest in the country.
And then I was picked to be
on the USA National Team when I was 14
at a training camp.
I would post pretty consistently
throughout my Elite career.
I had amassed about 100,000
followers from just gymnastics.
That kinda all blew up
when quarantine came around
and TikTok came about.
And then some of my favorite brands
reach out to me and they were like,
hey, can we send you some free products?
And I couldn't take any because
the NIL rule hadn't changed yet.
There are normal students
that could make money
or accept free product from brands.
But the fact that
me being a student athlete,
I couldn't work
with some of my favorite brands
that were reaching out to me, that sucked.
I remember my freshman year of college.
I remember peoplelike my coaches
and people kind of talking to me
about, hey,
I think that the rule might change
where you can capitalize on your brand
NIL rule might change.
So like, dang, that would be crazy.
I didn't really think anything of it.
July 1st, 2021, the NIL rule changed.
That's the day my life changed.
Today, the Supreme Court
sided with former college athletes
in a dispute with the NCAA
on compensation.
The NCAA has opened up
its rules to allow college athletes
to make money from endorsements
and sponsorships.
[reporter] Some schools, like LSU,
rushed into the NIL possibilities.
[Dunne] As soon as that rule changed,
the NIL department here at LSU
had a billboard of me up in New York City.
That's me!
That is so cool.
[man] She is an influencer
who happens to be a college athlete
and can now cash in.
[announcer] Evil Empire,
laughing all the way to the bank.
[chortling]
My first offer was a six-figure offer.
It's like, steak dinner for everyone.
I was ecstatic.
So many new opportunities
were thrown my way.
Sports Illustrated.
I got Forbes 30 Under 30.
I was in Elle magazine.
I just felt like
this is the beginning to something
I can't even wrap my head around.
[woman] The Livvy brand
it's massive.
I think that
that was a big part of the push.
When we started having conversations
about NIL
prior to the laws passing in '21,
a lot of people were like, no,
we don't wanna touch this
with a 10-foot pole.
And I was like, I will.
[punchy music plays]
Our main goal was
how are we gonna educate the athletes?
And that was my role
was to figure out
how are we going to do this best?
[man] Student athlete branding
is new for everyone else.
This is something that's in LSU's DNA.
It goes back to Pistol Pete
and Shaquille O'Neal.
We want to be on the front lines of this.
We want to be the best at this.
Scott Woodward,
our athletic director, says it best.
I think he's quoting Machiavelli
when he says,
"In chaos, there's opportunity."
Where we are now
we were anticipating
we'd be there in 5 to 10 years,
and it escalated so quickly.
- Is that okay?
- [crewman] Yeah. Yeah.
Have a seat.
Are my feet okay, or do you want me
to be like cross-legged?
[host] Well, hello there and welcome
to another edition of Meet the Press.
Collectively,
schools make billions of dollars,
mostly from football and basketball.
[Worsham] The historic model
for college sports
has been about money-making programs
generating a lot of revenue.
And because of amateurism laws,
the athletes weren't allowed
to see that revenue.
The National Collegiate
Athletic Association
has long defended the idea
of the amateur student athlete.
But that concept
is facing its toughest trial yet.
The case's origins go back to a lawsuit
first brought by former
UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon
after he saw his likeness in a video game.
Don't dunk the ball, son.
[man] Is that you?
[Ed] Left hand. All net. Yes, that is me.
[man laughs]
[man] One of the arguments
that the NCAA uses
is that part of the popularity
around college sports is the amateurism.
That's what separates it
from professional leagues.
Student athletes are students.
They are not employees.
They were trying to distance their system
from a business.
It's a paternalistic system that runs
almost like a plantation mentality.
For almost 100 years,
no one challenged it.
[Todd] But those days are gone,
and players in many sports
can now cash in.
That's the good news.
NIL
is BS.
Don't be a hater.
There's going to be salty people.
NIL is pay-for-play.
Remember, last July we came on
the show saying the NIL starts today.
- Yeah, right?
- Now look at us.
Less than a year later, it's a mess.
Schools are coming in and paying you to
leave your school to come to their school.
- It's the Wild West, baby.
- Trav, that's an understatement.
That's the biggest thing
we're dealing with right now
is we're all operating
under different state laws.
This whole thing's gonna crash and burn
about as fast as one can crash and burn.
[producer] What do you say to folks
that are critical of NIL?
I can't really say what I want to say.
[producer]
You can say whatever you want to say, man.
[laughs] Nah, man, they trippin'.
You spend so much time in college broke.
You know, there's people
that come from nothing,
so they take care of they people
back home.
You have
all this glamor and glitz in facilities.
You have all this money
that coaches are making.
[camera lens snapping]
Is this what we want
college football to become?
Now you've got the Olivia Dunnes
and the Angel Reeses.
They're getting
six and seven-figure deals.
Lotta people think that NIL
has become bigger than the sport.
I think it is destroying
college athletics.
Um, if you don't like me, that's fine.
[Reese] I've always posted
on my social media,
but people think now
it's because of the money.
[man] It changes everything
college football players
playing for the love of the game.
If they're getting paid,
then we're gonna lose some of that.
You don't have to play the money game,
but if you want to capitalize
during your time as a student athlete,
you can do that.
There's us,
and then there's a Charlie Baker segment.
Who's Charlie Baker?
The new president of the NCAA.
- Oh.
- [both laugh]
Right now, there are no rules around
how name, image, and likeness works.
Well, what does that mean?
[Dellenger] The NIL era
has caused what they call chaos
and is gonna lead to
more changes that are even bigger
down the line.
[Clark] I think we're headed towards
revenue sharing.
In ten years, I think it'll be
more along the lines of unionized labor.
You didn't want me to talk about the uh
[Jacobs] I didn't want you
to talk about revenue sharing.
[Clark] Well, it's in the courts.
[Jacobs] That was how I felt.
And then I got a little bit reprimanded.
[Clark] Oh did you?
[Jacobs] Well
[Clark] It's not really a secret anymore.
[Clark] You ready?
Nice and easy. Toes to the bottom.
Down, down, down. Tight.
Breathe.
Hips, and lock it out.
Nice.
I think when NIL first started,
it took Liv a little while
to kind of get a handle on
how to balance the two parts of her life
that were both equally important to her.
[Dunne] What's going on with NIL?
There's no one I could follow
in their footsteps. I was kind of
just winging it,
and it was kind of an unprecedented area.
And it was hard to communicate
sometimes how I felt
with the coaches, of being overwhelmed.
They could definitely see it on my face.
Very nice.
This is my last year of gymnastics ever.
It's time to make
the little girl I was proud.
The expectation is to win
a national championship with my team
because it's never been done
here at LSU before.
[Clark] Good lift.
[Dunne] I think this year
we have what it takes.
[Clark] Hey, um
raise your hand if,
when you go to bed at night,
you feel good about how you took
advantage of today's opportunity.
Okay. All right.
I'm gonna ask you all that every day.
Okay?
'Cause tomorrow remembers today.
All right?
Have a good one. See you tomorrow.
[indistinct chatter]
- On three.
- [all] Together we win!
- Whoo!
- Let's go, team!
[edgy music plays]
[crowd cheers]
[Dellenger] LSU is the only Power Five
athletic department in Louisiana.
It's the flagship.
The purple and gold is everywhere.
At the end of the day,
it's almost always about one thing,
and it's did the Tigers win?
LSU's athletic budget
is $199 million a year,
and that ranked sixth nationally.
And football is the main driver of that.
Ticket sales, TV deals.
And then donations
to the athletic department.
90% of the money is really in football.
If you win championships,
usually that drives the whole economy
of not just an athletic department,
but a university.
And not just university, but a town.
And sometimes not just a town,
but a region or a state
can be driven by football.
And so if it's that important,
then you're going to try to win
as much as you can.
And in order to do that,
it's get the best player.
[mellow electronic music plays]
[Daniels] Quarterback is the most
important position on the field.
You gonna get the hate and the blame,
and you gonna get the praise
and you gonna get the money,
so that's kinda why I took the position.
I'm a West Coast kid, born and raised
in San Bernardino, California.
Went to Arizona State.
[announcer] Little misdirection
across the middle!
Ball tipped and it was intercepted!
[announcer 2] Daniels, denied again.
[Daniels] Sophomore, junior year,
I dealt with things on and off the field.
Just a lot of turmoil due to COVID.
Decided to transfer portal.
Coming here to LSU, they're a powerhouse.
You're playing against the Alabamas,
the Georgias,
playing on the biggest stage every week.
What's up?
[announcer continues indistinctly
under crowd noise]
[announcer 2] I'm screaming up here
[man] I knew about his ability
right outta high school.
Saw a freshman at Arizona State
who was dynamic
and then didn't have the kind of
sophomore season
that gave him the national notoriety
that he could have.
So I saw an undervalued player.
[Daniels] Georgia hot, Georgia hot,
Georgia hot.
Yo, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.
I know what Coach Kelly done.
He done that at a high level
for many years.
Ready. Set go.
[man] Ready, set. Everybody set.
[Daniels] I didn't know what was
gonna happen
with the quarterback situation.
Was I gonna play, was I not?
But I bet on myself, obviously.
You know, I been doing it my whole life.
[Kelly] As I told him, I said, look,
I'm coming down to take this job over.
You've got as good of an opportunity
to be the starter here as anybody.
[Daniels] When I came out here,
I was like I wanna go to the SEC.
I want to play the best competition
in the best conference.
But I didn't know what it was
until I actually stepped foot
in here for a game.
This is Death Valley,
where opponents' dreams come to die.
Right now, I have a buncha memories
running through my head.
Like the last year versus Alabama.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] It's been a slugfest,
a top ten showdown.
We've got five lead changes
in the second half.
[announcer 2] Daniels in the shotgun,
along with Emery.
Here's the snap.
My love of the game comes
from when we were younger.
When you're young and you just
having fun, running around
just doing what you do.
[announcer] Daniels looking left,
tosses it towards the end zone.
Grabbing it!
And if you good, you good.
If you not, you not.
[announcer] Mason Taylor! Oh!
[announcer 2] There's bedlam
in Baton Rouge as Daniels answers.
What a fourth quarter. Incredible.
You gotta have fun playing football.
[announcer] It looks like LSU's
gonna head to overtime.
Buckle up.
Our team was tied directly to Daniels
in '22.
The Alabama game he was locked in.
Every time they did something
with their star quarterback
Daniels responded.
[anouncer] So now LSU on offense.
First down and 10 at the 25.
Daniels gonna keep,
trying to get to the edge.
Gets by one defender,
cuts inside a blocker at the 20.
Got another block at the 15.
10, 5! Touchdown, Fighting Tigers!
Jayden Daniels, 25-yard run.
One play and a score.
And it's 31-30. Down a point to Alabama.
[Kelly] When you score on the first play,
there's so much momentum
that you don't want to lose it.
[announcer] Don't be surprised
if Brian Kelly goes for two here.
Give Jayden Daniels
one more chance to win the game?
That was a pretty easy decision.
[announcer] They'll go for a 2-point,
try to win this football game.
Comes down to one play here in overtime.
31-30. Alabama leads.
Daniels, for the win!
That corner of the end zone.
[announcer] Caught!
It's good!
LSU does it!
Brian Kelly shows the trust
that he has in his quarterback,
and it pays off.
A night they'll never forget
in Baton Rouge.
[man] I've been to a lot of
college football games.
That one was special.
It's Alabama, for God's sakes, right?
I'm sitting in the stands.
Grab my phone and I text Brian.
You've got really big
and I don't say it.
I'm not gonna say it on camera.
I said, "Man, you got big blanks."
And, um
and then second text
is to my marketing director and said,
"I want Jayden Daniels signed Monday."
And when I met with him I said,
"Well, Jayden, let's talk about
all your other deals."
"What other deals?
I don't really have any other deals."
I'm like,
"You're the star quarterback at LSU.
You gotta have some deals."
"No, I really don't for now."
I said, "We're gonna change that."
Keep going ♪
And get it done ♪
Keep going ♪
And get it done! ♪
[McKernan] We filmed a little commercial
out in the parking lot
to recreate the play
the roll out and the catch.
Um, I think people enjoyed that.
He was great.
Think it was only a two-month deal.
I think it was 50,000.
A couple posts,
do the commercial and remember,
we get to use his name,
image, and likeness, right,
on a billboard.
So that has really good value, right?
Car wrecks, done! ♪
Personal injury, done! ♪
Workers' comp, done! ♪
Truck wrecks, done! ♪
Make the right call.
[all] Get Gordon. Get it done!
[McKernan] Maybe what I do
is not well respected at all times.
Some people say lawyers
are just above a car salesman,
a used car salesman, right?
And then a plaintiff lawyer
would be a step down from a lawyer.
And then there's the worst of all,
the advertising plaintiff lawyer.
And that's where I come in.
[energetic music plays]
Having a fancy car and all that
Does that work in well?
Oh, yeah, that's perfect.
That's exactlywe want the
We want the booster fat cat guy.
Yeah.
I put my toe in the NIL pool
just out of curiosity. That's it.
You know, I'm always about trying
a new thing, a new angle,
creating a little buzz, being contrarian.
What NIL added, for me, at least
I would call it goodwill marketing.
I never imagined
it would go as quickly as it has
to where it is right now.
I thought it would be
a much slower process.
But they're-they're very aggressive
schools out there
and figuring out how to get around
what the NCAA had put out there,
so I think that accelerated everything.
With these athletes and getting
to understand what they go through
they're in a pressure cooker.
Largely, a lot of it's due to NIL.
Literally right now it's just tossing
bags of money out of the airplane
to land on different athletes.
Now you have young kids
and oftentimes families
who've never had a dime
trying to just get through
the fog of confusion that exists.
What's gonna happen? What can you do?
What can you not do?
And all of a sudden
there's a lot of pressure on them.
[moody music plays]
[running footsteps]
[sighs] Oh.
- Hey, Coach.
- You better make me famous.
- That's all I'm saying.
- I got you being Hollywood, huh?
[both laughing]
Let's go.
[Armstrong]
The secret to hurdling, honestly,
is being confident and being aggressive.
My first race ever in the hurdles,
it just felt natural.
It felt like God was like,
this is your destiny.
This is what I'm placing you on Earth for.
I've broken a lot of records.
[start gun pops]
[announcer] Mota, Hollis, Taylor,
Stark, Armstrong,
Phillips, Freeman and Marsh!
[Armstrong] I've broken the school record,
the SEC record.
Oh, my god. Oh, my god.
I really want the world record.
[percussive music plays]
Push to the first hurdle. Drive down.
You got it.
Come right off the hurdle.
Thank you.
[man] I have zero patience for somebody
that the other 20 hours of the day
is not doing what they need to be doing.
And guess what.
I always find out.
I always know, okay?
Ain't no secrets in our world.
So I expect everybody
to be doing all the things they can do
from now until our entire season's over.
And hopefully for some of you,
until the Olympic Games are over.
Okay?
It's a long time.
So you gotta take care of
business every single day.
[woman] Alia, you making all this NIL
money, give me a loan.
I ain't got nothing myself.
[woman] Making more money than
the pros out here.
Oh, that'syeah, that's not the truth.
I promise. [laughs]
When NIL came about,
I had no idea what to do.
I just think that I was
kind of under-looked.
And so I just really wanted to understand
why wasn't getting these big name brands.
And I was struggling at the time.
- [woman] Hello. What's going on?
- [Armstrong] Hey guys.
Nothin' much. How y'all been?
- Good.
- Good.
Okay, so I know you specifically asked.
Trying to organize
your deliverables is a lot,
especially with y'all season
about to get underway.
So Katie and I both have
just a few tips there
that we try and follow that
we think can be helpful for you.
And then we'll talk about
maybe some potential new targets
for businesses.
[Armstrong] I reached out to Taylor
and Mary Claire and I said,
"I'm too big of an athlete
and too big of a name at LSU
to not be making money."
And once they understood
my financial circumstances,
they wanted to help me a lot.
Hey, that's what we're here for.
We can help you with that.
You know, you're a student athlete,
but now you're your own businesswoman.
Um, but it is a learning curve.
When everyone started talking about NIL
three years ago,
everyone automatically
went to that 1% of top earners.
And student athletes will sign
these national campaigns,
and this is what it'll be, and that's it.
When the reality is
98, 99% of our student athlete population
doesn't have that same platform.
Therefore, getting NIL deals
is a little bit more difficult.
They are reaching out to brands.
Alia Armstrong is a great example.
Alia is like top four track
female student athletes in the world.
I'm-I'm hoping
I see her run at the Paris Olympics.
She came and sat down with my staff
and basically said,
I need help getting NIL deals.
And I'm sitting here going,
she's incredible.
Really trying to be intentional
with the businesses
that you're partnering with
so you don't stretch yourself too thin,
because you are
I imagine your practice schedule
is about to be crazy,
and you're gonna be
traveling for tournaments and stuff.
- And Olympic trials too.
- Olympic trials, not to mention.
- I'm all over the place. I'm trying.
- We've got you.
Mentally, it's been super hard.
I can't lie.
I feel like track and school
is already one job.
So adding on another job is crazy.
I don't know what to do with that.
And so it's almost like
an additional school
instead of, like, oh yeah, it's just NIL.
It's not anything crazy.
Like, no, it's hard.
I feel like what would help me
stay on top of my stuff
is like having a schedule
regularly meeting with y'all.
Yeah. I like that idea.
Like having y'all's knowledge
and presence would be, like,
I have business people around me
and, like, people supporting me,
so it would just feel like
someone's holding my hand, basically.
I'm still a kid, so
[Mary Claire] That's what we're here for.
We can help you. Awesome!
- Sweet.
- Big things ahead this year.
- Let's go.
- I'm more confident now.
[Mary Claire] I love it.
This is awesome.
[Jacobs] If you wanna be active with it
and you wanna find NIL deals,
you have to work for it.
- You have to hustle a little bit.
- Excited to keep up with you this season.
But we can help teach you how to hustle.
The intent for NIL
was the student athletes
to be able to use their name,
image and likeness.
That meant selling a jersey
in a sport shop, being in an ad.
[Dunne] When you're in the gym
every day like me,
you need leggings that can keep up.
[Dellenger] Taking advantage of
their name, image and likeness
That was maybe the start of the story
and the start of NIL,
and it has evolved into boosters
paying athletes
and doing it, some might say,
disguised as-as NIL.
[country western music plays]
I'm a Tiger ♪
And I bleed purple and gold ♪
Just a product of ♪
One of our sponsors, gentlemen.
- Hey, guys.
- Where you wanna be?
- Right in the middle.
- I wanna be by my man.
[man] One, two, three.
[Dellenger] Boosters had pool their money
to distribute to athletes under the guise
that these are NIL deals
where athletes are, you know,
showing up to autograph sessions,
tweeting out something about a business.
You know, they often call it
the real NIL and the fake NIL.
That way they have a vehicle
to pay athletes directly.
[host] All right. Well, ladies,
I know you always get excited
when it's time for players.
Get your pompoms.
[band music plays]
And ladies and gentlemen,
Jake and Meredith Manship
walking with number five, Jayden Daniels!
[cheers and applause]
Welcome, Tigers.
We always have a little competition.
You gotta win over the Belles.
Because what happens at the Belles
- [women] Stays at the Belles.
- [host] Okay.
This is Miss Lori.
So we're going to use her as a prop here.
I want your best pick-up line on asking
Miss Lori to go eat dinner tonight.
What kind of game do you have,
Will Campbell?
- I mean
- [host] Just asking her to dinner.
- It's just dinner.
- I mean, honestly,
I'm not one on the pick-up lines,
because I get kind of cringed out
very easily.
- Okay.
- [laughter]
So if I did want to take
Miss Lori to dinner,
I would probably be like, hey,
Miss Lori, would you be interested
in going to dinner with me?
That's very good.
Will Campbell. Thank you, Will.
[applause]
Jayden, I hate to do this to you,
- but
- [laughter]
Mom's here.
You can play the Mom card and just say,
"Hey, I'd rather not do it,"
I would respect that.
[Regina] We don't lose.
[host] We don't lose.
There'll be no Mom card today.
[laughter, applause]
Fire away, Jayden. This is Miss Lori.
Okay, so how I would do it, first
How you doing, Miss Lori?
You know you beautiful?
[laughter]
You know, you caught my attention
from across the room.
Walk up to you asking, you know,
how you doing today? Everything like that.
What are you doing after this?
You trying to go get something to eat?
And after that, I might even
get some tickets to the LSU game.
[laughter, applause]
[host] Sold out. Jayden Daniels.
Jayden, so I'm gonna say it.
People don't like to talk about it,
but you're absolutely in
the Heisman race, right?
- [cheers and applause]
- You got a lotta votes here.
You've been playing quarterback
all your life.
You grew up dreaming of this moment.
Certainly the team goals
are first and foremost,
but how do you digest,
before you go out there,
that each and every game,
the whole country's watching you?
You know, I know team goals are first,
and then obviously all eyes are on me
for the individual goals.
But I've got a couple
more games left to finish stronger,
you know, hopefully make my case
to win the Heisman.
- [host] Okay. Very nice.
- [applause]
Is there somebody in the audience
that you'd like to recognize?
[laughs] Yeah, shout out to my mom.
Number one fan right there. Love you.
[cheers and applause]
[mom] I've always taught Jayden
what you want in life,
you have to speak it.
So he's like,
"Mom, I wanna play in the NFL."
He's probably said it since he was young.
And I'm always gonna support him.
When we got to LSU in 2022,
they didn't really offer NIL
to anybody on the quarterback side
because they didn't know
who the quarterback was.
When they came to me,
it was after Alabama.
Then we had Powerade,
we had Beats, we had all these
so it was really the pre-season
in 2023 that really
NIL started really coming at him.
But then we started to decline stuff.
[Gordon] Regina,
she's a pro poker player, man.
When I went to meet with them
to re-sign him for his senior year,
she said, "Look, my son's gonna do
some special things this year."
She saw it and I said I understand that,
but I have a budget.
She's a tough negotiator.
So, uh, we weren't able to sign him.
I want my son to be branded
a different way.
He's going to be
the face of somebody's franchise.
He's going to be the face of someone's
agency and things like that.
So, I don't want him to just look like
any old cookie cutter,
you know, copy and paste method.
I feel sorry for the pro team
that drafts him
and they gotta deal with her
on the other side of the table,
because he gonna get paid, let me tell ya.
[whistle blows]
[low background chatter]
[Regina] Jayden has not signed
a car deal,
a trading card deal, a memorabilia deal.
None of that right now.
And I got people like, uh, hello,
look at me, hello, hello.
And nothing.
You can't be wanting
to be the best of yourself
and focus on the money.
Like you can't.
[Daniels] Honestly, I spend
very minimal time doing NIL stuff.
NIL comes, I'm gonna take the deals
I feel can help me and my brand,
but it's just like on the back burner.
- What up?
- Parish Cole.
Mike's out of the box
for triple left right now.
[Daniels] Yeah.
I'm trying to make the long money.
I'm trying to make some millions,
I'm trying to see 30 M's.
Bubba call, Bubba call, Bubba call.
The NIL money cool and everything,
but my focus on the NFL.
Alright, we get one opportunity this
weekend, right?
Let's make sure for the next,
whatever, 28 hours, 26 hours,
you do everything you need to do.
Yes, sir, yes, sir.
Set.
Ready.
- [whistle blows]
- Ready.
Going to Alabama. It's a big time game.
The battle for the SEC West.
If we win that game, you know,
we're in a good place with the division.
Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday.
What you doing, man?
A lot of people talking about the game,
especially how the game ended last year
and how we beat them in overtime.
Obviously, they want revenge back,
you know, be a tough game for us.
Family on two, family on two. One, two.
[man] Oh, what's up, you bastards?
You all ready to get your ass
kicked to T-Town tomorrow,
- 'cause I'm feeling hungry
- [man 2] Uh-oh.
and it's looking like we got
some Alabama on the menu.
What better way to kick off turkey season
than when feasting on the flesh
of a declining empire?
[announcer] Good afternoon.
Happy game day, Tiger fans.
This is Fighting Tiger football.
You're listening to the LSU score
[announcer 2] After taking down
Alabama in overtime last season,
and we've got first place
in the SEC West on the line.
- Hey, girl, hey.
- Hey, how are you?
I'm good, honey.
[announcer] Doesn't it feel like
if there was ever one game,
this is Jayden Daniels'
potential Heisman moment?
[Saban] This is a very challenging guy
because of his athleticism,
his ability to run.
If you don't have great
pass rush lanes,
he's gonna kill you stepping up
and running down the field.
[crowd cheering]
[Kelly] There's been a lotta talking.
This is no longer about speaking words.
This is about actions.
And this is about our actions
as a football team.
This is a game of football
that requires fast actions,
violent actions.
[announcer] Five minutes into the game.
No score with LSU.
On the Alabama side of the 50.
Mason Taylor, the tight end in motion.
Daniels loads
going deep, man out there,
Nabers, he's got it!
Touchdown LSU.
Y'all gonna be the difference.
Everybody hear me?
Fucking fight like you are.
[upbeat band music playing]
[announcer] The first down,
throw at the 23.
And that's Milroe all the way.
Jalen Milroe will walk in.
Touchdown Alabama.
It was our biggest third down
of the first half.
[announcer 2] Daniels
and, whoa, did he get rocked that time.
He's gonna feel that one
all the way to the sidelines.
[Regina] All right. We're down seven.
A minute left.
We gotta get some points right now.
Seven would be nice,
but we gotta get points.
[announcer] But this is by far
the best defense they've faced all year.
And complicated with no timeouts.
Daniels throws
caught, and
touchdown, Fighting Tigers!
With time basically running out
in the half, Jayden Daniels does this.
What a first half.
[announcer] Alabama 21. LSU 21.
[assistant coach]
All right, to start the second half,
It's gonna come down to eyes and leverage.
Period. End of story.
[assistant coach 2] Big time players
make big time plays in big time games.
You already know. It's time
to go get paid. It's all about the money.
Let's go.
Don't play with mine.
Don't play with mine!
You can play with everybody else.
Don't play with mine, though.
[announcer] Hope the second half's
as good as the first one. Here we go.
[announcer 2]
That beleaguered LSU defense
- let's see if they get another stop.
- Second down and five.
Alabama could get a first down
at the six-yard line.
And it's Jalen Milroe. Pump fakes.
Jalen Milroe!
Touchdown Alabama again.
LSU trying to pull back-to-back stunners
over Alabama.
The two-point conversion
that ended this one last year in overtime.
[announcer 2] The only answer for LSU
is put a touchdown on the board
and try to get that one stop
that Brian Kelly was talking about
at the end of the third quarter.
[dramatic music plays]
[hushed notes playing]
Jayden Daniels still face down
on that Dallas Turner hit.
- Boy, I hope Jayden Daniels is okay.
- [announcer 2] That's for sure.
And you wonder if it's gonna
approach targeting here.
[dramatic orchestration]
[rhythmic snap]
[indistinct background chatter]
[rhythmic snap]
[dramatic percussive chords]
[rhythmic snap]
[rhythmic snap]
Oh, hey, how you doing?
Hey, Brian.
[man] The idea's called
March Doesn't Start in March.
We have a bunch of shots,
and they all look amazing so
[intense notes play]
[woman] When we first heard about NIL
- [woman 2] Yeah?
- She was still in high school.
So everybody was trying
to figure it out the first year.
- Yeah, you guys had
- We had time.
- You had time.
- Yeah.
So I was like, girl,
you was born perfectly.
[intense musical buildup]
[crew person] All right, everyone.
Thank you so much.
If you are not needed in this space,
let's have you step out
[intense music plays]
Probably within 30 minutes,
I had like hundreds of texts
from the athletes
"I just got this deal."
"I just got this deal."
What are these people doing, not sleeping?
[man] Right.
[woman] I think it was Google Pixel
was a big thing they were doing.
We had to turn it down,
'cause it was in New York.
It's a lot we had to turn down.
A lot. You would not believe how much.
'Cause that was half a ticket.
[both laughing]
This NIL world is big, huh?
Yeah.
[mellow electronic music plays]
- [woman] Name, image, and likeness.
- [man] Name, image, and likeness.
NIL.
This ruling could, quite literally,
change everything.
Let's go!
[dramatic percussive music plays]
[tiger roar]
[man] College sportsI see it as a story
of this one underdog
that college athlete
against the big,
powerful autocratic institution
that was just sucking up all the money.
The NCAA was reaping the benefit,
and the schools were reaping the benefits
of the billions of dollars
in TV contracts.
And I think someone said, "Enough," right?
This isn't fair.
But the NCAA couldn't figure out
every pebble dropped in the pond
and every ripple it would create.
Now is the Wild, Wild West NIL bubble,
and, uh, it is chaos.
- One, two, three.
- [team] Together we win!
[clapping]
[woman] Let's go, let's go, let's go!
[woman speaking indistinctly]
[moody music plays]
To be a student athlete
and have this level of a following
is a little bit unprecedented.
Like not a lot of people have that.
Can I see how I look before we start?
Yeah.
It's just a little flatyep. That's it.
Good.
Oh, man, I think one of the biggest
misconceptions about gymnastics
is that it's easy.
[punchy music plays]
Oh, that looks easy.
Well, the whole point of gymnastics
is to make it look easy.
If it's not looking easy,
then you're not doing it right.
I started competing
when I was seven years old,
and I loved competing.
- Where's Olivia? Right here.
- Right!
- How old are you?
- I'm nine.
[Dunne] I remember I won every level
for me I competed at.
And I flew through the levels
and became a level eight when I was eight.
A level ten when I was ten years old.
I qualified for Junior Elite
when I was 12 years old,
and I was the youngest in the country.
And then I was picked to be
on the USA National Team when I was 14
at a training camp.
I would post pretty consistently
throughout my Elite career.
I had amassed about 100,000
followers from just gymnastics.
That kinda all blew up
when quarantine came around
and TikTok came about.
And then some of my favorite brands
reach out to me and they were like,
hey, can we send you some free products?
And I couldn't take any because
the NIL rule hadn't changed yet.
There are normal students
that could make money
or accept free product from brands.
But the fact that
me being a student athlete,
I couldn't work
with some of my favorite brands
that were reaching out to me, that sucked.
I remember my freshman year of college.
I remember peoplelike my coaches
and people kind of talking to me
about, hey,
I think that the rule might change
where you can capitalize on your brand
NIL rule might change.
So like, dang, that would be crazy.
I didn't really think anything of it.
July 1st, 2021, the NIL rule changed.
That's the day my life changed.
Today, the Supreme Court
sided with former college athletes
in a dispute with the NCAA
on compensation.
The NCAA has opened up
its rules to allow college athletes
to make money from endorsements
and sponsorships.
[reporter] Some schools, like LSU,
rushed into the NIL possibilities.
[Dunne] As soon as that rule changed,
the NIL department here at LSU
had a billboard of me up in New York City.
That's me!
That is so cool.
[man] She is an influencer
who happens to be a college athlete
and can now cash in.
[announcer] Evil Empire,
laughing all the way to the bank.
[chortling]
My first offer was a six-figure offer.
It's like, steak dinner for everyone.
I was ecstatic.
So many new opportunities
were thrown my way.
Sports Illustrated.
I got Forbes 30 Under 30.
I was in Elle magazine.
I just felt like
this is the beginning to something
I can't even wrap my head around.
[woman] The Livvy brand
it's massive.
I think that
that was a big part of the push.
When we started having conversations
about NIL
prior to the laws passing in '21,
a lot of people were like, no,
we don't wanna touch this
with a 10-foot pole.
And I was like, I will.
[punchy music plays]
Our main goal was
how are we gonna educate the athletes?
And that was my role
was to figure out
how are we going to do this best?
[man] Student athlete branding
is new for everyone else.
This is something that's in LSU's DNA.
It goes back to Pistol Pete
and Shaquille O'Neal.
We want to be on the front lines of this.
We want to be the best at this.
Scott Woodward,
our athletic director, says it best.
I think he's quoting Machiavelli
when he says,
"In chaos, there's opportunity."
Where we are now
we were anticipating
we'd be there in 5 to 10 years,
and it escalated so quickly.
- Is that okay?
- [crewman] Yeah. Yeah.
Have a seat.
Are my feet okay, or do you want me
to be like cross-legged?
[host] Well, hello there and welcome
to another edition of Meet the Press.
Collectively,
schools make billions of dollars,
mostly from football and basketball.
[Worsham] The historic model
for college sports
has been about money-making programs
generating a lot of revenue.
And because of amateurism laws,
the athletes weren't allowed
to see that revenue.
The National Collegiate
Athletic Association
has long defended the idea
of the amateur student athlete.
But that concept
is facing its toughest trial yet.
The case's origins go back to a lawsuit
first brought by former
UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon
after he saw his likeness in a video game.
Don't dunk the ball, son.
[man] Is that you?
[Ed] Left hand. All net. Yes, that is me.
[man laughs]
[man] One of the arguments
that the NCAA uses
is that part of the popularity
around college sports is the amateurism.
That's what separates it
from professional leagues.
Student athletes are students.
They are not employees.
They were trying to distance their system
from a business.
It's a paternalistic system that runs
almost like a plantation mentality.
For almost 100 years,
no one challenged it.
[Todd] But those days are gone,
and players in many sports
can now cash in.
That's the good news.
NIL
is BS.
Don't be a hater.
There's going to be salty people.
NIL is pay-for-play.
Remember, last July we came on
the show saying the NIL starts today.
- Yeah, right?
- Now look at us.
Less than a year later, it's a mess.
Schools are coming in and paying you to
leave your school to come to their school.
- It's the Wild West, baby.
- Trav, that's an understatement.
That's the biggest thing
we're dealing with right now
is we're all operating
under different state laws.
This whole thing's gonna crash and burn
about as fast as one can crash and burn.
[producer] What do you say to folks
that are critical of NIL?
I can't really say what I want to say.
[producer]
You can say whatever you want to say, man.
[laughs] Nah, man, they trippin'.
You spend so much time in college broke.
You know, there's people
that come from nothing,
so they take care of they people
back home.
You have
all this glamor and glitz in facilities.
You have all this money
that coaches are making.
[camera lens snapping]
Is this what we want
college football to become?
Now you've got the Olivia Dunnes
and the Angel Reeses.
They're getting
six and seven-figure deals.
Lotta people think that NIL
has become bigger than the sport.
I think it is destroying
college athletics.
Um, if you don't like me, that's fine.
[Reese] I've always posted
on my social media,
but people think now
it's because of the money.
[man] It changes everything
college football players
playing for the love of the game.
If they're getting paid,
then we're gonna lose some of that.
You don't have to play the money game,
but if you want to capitalize
during your time as a student athlete,
you can do that.
There's us,
and then there's a Charlie Baker segment.
Who's Charlie Baker?
The new president of the NCAA.
- Oh.
- [both laugh]
Right now, there are no rules around
how name, image, and likeness works.
Well, what does that mean?
[Dellenger] The NIL era
has caused what they call chaos
and is gonna lead to
more changes that are even bigger
down the line.
[Clark] I think we're headed towards
revenue sharing.
In ten years, I think it'll be
more along the lines of unionized labor.
You didn't want me to talk about the uh
[Jacobs] I didn't want you
to talk about revenue sharing.
[Clark] Well, it's in the courts.
[Jacobs] That was how I felt.
And then I got a little bit reprimanded.
[Clark] Oh did you?
[Jacobs] Well
[Clark] It's not really a secret anymore.
[Clark] You ready?
Nice and easy. Toes to the bottom.
Down, down, down. Tight.
Breathe.
Hips, and lock it out.
Nice.
I think when NIL first started,
it took Liv a little while
to kind of get a handle on
how to balance the two parts of her life
that were both equally important to her.
[Dunne] What's going on with NIL?
There's no one I could follow
in their footsteps. I was kind of
just winging it,
and it was kind of an unprecedented area.
And it was hard to communicate
sometimes how I felt
with the coaches, of being overwhelmed.
They could definitely see it on my face.
Very nice.
This is my last year of gymnastics ever.
It's time to make
the little girl I was proud.
The expectation is to win
a national championship with my team
because it's never been done
here at LSU before.
[Clark] Good lift.
[Dunne] I think this year
we have what it takes.
[Clark] Hey, um
raise your hand if,
when you go to bed at night,
you feel good about how you took
advantage of today's opportunity.
Okay. All right.
I'm gonna ask you all that every day.
Okay?
'Cause tomorrow remembers today.
All right?
Have a good one. See you tomorrow.
[indistinct chatter]
- On three.
- [all] Together we win!
- Whoo!
- Let's go, team!
[edgy music plays]
[crowd cheers]
[Dellenger] LSU is the only Power Five
athletic department in Louisiana.
It's the flagship.
The purple and gold is everywhere.
At the end of the day,
it's almost always about one thing,
and it's did the Tigers win?
LSU's athletic budget
is $199 million a year,
and that ranked sixth nationally.
And football is the main driver of that.
Ticket sales, TV deals.
And then donations
to the athletic department.
90% of the money is really in football.
If you win championships,
usually that drives the whole economy
of not just an athletic department,
but a university.
And not just university, but a town.
And sometimes not just a town,
but a region or a state
can be driven by football.
And so if it's that important,
then you're going to try to win
as much as you can.
And in order to do that,
it's get the best player.
[mellow electronic music plays]
[Daniels] Quarterback is the most
important position on the field.
You gonna get the hate and the blame,
and you gonna get the praise
and you gonna get the money,
so that's kinda why I took the position.
I'm a West Coast kid, born and raised
in San Bernardino, California.
Went to Arizona State.
[announcer] Little misdirection
across the middle!
Ball tipped and it was intercepted!
[announcer 2] Daniels, denied again.
[Daniels] Sophomore, junior year,
I dealt with things on and off the field.
Just a lot of turmoil due to COVID.
Decided to transfer portal.
Coming here to LSU, they're a powerhouse.
You're playing against the Alabamas,
the Georgias,
playing on the biggest stage every week.
What's up?
[announcer continues indistinctly
under crowd noise]
[announcer 2] I'm screaming up here
[man] I knew about his ability
right outta high school.
Saw a freshman at Arizona State
who was dynamic
and then didn't have the kind of
sophomore season
that gave him the national notoriety
that he could have.
So I saw an undervalued player.
[Daniels] Georgia hot, Georgia hot,
Georgia hot.
Yo, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.
I know what Coach Kelly done.
He done that at a high level
for many years.
Ready. Set go.
[man] Ready, set. Everybody set.
[Daniels] I didn't know what was
gonna happen
with the quarterback situation.
Was I gonna play, was I not?
But I bet on myself, obviously.
You know, I been doing it my whole life.
[Kelly] As I told him, I said, look,
I'm coming down to take this job over.
You've got as good of an opportunity
to be the starter here as anybody.
[Daniels] When I came out here,
I was like I wanna go to the SEC.
I want to play the best competition
in the best conference.
But I didn't know what it was
until I actually stepped foot
in here for a game.
This is Death Valley,
where opponents' dreams come to die.
Right now, I have a buncha memories
running through my head.
Like the last year versus Alabama.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] It's been a slugfest,
a top ten showdown.
We've got five lead changes
in the second half.
[announcer 2] Daniels in the shotgun,
along with Emery.
Here's the snap.
My love of the game comes
from when we were younger.
When you're young and you just
having fun, running around
just doing what you do.
[announcer] Daniels looking left,
tosses it towards the end zone.
Grabbing it!
And if you good, you good.
If you not, you not.
[announcer] Mason Taylor! Oh!
[announcer 2] There's bedlam
in Baton Rouge as Daniels answers.
What a fourth quarter. Incredible.
You gotta have fun playing football.
[announcer] It looks like LSU's
gonna head to overtime.
Buckle up.
Our team was tied directly to Daniels
in '22.
The Alabama game he was locked in.
Every time they did something
with their star quarterback
Daniels responded.
[anouncer] So now LSU on offense.
First down and 10 at the 25.
Daniels gonna keep,
trying to get to the edge.
Gets by one defender,
cuts inside a blocker at the 20.
Got another block at the 15.
10, 5! Touchdown, Fighting Tigers!
Jayden Daniels, 25-yard run.
One play and a score.
And it's 31-30. Down a point to Alabama.
[Kelly] When you score on the first play,
there's so much momentum
that you don't want to lose it.
[announcer] Don't be surprised
if Brian Kelly goes for two here.
Give Jayden Daniels
one more chance to win the game?
That was a pretty easy decision.
[announcer] They'll go for a 2-point,
try to win this football game.
Comes down to one play here in overtime.
31-30. Alabama leads.
Daniels, for the win!
That corner of the end zone.
[announcer] Caught!
It's good!
LSU does it!
Brian Kelly shows the trust
that he has in his quarterback,
and it pays off.
A night they'll never forget
in Baton Rouge.
[man] I've been to a lot of
college football games.
That one was special.
It's Alabama, for God's sakes, right?
I'm sitting in the stands.
Grab my phone and I text Brian.
You've got really big
and I don't say it.
I'm not gonna say it on camera.
I said, "Man, you got big blanks."
And, um
and then second text
is to my marketing director and said,
"I want Jayden Daniels signed Monday."
And when I met with him I said,
"Well, Jayden, let's talk about
all your other deals."
"What other deals?
I don't really have any other deals."
I'm like,
"You're the star quarterback at LSU.
You gotta have some deals."
"No, I really don't for now."
I said, "We're gonna change that."
Keep going ♪
And get it done ♪
Keep going ♪
And get it done! ♪
[McKernan] We filmed a little commercial
out in the parking lot
to recreate the play
the roll out and the catch.
Um, I think people enjoyed that.
He was great.
Think it was only a two-month deal.
I think it was 50,000.
A couple posts,
do the commercial and remember,
we get to use his name,
image, and likeness, right,
on a billboard.
So that has really good value, right?
Car wrecks, done! ♪
Personal injury, done! ♪
Workers' comp, done! ♪
Truck wrecks, done! ♪
Make the right call.
[all] Get Gordon. Get it done!
[McKernan] Maybe what I do
is not well respected at all times.
Some people say lawyers
are just above a car salesman,
a used car salesman, right?
And then a plaintiff lawyer
would be a step down from a lawyer.
And then there's the worst of all,
the advertising plaintiff lawyer.
And that's where I come in.
[energetic music plays]
Having a fancy car and all that
Does that work in well?
Oh, yeah, that's perfect.
That's exactlywe want the
We want the booster fat cat guy.
Yeah.
I put my toe in the NIL pool
just out of curiosity. That's it.
You know, I'm always about trying
a new thing, a new angle,
creating a little buzz, being contrarian.
What NIL added, for me, at least
I would call it goodwill marketing.
I never imagined
it would go as quickly as it has
to where it is right now.
I thought it would be
a much slower process.
But they're-they're very aggressive
schools out there
and figuring out how to get around
what the NCAA had put out there,
so I think that accelerated everything.
With these athletes and getting
to understand what they go through
they're in a pressure cooker.
Largely, a lot of it's due to NIL.
Literally right now it's just tossing
bags of money out of the airplane
to land on different athletes.
Now you have young kids
and oftentimes families
who've never had a dime
trying to just get through
the fog of confusion that exists.
What's gonna happen? What can you do?
What can you not do?
And all of a sudden
there's a lot of pressure on them.
[moody music plays]
[running footsteps]
[sighs] Oh.
- Hey, Coach.
- You better make me famous.
- That's all I'm saying.
- I got you being Hollywood, huh?
[both laughing]
Let's go.
[Armstrong]
The secret to hurdling, honestly,
is being confident and being aggressive.
My first race ever in the hurdles,
it just felt natural.
It felt like God was like,
this is your destiny.
This is what I'm placing you on Earth for.
I've broken a lot of records.
[start gun pops]
[announcer] Mota, Hollis, Taylor,
Stark, Armstrong,
Phillips, Freeman and Marsh!
[Armstrong] I've broken the school record,
the SEC record.
Oh, my god. Oh, my god.
I really want the world record.
[percussive music plays]
Push to the first hurdle. Drive down.
You got it.
Come right off the hurdle.
Thank you.
[man] I have zero patience for somebody
that the other 20 hours of the day
is not doing what they need to be doing.
And guess what.
I always find out.
I always know, okay?
Ain't no secrets in our world.
So I expect everybody
to be doing all the things they can do
from now until our entire season's over.
And hopefully for some of you,
until the Olympic Games are over.
Okay?
It's a long time.
So you gotta take care of
business every single day.
[woman] Alia, you making all this NIL
money, give me a loan.
I ain't got nothing myself.
[woman] Making more money than
the pros out here.
Oh, that'syeah, that's not the truth.
I promise. [laughs]
When NIL came about,
I had no idea what to do.
I just think that I was
kind of under-looked.
And so I just really wanted to understand
why wasn't getting these big name brands.
And I was struggling at the time.
- [woman] Hello. What's going on?
- [Armstrong] Hey guys.
Nothin' much. How y'all been?
- Good.
- Good.
Okay, so I know you specifically asked.
Trying to organize
your deliverables is a lot,
especially with y'all season
about to get underway.
So Katie and I both have
just a few tips there
that we try and follow that
we think can be helpful for you.
And then we'll talk about
maybe some potential new targets
for businesses.
[Armstrong] I reached out to Taylor
and Mary Claire and I said,
"I'm too big of an athlete
and too big of a name at LSU
to not be making money."
And once they understood
my financial circumstances,
they wanted to help me a lot.
Hey, that's what we're here for.
We can help you with that.
You know, you're a student athlete,
but now you're your own businesswoman.
Um, but it is a learning curve.
When everyone started talking about NIL
three years ago,
everyone automatically
went to that 1% of top earners.
And student athletes will sign
these national campaigns,
and this is what it'll be, and that's it.
When the reality is
98, 99% of our student athlete population
doesn't have that same platform.
Therefore, getting NIL deals
is a little bit more difficult.
They are reaching out to brands.
Alia Armstrong is a great example.
Alia is like top four track
female student athletes in the world.
I'm-I'm hoping
I see her run at the Paris Olympics.
She came and sat down with my staff
and basically said,
I need help getting NIL deals.
And I'm sitting here going,
she's incredible.
Really trying to be intentional
with the businesses
that you're partnering with
so you don't stretch yourself too thin,
because you are
I imagine your practice schedule
is about to be crazy,
and you're gonna be
traveling for tournaments and stuff.
- And Olympic trials too.
- Olympic trials, not to mention.
- I'm all over the place. I'm trying.
- We've got you.
Mentally, it's been super hard.
I can't lie.
I feel like track and school
is already one job.
So adding on another job is crazy.
I don't know what to do with that.
And so it's almost like
an additional school
instead of, like, oh yeah, it's just NIL.
It's not anything crazy.
Like, no, it's hard.
I feel like what would help me
stay on top of my stuff
is like having a schedule
regularly meeting with y'all.
Yeah. I like that idea.
Like having y'all's knowledge
and presence would be, like,
I have business people around me
and, like, people supporting me,
so it would just feel like
someone's holding my hand, basically.
I'm still a kid, so
[Mary Claire] That's what we're here for.
We can help you. Awesome!
- Sweet.
- Big things ahead this year.
- Let's go.
- I'm more confident now.
[Mary Claire] I love it.
This is awesome.
[Jacobs] If you wanna be active with it
and you wanna find NIL deals,
you have to work for it.
- You have to hustle a little bit.
- Excited to keep up with you this season.
But we can help teach you how to hustle.
The intent for NIL
was the student athletes
to be able to use their name,
image and likeness.
That meant selling a jersey
in a sport shop, being in an ad.
[Dunne] When you're in the gym
every day like me,
you need leggings that can keep up.
[Dellenger] Taking advantage of
their name, image and likeness
That was maybe the start of the story
and the start of NIL,
and it has evolved into boosters
paying athletes
and doing it, some might say,
disguised as-as NIL.
[country western music plays]
I'm a Tiger ♪
And I bleed purple and gold ♪
Just a product of ♪
One of our sponsors, gentlemen.
- Hey, guys.
- Where you wanna be?
- Right in the middle.
- I wanna be by my man.
[man] One, two, three.
[Dellenger] Boosters had pool their money
to distribute to athletes under the guise
that these are NIL deals
where athletes are, you know,
showing up to autograph sessions,
tweeting out something about a business.
You know, they often call it
the real NIL and the fake NIL.
That way they have a vehicle
to pay athletes directly.
[host] All right. Well, ladies,
I know you always get excited
when it's time for players.
Get your pompoms.
[band music plays]
And ladies and gentlemen,
Jake and Meredith Manship
walking with number five, Jayden Daniels!
[cheers and applause]
Welcome, Tigers.
We always have a little competition.
You gotta win over the Belles.
Because what happens at the Belles
- [women] Stays at the Belles.
- [host] Okay.
This is Miss Lori.
So we're going to use her as a prop here.
I want your best pick-up line on asking
Miss Lori to go eat dinner tonight.
What kind of game do you have,
Will Campbell?
- I mean
- [host] Just asking her to dinner.
- It's just dinner.
- I mean, honestly,
I'm not one on the pick-up lines,
because I get kind of cringed out
very easily.
- Okay.
- [laughter]
So if I did want to take
Miss Lori to dinner,
I would probably be like, hey,
Miss Lori, would you be interested
in going to dinner with me?
That's very good.
Will Campbell. Thank you, Will.
[applause]
Jayden, I hate to do this to you,
- but
- [laughter]
Mom's here.
You can play the Mom card and just say,
"Hey, I'd rather not do it,"
I would respect that.
[Regina] We don't lose.
[host] We don't lose.
There'll be no Mom card today.
[laughter, applause]
Fire away, Jayden. This is Miss Lori.
Okay, so how I would do it, first
How you doing, Miss Lori?
You know you beautiful?
[laughter]
You know, you caught my attention
from across the room.
Walk up to you asking, you know,
how you doing today? Everything like that.
What are you doing after this?
You trying to go get something to eat?
And after that, I might even
get some tickets to the LSU game.
[laughter, applause]
[host] Sold out. Jayden Daniels.
Jayden, so I'm gonna say it.
People don't like to talk about it,
but you're absolutely in
the Heisman race, right?
- [cheers and applause]
- You got a lotta votes here.
You've been playing quarterback
all your life.
You grew up dreaming of this moment.
Certainly the team goals
are first and foremost,
but how do you digest,
before you go out there,
that each and every game,
the whole country's watching you?
You know, I know team goals are first,
and then obviously all eyes are on me
for the individual goals.
But I've got a couple
more games left to finish stronger,
you know, hopefully make my case
to win the Heisman.
- [host] Okay. Very nice.
- [applause]
Is there somebody in the audience
that you'd like to recognize?
[laughs] Yeah, shout out to my mom.
Number one fan right there. Love you.
[cheers and applause]
[mom] I've always taught Jayden
what you want in life,
you have to speak it.
So he's like,
"Mom, I wanna play in the NFL."
He's probably said it since he was young.
And I'm always gonna support him.
When we got to LSU in 2022,
they didn't really offer NIL
to anybody on the quarterback side
because they didn't know
who the quarterback was.
When they came to me,
it was after Alabama.
Then we had Powerade,
we had Beats, we had all these
so it was really the pre-season
in 2023 that really
NIL started really coming at him.
But then we started to decline stuff.
[Gordon] Regina,
she's a pro poker player, man.
When I went to meet with them
to re-sign him for his senior year,
she said, "Look, my son's gonna do
some special things this year."
She saw it and I said I understand that,
but I have a budget.
She's a tough negotiator.
So, uh, we weren't able to sign him.
I want my son to be branded
a different way.
He's going to be
the face of somebody's franchise.
He's going to be the face of someone's
agency and things like that.
So, I don't want him to just look like
any old cookie cutter,
you know, copy and paste method.
I feel sorry for the pro team
that drafts him
and they gotta deal with her
on the other side of the table,
because he gonna get paid, let me tell ya.
[whistle blows]
[low background chatter]
[Regina] Jayden has not signed
a car deal,
a trading card deal, a memorabilia deal.
None of that right now.
And I got people like, uh, hello,
look at me, hello, hello.
And nothing.
You can't be wanting
to be the best of yourself
and focus on the money.
Like you can't.
[Daniels] Honestly, I spend
very minimal time doing NIL stuff.
NIL comes, I'm gonna take the deals
I feel can help me and my brand,
but it's just like on the back burner.
- What up?
- Parish Cole.
Mike's out of the box
for triple left right now.
[Daniels] Yeah.
I'm trying to make the long money.
I'm trying to make some millions,
I'm trying to see 30 M's.
Bubba call, Bubba call, Bubba call.
The NIL money cool and everything,
but my focus on the NFL.
Alright, we get one opportunity this
weekend, right?
Let's make sure for the next,
whatever, 28 hours, 26 hours,
you do everything you need to do.
Yes, sir, yes, sir.
Set.
Ready.
- [whistle blows]
- Ready.
Going to Alabama. It's a big time game.
The battle for the SEC West.
If we win that game, you know,
we're in a good place with the division.
Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday.
What you doing, man?
A lot of people talking about the game,
especially how the game ended last year
and how we beat them in overtime.
Obviously, they want revenge back,
you know, be a tough game for us.
Family on two, family on two. One, two.
[man] Oh, what's up, you bastards?
You all ready to get your ass
kicked to T-Town tomorrow,
- 'cause I'm feeling hungry
- [man 2] Uh-oh.
and it's looking like we got
some Alabama on the menu.
What better way to kick off turkey season
than when feasting on the flesh
of a declining empire?
[announcer] Good afternoon.
Happy game day, Tiger fans.
This is Fighting Tiger football.
You're listening to the LSU score
[announcer 2] After taking down
Alabama in overtime last season,
and we've got first place
in the SEC West on the line.
- Hey, girl, hey.
- Hey, how are you?
I'm good, honey.
[announcer] Doesn't it feel like
if there was ever one game,
this is Jayden Daniels'
potential Heisman moment?
[Saban] This is a very challenging guy
because of his athleticism,
his ability to run.
If you don't have great
pass rush lanes,
he's gonna kill you stepping up
and running down the field.
[crowd cheering]
[Kelly] There's been a lotta talking.
This is no longer about speaking words.
This is about actions.
And this is about our actions
as a football team.
This is a game of football
that requires fast actions,
violent actions.
[announcer] Five minutes into the game.
No score with LSU.
On the Alabama side of the 50.
Mason Taylor, the tight end in motion.
Daniels loads
going deep, man out there,
Nabers, he's got it!
Touchdown LSU.
Y'all gonna be the difference.
Everybody hear me?
Fucking fight like you are.
[upbeat band music playing]
[announcer] The first down,
throw at the 23.
And that's Milroe all the way.
Jalen Milroe will walk in.
Touchdown Alabama.
It was our biggest third down
of the first half.
[announcer 2] Daniels
and, whoa, did he get rocked that time.
He's gonna feel that one
all the way to the sidelines.
[Regina] All right. We're down seven.
A minute left.
We gotta get some points right now.
Seven would be nice,
but we gotta get points.
[announcer] But this is by far
the best defense they've faced all year.
And complicated with no timeouts.
Daniels throws
caught, and
touchdown, Fighting Tigers!
With time basically running out
in the half, Jayden Daniels does this.
What a first half.
[announcer] Alabama 21. LSU 21.
[assistant coach]
All right, to start the second half,
It's gonna come down to eyes and leverage.
Period. End of story.
[assistant coach 2] Big time players
make big time plays in big time games.
You already know. It's time
to go get paid. It's all about the money.
Let's go.
Don't play with mine.
Don't play with mine!
You can play with everybody else.
Don't play with mine, though.
[announcer] Hope the second half's
as good as the first one. Here we go.
[announcer 2]
That beleaguered LSU defense
- let's see if they get another stop.
- Second down and five.
Alabama could get a first down
at the six-yard line.
And it's Jalen Milroe. Pump fakes.
Jalen Milroe!
Touchdown Alabama again.
LSU trying to pull back-to-back stunners
over Alabama.
The two-point conversion
that ended this one last year in overtime.
[announcer 2] The only answer for LSU
is put a touchdown on the board
and try to get that one stop
that Brian Kelly was talking about
at the end of the third quarter.
[dramatic music plays]
[hushed notes playing]
Jayden Daniels still face down
on that Dallas Turner hit.
- Boy, I hope Jayden Daniels is okay.
- [announcer 2] That's for sure.
And you wonder if it's gonna
approach targeting here.
[dramatic orchestration]