When I was younger, our family took trips up to Helen, Georgia. I can remember a few things, being the foodie that I am…an Irish novelty shop that sold Alanna’s Steak Sauce (this was prior to me understanding a proper steak doesn’t require “sauce”…sue me, I was young) and a little country store on the north end of town that sold Necco Wafers.
Not sure if you’ve ever had one, but let me let you in on the experience. Imagine you took a Rolaids, flattened it, dusted it with school-grade chalkboard residue, crushed mint and cloves into it, and then packaged about fifty of the things inside of a wax paper wrapping. Although it looks like a rainbow of flavors, it tastes like you ate a handful of blandness that was invented before some brave adventurer had discovered the concept of taste. These may have been palatable prior to the development of the fifth taste of “sweet” was added to the human race’s tongue.
It was an empty experience, in other words.
Speaking of empty experiences, Mr. Nico is finding that the grass is not only not greener, but might be the chalky, bland experience you get from a “wintergreen” Necco wafer.
So, if I’m following the order of events correctly, Iamalavea participated in 14 spring practices, opted out the Friday before the spring game, the team cut ties with him on said Friday, and it gave everyone the weekend to process what just happened plus another three days until the Spring Portal opened today.
What Nico didn’t take into consideration is the broad and insane footprint that Vol Nation leaves on Twix and other socials, and the resounding resentment has been “don’t let door hit you on your way out”, to sum. Initial suitors for Nico’s services were reported to be UNC, UCLA, and Tulane (!), but both UNC and Tulane have since reported that they don’t have the desire to pay that much scratch for a one-and-done guy.
Then there’s the optics…first, a guy who will bail on a team at the worst possible time, his performance in the CFP versus a quality defense left much to be desired and wondering about the team’s commitment to support someone of Nico’s mindset, and then the added bonus that the driver of this nonsense is Nico’s dad. Apparently, he’s gone full Amazon Prime mode and is looking for someone to be the one year cash cow for his son and gives all the vibes of that one dad at the baseball games that is talking about his 12 year old getting looks from pro and college scouts when the kid is hitting below the Mendoza line but is decked out in five figure outfits and equipment.
Now, we have what is running the opposite of the Portal/NIL era…instead of positioning oneself into a space to command more money, an athlete has essentially rendered himself unmarketable. This is perhaps the first major example that will no doubt become another talking point among the thousands already leveraged that the NIL era has gotten out of hand. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a fresh lawsuit come out, Iamalavea vs. Bobby Hill, where a family or an athlete sues an organization of lost perceived compensation potential because, to make things worse for Tennessee, they fired the cannon shot (thank you, Cackalacky) in this scenario of severing ties with an employee (let’s face it, that’s what football players have become) when the Iamalavea camp could posture that they were negotiating and Tennessee broke the contract without cause or affording the group to counter or contractually negotiate.
Who knows, but I’m sure there’s someone out there that will make some money off of this, though I am thinking it’s more unlikely it’ll happen on a playing field, but in the courts, instead.
I never thought there’d be a day where Jimmy Sexton’s antics in negotiating for coaches would look tame and responsible in comparison, but when you haven’t heard his name in a while, you know we’ve entered the wild wild west of compensation.
I’m sure someone will pick the kid up. After all, some coach somewhere just came out of spring practice thinking “we’re royally f*cked” and will throw a hail mary to do anything to right the ship. Come to think of it, Colorado has yet to hold its spring session, so I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a Coach Amazon Prime delivery of the former Volunteer quarterback land rightly in Boulder, Colorado.
If he’s lucky, they’ll be retiring #8 at Folsom Field in 2026. If he’s not, he’ll be tossing the pigskin in Lafayette for a vastly reduced fee.
Either way, if this is the domino that starts to fall that kills or reins in NIL, I’m all for it.
Next stop…Slippery Rock…😂
Hugh Freeze on line 1
One of the most disgusting candies ever created …
On the topic at hand, Nico and his father tried a major bluff and got called. Now they are likely going to take a MAJOR cut as a result.
Josh Pate’s take on this is really interesting. He says there are no winners in this but hopes this is the tipping point to get reasonable rules back into college sports.
First produced in 1847, Necco Wafers became the namesake and core product of the now-defunct New England Confectionery Company, which operated near Boston, Massachusetts. Early flavors included rutabaga, parsnip, birch bark and celery.
(That first sentence is factual. The second sentence may not be.)
Sounds like them damn yankees deserved to go out of business – pralines FTW!
I don’t know the kid at all, and I don’t care for the Butt chuggers, but I do somewhat feel sorry for these kids with the overbearing parent. Shades of Todd Marinovich.
Betty’s Country Store. They had a window with a beehive built into it.
YES. Very unique store from what I remember
Are they still around? I did a one-month Outward Bound type program in the mountains in 1976 and remember stopping at Betty’s after coming out of the mountains. Those cold Cokes never tasted better.
Growing up, Necco was my mother’s favorite candy. I never really understood why, although I’ll admit the licorice ones were at least tolerable.
As for Nico, I’m amazed that these parent’s think they can continuously extort the coaches for more money. I’m sympathetic to those who want to get paid. The system now supports that and the athletes deserve to earn money for their efforts. But there is no sense of commitment to any agreements. Maybe these are all handshake deals, but I doubt it. There have to be some kind of legal documents involved that detail the amount of money and period of time involved. If so, how can they expect to get away with breaking the agreements? If not, that oversight is on the lawyers.
Welp, Northern Carolina bailed on him but it was hilarious (with a capital sad) to listen to the local sports radio gas bags rave about how Belercheck (and his attractive granddaughter) was making the Tar Heels “relevant” by being in the running for Nico.
Is this what is called a “Market Correction”?
Exactly…the nerds in the marketing dept are trying to focus group newly churched up versions of “Paradigm Shift “…but if you listen intently you can hear RR from the grave faintly saying, “just a run of the mill cluster goat fuck…FTMF”
I hope he is the final straw that fixes the retardation that has been the evolution of the whole NIL thing. I’m all for the kids being able to make a little dough in addition to the free education/athletic training/professional meal planning/room and board/etc. but it has completely swung into nonsense and the pendulum will come back. It will all come crashing down in one way or another.
Dad went all in holding a pair of 5’s against a royal flush. One of the Vol insiders said the dad wanted the Vols to change their offense to better showcase Nico’s talent to enhance his future draft stock. Apparently, that was the deal breaker.
He might want to find a triple option offense cause he couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn if he had to. At least on any deep balls he was horrible. Like Milroe but with a whole lot less upside.
The Iamagoner camp obviously lacks any self-awareness but that’s what’s struck me every time I’ve seen the kid play. He’s just not good. I was really hoping the toofs would work out something with him because it would have increased our odds of beating them yet again.
Over/Under Toothnation ends up being the proximal case for collusion when Nico is throwing Hail Marys as his college playing career and pro prospects start circling the drain, lol
Interesting that you invoked the name of Jimmy Sexton, the patron saint of outrageous contracts. My prediciton is that the NCAA will choose the form if its destroyer and invite the agents in to “tame” the wild wild west that is helicopter parent/uncle/pastor/youth coach negotiators. Jimmy needs another yacht, and I wager he’s ramping up a whole floor of slick pros to rep these kids starting in 5th grade.
Advice to Nico & dad; sit out the season in preparation for the ‘26 draft. Hey, it worked for Jamie Newman.
Well, maybe that’s not the best example.
Y’all are particularly funny today on this one.
Hopefully nobody pays his sorry ass
I believe this is more a feature than a bug. Rashada comes to mind as the first drama filled NIL deal that wasn’t. I am sure Nico isn’t the first holdout —- just the first high profile QB.
Necco Wafers are delicious.
Except the brown, “chocolate” ones. Those are awful.