A sports story I haven’t been able to take my eyes off is the recently resolved Shemar Stewart contract drama. Shemar Stewart is the Cincinnati Bengals First round pick out of Texas A&M and until this week he had not signed with the team. Throughout the history of the NFL, it had been a foregone conclusion that first round picks would sign with the team that drafted them. Mainly because failing to do so would mean forgoing millions of dollars in return for nothing. But with the rising tide of NIL that is seeing college athletes make money that mirrors NFL contracts, college athletes hold newfound bargaining power when it comes to making a decision on the NFL. And with this newfound bargaining power, Shemar Stewart nearly broke the system.

What’s This All About?

An interesting wrinkle in this dispute was that the drama was not over Stewart’s actual salary, but instead about an obscure clause buried deep in the contract. The clause made it so if Stewart were to get in trouble off the field his contract would be voided, and he would be owed no money. On the surface that doesn’t raise any eyebrows, except for the fact that the Bengal’s had never included it in any of their rookie contracts up until this point. And that is what the main issue boils down to. Stewart simply was asking for a little give and take. If the Bengals wanted to make Stewart their guinea pig for this new clause he wanted something in return. But since the Bengal’s front office is seemingly being run by the cast of Impractical Jokers where the challenge is to piss off as many of their star players as possible, they decided to dig in and offer zero concessions. This hardline approach led to a prolonged holdout and the NFL media spinning itself into a frenzy about possible outcomes. But in the end this saga came to it’s likely conclusion with Stewart signing on the dotted line for an increased signing bonus.

What Could Have Happened?

One possible outcome that caught my attention was the reports of the possibility of Stewart going back to college. Stewart then poured fuel on the fire by participating in some off season work outs with Texas A&M. This led me to wonder, “Is this even possible?” The short answer to that question is no, but the longer more interesting one is maybe.

Currently there is a NCAA rule in place that prevents players from returning to their college team for the upcoming season after being drafted. However, the rise of NIL deals has greatly incentivized some players to challenge longstanding NCAA rules like those regarding how long a player can stay in college. Which has led to players using the courts to try to overturn NCAA rules regarding eligibility. Many of these players have successfully petitioned the courts and been granted additional years of eligibility despite NCAA rules prohibiting it. Also, in baseball players are allowed to be drafted but then decide to return to the college level and play the next season so it is not like this is unheard of.

If Stewart had decided to go down this road the fallout could have resulted in a monumental swing of bargaining power away from teams and into the hands of players. A world where first round draft picks have the power to return to college if they do not come to an agreement with the team that drafted them is a world that NFL front offices do not want to live in. Although it did not come that far this time you can be assured NFL front offices are going to be losing sleep at the thought of this. And with the NFL no longer being the only piggy bank in the world of football, it is only a matter of time before this battle plays out in the courts.