Deion Sanders is a brilliant marketer. I suspect that he has extraordinary intelligence when it comes to street smarts or emotional intelligence or whatever name you want to put on interacting with people effectively.
Deion’s comments on NIL are consistent with the advice from myself. My latest advice - listen to Prime Time.
Jackson State coach Deion Sanders has reservations about college football's game-changing name, image and likeness policy, which allows players to monetize their brand for the first time. Sanders could've written his financial ticket had the NIL era had existed during his playing days at Florida State as one of college football's flashiest, most high-profile standouts.
But players are getting a lot of information at once, he says, and need to educate themselves on sponsorships and tax payments, all while putting football first.
"College athletes in ALL THY GETTING PLEASE GET SOME UNDERSTANDING! Don’t allow this NIL stuff to mess up your future," Sanders wrote Friday on Twitter. "Get a lawyer, take Marketing & Advertising classes for knowledge. You will also meet Uncle Sam for the 1st time. Take care of him! Your game comes before “NIL”."
NIL is a novelty at this point. However, it will begin to take shape over time, and its course will be affected by regulation from somewhere. There will be big money for a few, decent money for some, and almost nothing for most.
For athletes the key is to think long-term. And this is what Deion is saying.
