By Micheal Germanese
Its easy to sit on the sideline and second guess but would it have been a perfect fit for Nico Iamaleava to choose Colorado instead of UCLA. Why? Because of Deion Sanders. Iamaleava is one of the best college players in the country at the most important position on the field quarterback. But instead of making headlines on the field, he’s making them off for all the wrong reasons.
After a very unceremonious public departure from Tennessee Iamaleava is now headed to UCLA to continue his college career. With all the negative publicity surrounding Iamaleava, he will become a target of fans and media rooting for him to fail.
Iamaleava is becoming the poster child of everything wrong with college football and will now face added pressure to live up to the hype he created.
Entering the transfer portal allowed Iamaleava to pick a coach, not only for on-the-field growth but off-the-field as well. The most challenging thing Iamaleava will face is the mental hurdles thrown at him. Sanders would have been a match made in heaven to help him get through it all. Iamaleva doesn’t just need a coach—he needs a mentor who can guide him through the obstacles he’s about to face.
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Increased Scrutiny
The scrutiny Iamaleava is about to face on and off the field is something he has never dealt with. Sanders has been dealing with scrutiny his entire professional career from his playing days at Florida State to coaching at Colorado and everywhere in between. Sanders has shown the ability to deal with the scrutiny and move past it. That ability should have made Sanders Iamaleava’s the choice to play for.
Iamaleava’s play on the field speaks for itself and It’s not a question if he’s a talented QB. He could have found success on the field almost anywhere. The question is can he live up to the $4-million-dollar NIL deal he was reportedly holding out for. Iamaleava needs to find success while dealing with the pressure of having a large majority of people rooting against him. The question is is can he at UCLA? An answer we will find out soon.
Moving forward, every mistake Iamaleava makes will be amplified. Every decision seconded guessed and every loss cheered. It’s one thing to deal with the pressure on the field it’s another to deal with the pressure off it. The situation Iamaleava finds himself in sounds very similar to what Sanders has been dealing with since getting to Colorado. Society loves to build people up just to pull them down. Something Sanders has become accustomed to and what Iamaleava is about to experience.
When it comes to Iamaleava and how he got here there are a few things that can be pointed out. First, sitting out wasn’t the best way to try and increase an NIL deal and was going to make him an easy target, deserved or not. Second, he did nothing wrong in sitting out to get what he believed he was worth. And third, there is no reason why he should be tagged for everything wrong in college football because of the decision he made. The truth is Iamaleava was able to do what he did because college football refused to do anything about NIL and the rules around it.
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Built on Greed
Iamaleava’s decision to sit out and hold Tennessee “hostage” has become a debate across the college community with players, coaches, fans and media alike all chiming in on the matter. Tennessee has been praised for its decision to move on while Iamaleava has been criticized for wanting more. The truth is Tennessee like every other school that refused to play within the rules—and there are NIL rules—are the ones who deserve the criticism. Iamaleava has become nothing more than a scapegoat for a sport built on greed.
Iamaleava is now the face of greed that teams deal with when acquiring and retaining players in the NIL world. Making the situation ironic is that the greed of a player won’t be tolerated but the greed of the sport will. NIL is nothing more than schools using money from donors and fans to pay the players, so they don’t have to. If universities wanted NIL rules and guidelines they would be in place already. There is no reason beside greed why some of the greatest institutions in the world, with some of the greatest minds, couldn’t figure out how to fix NIL yet. The only answer is they don’t. Why would they when the fans and donors will still pay a major portion of an athlete’s salary?
But now Iamaleava is the face of a problem he didn’t create and must find a way to get through it all. And Sanders could have been a massive resource to help him through it all. Having gone through practically everything with the media Sanders could have played a major role in helping guide Iamaleava through everything that’s about to take place. They say you don’t know what someone goes through until you walk a day in their shoes. Sanders is the only coach with an idea of the shoes Iamaleava is about to walk in.
Sanders knows what it’s like to be considered one of the top players in the sport. He knows how it feels to be pulled in a million different directions by people who want something from you. He also knows what it’s like to have people rooting for you to fail. It’s the mental part Sanders could have played a big part in helping Iamaleava through. People forget these college athletes are still young adults learning just what life is.
It doesn’t take much for something like this to overwhelm a person and affect their play on the field. Sanders just guided his son Shedeur Sanders through it and could have easily done the same for Iamaleava. Society loves to build someone up and then rip them down and that’s about to happen to Iamaleava.
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Iamaleava is not innocent by any means and deserves some of the criticism he faces, but it’s the universities themselves who deserve the brunt of the criticism.
They could have abided by the NIL rules already set in place and this situation never would have played out like this. The problem is with millions of dollars at risk and a win-at-all-cost mentality let college football turn into the Wild West. And instead of the universities taking the blame they’re pointing it toward a player who only did what he did because their rules allowed it.
