The NIL Expert - Eddie Edwards Breaks it Down

And now, it's the Better with Bourbon Podcast, with Brad Martino and Deacon Palmer, Fast Thinking, and Smooth Drinking.

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Senior year, English.

It's the only class in high school that Jamie and I and our other best buddy, JD had together.

I do not think that's an accident. That was the only one.

The teacher was a guy named Mr. Markowitz. Mr. Markowitz was a great teacher. He would go back and forth with us.

He would play with us, but we would get Ram Bunches in his classroom because I think he liked the banter.

JD and I were relatively good students and we would carry Jamie along with us.

One day, we're really getting in. We're having a really good time.

I don't know what we were talking about, but we're really giving it to him. Everybody in the class is laughing.

Of course, I had to sit. I was assigned seats. I was in the back, Jamie's over here. JD's over here.

We're as far away from each other as we possibly could be in the classroom so we can't conspire to do anything bad.

He's like, okay, a people enough. We've been going on long enough.

The three of you need to shut up because we have to work now. He turns around and he walks back to the podium and he says, okay, open the page.

I don't know what I wanted to say, but I raised my hand as soon as he's turned around. He turns back around. He looks at me.

Is this your main and with no hesitation, I go, Mr. Markowitz, I'm Deacon.

And everybody erupts, Jamie and JD are laughing. He's like, oh, you guys are beer and hot dogs.

You're everything that's wrong with this country. And I shouldn't give it to him like that because he's one of the best teachers we ever had.

But is this your main? Is this your main? Mr. Markowitz, I'm Deacon.

This is what we're dealing with.

Okay, well, here we are. Better with Bourbon podcast. Episode three.

We are back.

This is February 2nd, 2026.

Oh, February 3rd. Thank you.

Apparently we have a long winter coming. We're coming to you from the Better With Bourbon Media Studios here in Indiana, Pennsylvania and in Man Cave.

We get the fire rippin. We got some bourbon scattered around. You guys might notice our loyal fans that the scene looks a little bit different last week.

We invested in some new technology. We talked a little bit about this.

We might be coming in a little clearer too because we got the professional radio phones and all thanks to Bunny Tail Perry.

And we also got, we're going high definition. So maybe we're coming in a little clearer.

You're going to see your beautiful face. And by the way, it's a work in progress.

It's a work in progress.

Eddie Edwards in the house. And it is not casual Friday.

I know. I'm doing tech, Dick.

Oh, tech bro. I'll say it in your old dress.

Eddie is always dressed to the 9s. You got to match the 5.

You know, you can try. You can put on whatever you want.

I'm not going to match it. I know.

Nobody's going to pay attention.

No, they're not. They're going to, you know, we got Hollywood Eddie here. So it can't wait, you know.

So we had a little bit of a different show for you today.

Last week we went through kind of three topic areas.

Kind of in succession. We spent some time on each.

We talked in detail about AI in the data center economy.

We talked about the drop of drinking in the US.

It's in an all time low. And then we did some predictions.

Each of those went on for a little while.

This week we have a different kind of idea.

Because we have this, this guest in.

We want to make use of the expertise that he brings and provides us.

The topic today is going to be NIL, which means name, image, and likeness.

And this fits into our broader business team.

But specifically today we're going to talk about the business of college athletics.

And what some believe is the advancement.

Others may believe is the degradation of amateur athletics.

Because now college athletes are getting paid.

Sports world is very different.

And it's affecting some of the teams that we love and care about very much here in Pennsylvania.

Like our daily beloved Penn State and Whitney Lions.

Rough year for them are pit Panthers.

You know, rough year for them.

They both want the balls, but they're kind of underachieving R.

They should have played each other.

Yeah, elevated, elevated expectations.

But, you know, NIL is definitely a polarizing topic.

It's something when you sit down at the bar and you start talking about whatever game you're watching.

Invariably you get people offering their own opinions.

Again, some in support, some against.

But what we realize is that this is a pretty emotional topic.

But very few people are informed.

So we thought we'd bring to you a real expert in the field.

He is the expert in the field.

And I will vote for that.

I've known Eddie for 26 years.

And his expertise in the NIL space, the NFL space, the NBA space as well.

His second to none.

He's brilliant attorney by trade and just an expert when it comes to that.

And so we're going to dig deep into the into the headlines.

And I'm sure everybody's reading about all these beautiful NIL deals that are going out to these athletes today.

They're moving like professional athletes throughout the collegiate ranks.

And we have just the guy to ask all the questions too.

And ask him, how does this come about?

And why is it taking place as it is? And where's it going?

Perfect time of year to do this.

We're just coming off the football championship with one of Indiana's favorite sons.

Signeti taking that title.

Not too far before the NCAA tournaments going to kick off.

So we're going to equip you to go, you know, drink smoother sounds.

Smoother be a little bit more articulate on a topic that people will listen to you talk about if you know.

And of course, we're going to ask Eddie is a Super Bowl pick.

You know, he's in the space, so we got to ask who he thinks is going to win the Super Bowl this week.

Totally.

Totally.

It's going to be great.

So before we do that, a couple other things we want to do.

We want to circle back and kind of continue the dialogue with some of the main themes that we introduced last week, both within our deep dives and then some of the predictions we offered.

Relative to the AI space.

We talked a lot last week about open AI in the video and some of the financing arrangements that they had introduced late last year.

Well, new news popped off last week.

We're going to tell you about what happened and what it means, what the market response has been.

We're going to talk about the data center economy.

Again, resurfacing one of the themes from last week because we have a very large data center project here in Western Pennsylvania that we're very proud of going on right down the street, not five miles from where we sit today.

Some new news in the data center world coming out of Texas that I think is worth mentioning.

And then third, in our predictions in an episode one, we talked a little bit about market assets that are more commodity based specifically gold silver.

And then we spent some time on crypto last week.

And if you were following this world, you have seen some massive price swings in these assets.

If you own these things, hopefully, you're not looking at your portfolio day to day because you're going to think you're you're hallucinating with the ups and downs have been happening recently.

We're going to talk about why some of that volatility has been introduced, what the market response has been and maybe what to think about it going forward.

But before we do any of that, right, we want to talk about we got a bottle this week, a really nice bottle.

It's featured down down front here.

You might notice that one of the small enhancements we put together this week is some of that lighting from underneath, very professional looking Brad.

That's a great choice.

I think so.

We got to showcase the bourbon that we are drinking and talking about because we got a special one in the house.

And we'll be talking with Eddie and why he brought it and what it's all about.

Right, we're going to offer some tasting notes.

We're going to try to do right by the Willett people who manufacture this beautiful spirit.

But before we do any of that in detail, we're going to talk about the thing that we care most about us.

Well, not really us.

We're going to talk about you and your response to our first couple podcasts. Bradley, tell them about how we're doing.

Well, as I mentioned last week, we were climbing the rakes ranks.

We were in the top 100 on Apple podcast, which we were just humbled and honored since then.

And right before we went on set today, we are number six.

So we're in the top five and climbing steadily.

So really impressed is impressed the heck out of me that we have that kind of response this quick after two episodes.

But we do strive to provide good quality.

So we're going to continue to improve every episode.

And we're going to try to bring great guests on great topics on.

We love the AI space, the finance space and the sports topics of the day.

And the drinking space we are experts in that as well.

So we are going to continue to do that and not take ourselves too seriously in the meantime.

And you can't see it, but Perry did get a new pair of stilettos.

And they looked great.

I mean, they'd really enhanced your cab. So I just got to tell you.

Thanks, Brad.

You're welcome.

So first on the docket today in this space where fast thinking meets smooth drinking.

We're going to dig in and touch a little bit on again this Nvidia open AI financing question.

What happened while we bring this up again?

We talked a lot about it last week.

We're just going to spend a few minutes here.

Big news over the weekend was that Nvidia CEO Jensen Wong walked back the widely reported $100 billion investment that he committed to in September relative to Nvidia's position with open AI.

And what he said was he wanted to clarify that it was never a formal commitment, so to say, the clarification came during remarks when he was in Taipei on Sunday.

And was reported on by the Wall Street Journal.

Huang at that time essentially explained that while open AI invited Nvidia to invest up to $100 billion in a very public kind of format.

Wong's response was certainly non binding. It was an L.O.I. that was signed.

It's not a legal document. It's an intent of some sort of commitment that will be worked out later.

This was signed in September.

Do you think the market thought it was a done deal?

Well, I think that's why this is important because this is where the headline doesn't always meet the reality given the timeline we're talking about.

This happened in September.

A lot has happened in the world since then.

Lots of things have changed.

And there are some questions about, again, like we pointed out last week, not just the investment pertaining to open AI specific to Nvidia.

There's a broader demand that a lot of these emerging AI and data center companies have on kind of the capital markets.

Everybody's looking for money.

We talked about two really specific cases last week.

But there are many, many, many more.

We could do a different show for 50 weeks in a row about a company that's looking for funding what they want to use it for.

The technology and their specific use case, who their funding, who their relationships are, who the investors are.

This is one of the biggest and most public.

And the important point here is that what was announced in September in the market's reaction might have been a little bit premature given the kind of realities that are settling in today.

So long said that while this is a non-binding agreement that we made in September, the $100 billion number is it's sealing and it's not a promise.

I didn't promise I just kind of indicated that maybe we could do that.

That Nvidia would invest kind of one step at a time.

So despite the retreat from this $100 billion number, long said that we're definitely an absolutely going to be participating in open AI's current funding round.

He definitely said that it's going to be the largest investment we've ever made as a company.

And this is important because Nvidia is one of the three largest companies in the world.

But reports suggest that today that number might be leveling in somewhere a little closer to 30 billion.

So 70% increase that's it's big time.

So if you asked me to borrow a hundred bucks and I said, well, sure.

And then I said, I only got 30 to hand you.

You might have to change your plans.

Well, that also begs the question.

Does he know something that we don't that he doesn't want to commit to 100?

Well, it's interesting because of course the good folks at Wall Street Journal mean that this is what they do all the time.

One of the dig in on that and try to figure out why report surface that Huang has privately expressed some concerns regarding open AI's lack of discipline in their business strategy.

Really importantly, they're focused on this idea that anthropic and Google's Gemini might be more formidable competitors than we thought last year.

Certainly Gemini's recent releases have been getting a lot more attention open AI's open AI.

They've been great.

I mean, I've been using the Gemini pro lately and I'm don't know what it's awesome.

We use it for the research.

It's a wonderful product.

Yeah, open AI's five release was a little bit underwhelming.

Some critics thought that it could have done a little more.

There might be some again strategy drift.

And secretly there've been a lot of folks kind of quietly leaving open AI to pursue similar endeavors with other competitive models, the anthropics, the XAI, the Gemini.

So what's the market impact?

Why are we talking about it?

Why does anybody care?

Well, when this came out last week, again, it was over the weekend.

But on Monday, immediately, Nvidia's shares traded down.

And when we look at the peak, when they closed last week on Thursday to this morning, stocks traded down about 9% through today's close.

As investors reacted to the uncertainty that the circular nature of the financing might introduce into the deal.

That's a term that we introduced last week, talk a little bit about.

We talked quite a bit about that.

Yeah, right.

So I think this is one of these points we say, like, not sure we necessarily got it right.

But we're circling around the right themes that Wall Street is looking at investment community is looking at outside of Wall Street.

There's a lot of private capital in here.

There's a ton of money in these deals that has come from Asia.

And some of those investors in Asia are questioning whether or not they have the patience to hang out if this timeline for returns is going to get elongated.

What if Jensen Wong doesn't come up with 100 billion?

And it's only 30.

How long is it going to take open AI to find that other 70 billion that they need?

Because 100 billion dollars is the need.

If that financing takes longer to arrange, what happens to some of the physical build out with some of the data centers that are associated with this?

And we're going to talk about how data center development can impact economic returns on the back end.

Well, interesting story, but Nvidia is now down from its Q4 highs about 17, 18% through today's close.

I feel like we called this one out right.

No victory in somebody kind of losing money.

But we're going to keep looking at this.

What do you think?

I mean, I like Nvidia as a long term stock, just because they are involved and they have invested in a lot of different.

Different players as we talked about that circular investing, not just open AI, but others in the industry and their chips are in as high of demand as they come.

So if their stocks going down and it continues to go down, it may be a great buying opportunity.

Potentially, potentially, but this week we also got earnings from Microsoft, which is the other Microsoft Amazon Nvidia are kind of the three companies that are driving this view on Microsoft stock.

Everybody does one way or another, whether it's in a pension, a 401k or just outright.

It's getting hammered.

Their earnings this week were really good, but there were some questions about forward looking commitments, very similar to the conversation we're having here.

So this is a topic we're not going to dig in much beyond this right now.

We're definitely going to continue to talk about it and watch it very closely to see where the market is going and where the infrastructure is going to.

Definitely.

Second topic, let's talk a little bit about the data center economy, very related to AI.

I can't produce AI without data centers.

So we're sitting and we're coming to you from Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Right down the street, again, not five miles from where we sit today is a town called Homer City.

Homer City for many, many years had one of the largest coal fired power plants in in the world.

And it not only powered a kind of residential Pennsylvania, but all the way down in the West Virginia, Maryland, up in upstate New York, New Jersey was one of the biggest power generation facilities in the country until Pennsylvania decided to take it off the grid because of the carbon in print that's making on the environment needed to upgrade that facility.

The interesting thing about that piece of land is even though it stopped producing power, the piece of land still had lots of advantages to it.

Water rights that were already permitted transmissions, transmission lines that could get electricity out of that space.

Massive natural gas lines that would fuel that space for cleaner power generation using that gas as we transition from coal.

They're sitting right here in the Appalachian Basin that we have more natural gas than the demand is currently meeting and a lot of the natural gas in the basin is shut in.

So it's just waiting for opportunities to utilize it and this will help real source of pride for the area because we haven't had a development project like that going around here for a long time.

Certainly something that we get a lot of chatter about at the bar while we're sitting there talking about NIL and why the Steelers are so bad this year and what we got to do to fix that.

Invariably the Homer city development authority and what's going on there come up so the Homer city plant just inspects there so we can compare to this new development Texas was initially.

I suspect to be between a 4.5 and a 5 gigawatt gas and hydrogen powered station which when announced was the largest industrial site.

In the country under development and the largest gas fired power plant ever envisioned in the world.

The site is about 32,000 acres big okay not that we have any means to understand what that means but we bring up this Texas thing you'll get a you get an idea and the investment.

That's going to be required to get this online is going to be about 10 billion dollars big okay so that's awesome and was the celebration of the AI and data center space for many years until.

The world's largest title was stolen from Homer city and Pennsylvania by a new development projects in West in West Texas called the Giga Ranch this was announced as an 8,000 acre site with a massive 7.65 gigawatt gas plant.

So this moves the AI power wars into a totally new phase this is unquestionably the biggest industrial development projects that's ever been undertaken in the U.S.

Certainly one of the world and the amount of money that is necessary to build this thing out there is going to be massive right.

So let's just talk a little bit about the differences between the two just so we can you know create more kind of constructive tension between Pennsylvania and Texas.

We compete with pretty much everything and I'm just going to point out the thing that matters most which is football.

And also golf we have a week we've had in the history an ongoing match play tournament with with our friends in Texas once a year which is going on for a long time.

That we always enjoy the competition we're going to beat them up there just like we do on a grid right so the most significant differences between these two.

So isn't just the size it's relative the strategy that they're going to use to get power out of the grid we've heard a lot of negative news about power demands from AI.

This is kind of an interesting take that they're using down in Texas so while Homer City is leveraging the existing PJM transmission lines which I mentioned to you these are the approved regulated power lines that are regulated by the PJM authority which is the power transmission authority here in the Northeast.

And the lines feed both the data center and the power that it's going to generate that's going to be available to sell back to the public.

That's the one way to do it the Giga Ranch in Texas is being built as a completely private off grid or as they say in the industry behind the behind the meter solution where they will generate all of their own power there will be no.

Public energy used and they're actually going to sell a massive amount of power back to or caught which is the Texas power authority Texas has its own power authority they got their own state regular regulatory authority.

So yeah this is interesting because this strategy requires much less regulatory approval in states where you typically have to take power from the grid and we're talking about in this case a great big giant natural gas line.

The Homer City folks don't just say to the regulator hey can we just get kind of a great big giant fat extension cord will plug it in your side will plug it in our side and we're ready to go.

You have to do years and years of what's called interconnect work you have to run a study about what it'll cost how it will affect the local economy you know the technical feasibility of the physical solution.

And then that interconnect work has to be done before you build one rack of server space or one cooling one cooling chamber in the permitting process is much more intense.

It's massive right so the Texas folks are are going to undo this because they much like us here in Pennsylvania have a great advantage they're sitting on we're here in the in the middle of the Marcellus shale.

They there are in the middle of Permian Basin right and specifically the Waha gas up right so by piping that gas directly out of the ground to a to a private behind grid structure they're trying to kind of exploit the same strategy being used here they're just doing it all behind the grid.

Right so the use of the natural gas because before they would have to burn it off because this news it was nuisance gas so they're putting good good use to something that otherwise was was just being wasted.

Yeah so this hybrid model is going to get them faster approvals get shovels in the ground a lot quicker and potentially as they say you know benefit the local economy through the amount of energy they're going to be able sell back into the space so.

This is something that we're going to be watching we take your pride in this project popping up here in Pennsylvania it's neat to know that others are you know seeing this is successful enough to this point to push the envelope and create something that's potentially a multitude there it is right right right.

Okay third really quickly here before we before we move on to what you want to hear gold silver and crypto we talked a little bit about it last week and certainly in week one.

We made some of our predictions about the year about relative to what was going to happen with these assets just a level set gold was up 65% in 2025 silver was up a whopping 148% somebody called it.

Yeah right if only somebody would have told you Bitcoin was was pretty flat it was about it was down about a percent last year but as we moved into q4 last year all three of these assets just moonshot we talked a lot about it we're not going to repeat it until last week.

Last week we told you two weeks ago that this run might be getting a little longer the tooth might be time to start to fade some of this you know this moonshot action.

Low and behold silver down 41% in three days gold healthy correction down 10% but for an asset like that's pretty big move in such a short time Bitcoin just like silver down 42% what in the world would cause this and what's it mean.

So there's a couple reasons why you'd see something you know like the speculative shake out you know the guys that were late to the party are now getting really punished we've seen you know these assets take months to get this high multiple weeks to get this high they lose all that lose all that gain in a matter of hours.

Kind of get a two or three main reasons number one and I think probably most important we got some insight in the last few days on who the administrations pick for the next chairman of the federal reserve is going to be for for a long time it was believed to be a gentleman that was named Kevin Haslitt Kevin Haslitt was seen as somebody who would widely kind of bow to the administrations demands for lower interest rates.

Seeing from the the perspective of the financial community from Wall Street as kind of a yes man for the administration and while lower rates would certainly be good for the economy.

There's a reason why the Fed operates independently from the other three branches of government turns out that Trump did not decide on that Kevin he picked a gentleman named Kevin Wash who was an economist who traces back to Stanford brilliant guy listen to him talk for about 50 minutes on the podcast over the weekend.

What would recommend you looking them up in here he is a brilliant communicator a very steady hand a very confident guy but he is a guy who is not going to just take direction he is going to he's going to think on his own.

And and some are questioning whether that means interest rates are going to fall immediately interest rates don't fall that essentially raises the purchase price for people not buying in dollars for commodities that are priced in dollars we can talk about that later but.

Invariably what it meant is some of the speculative fervor came out of those things immediately when you see gold and Bitcoin massive assets fall 40% a couple of days either there was people way over playing their hands on the long side or we're totally caught off guard by this decision I think it was a little bit both right.

And I think the few of those that have been heavily on Bitcoin we're shaking in their boots a little bit because it was getting down to the point where it was in the mid to high 70s I think at one point it's just creeps back slightly since then but.

Where's the go from here well anytime you get some question about interest rates not getting cut or potentially being raised the dollar rises and when the dollar rises it can have a knock on effect to.

Non commodity assets like the market that certainly could certainly could be contributing some of the weakness we've seen this week and assets like Microsoft or just kind of broader weakness in tech after this great run but there was a kind of a less obvious trigger that definitely played a role in these three assets specifically coming down the CME the commodity markets exchange which is essentially the exchange where commodities are trade.

Sometimes when big investors want to want to capture a commodity really lay into an asset class and make a big bet they'll trade on what's called margin right and margin for non investors is essentially like me given Brad a credit card and saying here's the rate of the credit card go ahead and spend all you want.

Okay CME allows people to to invest with borrowed money but just like with a credit card sometimes interest rates move and when those interest rates move up investors who have bought gold silver Bitcoin on margin either have to do one of two things either have to post additional collateral.

To accommodate the fact that they're now have to suppose to a higher interest rate to borrow that money or they have to sell that asset to meet that margin call.

So why would that affect the price of Bitcoin what would a this have to do with Bitcoin right and I just read though I thought in the headlines here when Bitcoin started going on a downward trend that one of the major institutions sold it off.

Yeah in a big big way yeah absolutely and it's interesting because a lot of these institutions have holdings that have a massive Bitcoin holdings but now they also have a ton of gold and silver right because these things have run up.

If that starts falling and you don't want to sell your silver because you bought it with borrowed money you can't sell the thing you want to sell.

You get to sell the thing you can sell right and that would that would certainly play into the narrative about why somebody would sell a massive chunk of Bitcoin over the weekend and have it open yesterday down the way it was.

It may be also showing where they prioritize their top assets gold and silver still seem to be on top.

The gold and silver are projected to run I can't imagine how they could go any higher than where they are right now again like we said last few weeks I think we need to see some sideways action them not out before those become investable again but I think that's enough on this.

No let's get let's get to what we're here for and that is Eddie Edwards.

Yeah and we come back we're going to we're going to bring Eddie on onto the set and get into the bottle of Ron.

Yeah when we come back there'll be three of us here.

What happens when work disappears when money dissolves and when freedom becomes something you earn not something you're born with.

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And we're back we're fast thinking make smooth drinking here better with bourbon podcast you might notice we have an additional participant here.

Bradley who is this guy who is this guy I think he comes known before I even have to introduce him it's Eddie Edwards Hollywood himself welcome to the set.

I don't know about Hollywood but the build up here oh man it's good to have you back in back in Indiana it's great to be an Indiana with good people good bourbon great podcast congratulations thank you thank you it's been a run.

It's a lot of your attention we get now you know what I watch it we don't take it for granted I watch it it's good.

It's great content and I like Brad though good batter and different that's right that's right always as so we go way back and I think we gotta set the stage here how you and I got to introduce each other to each other and it goes back to law school.

Now absolutely you know and Brad your humble I don't know if Brad's mentioned this did you know he was number one in our law class only you know about once a week.

Yeah he was the foremost mind in our law class but me and Brad met in law school cultivated a friendship over now what 26 years.

I met the very first day of law school the first day of law school right where we dominated intermurals we did no doubt we weren't division one athletes we were

intermural athletes no NIL for us none but I you know we we we've been able over over time to spend a lot of time with one another families could know our families watch our families grow watch the kids grow and you know look for

opportunities to collaborate so you know when Brad called and said hey I got this podcast with Deacon who we know each other in a different way which is even more strange when we come to find out how small the world is to learn were by the way I happen to be going to school in

eerie Pennsylvania that you two actually met before I met you 26 years ago can I tell it real quick tell the story okay so a couple years ago Brad and I didn't know each other very well he calls me one day says hey one of my main guys is coming up I think you guys would get along we're going to play golf have some

lunch maybe have a drink or two you know I show up we start talking hey how are you will kind of business you in what do you do oh great you married got kids yeah you married now now I'm going to kind of new in the area let's go play golf so we get about to

the I think it was the seventh hole at Indiana Country Club best greens in the world and I you know I'm looking at Eddie as he's stepping off to the

T a muscular back all thing talking I said you look like an athlete what was your sport coming up and he goes I played a little basketball played basketball up at Penn State up in eerie and I said no you didn't

stay in eerie and I said yeah you remember the oak you know James and you're like ah the oak tree so we found out that we had met this would be let's see your what was it your junior year

our freshman year yourself it be 95 yeah 95 I went up to see Jamie play only time I got to see him play in college and as you do at that age we stayed

you know had a couple drinks with the ladies in the dorm and invariably I fell asleep on somebody's floor come come to find out that was your floor I slept on there are many people slept on that floor we go way back happened so I knew him before you did I knew him before you keep going

and even even before that yeah the Latrobe rotary tournament oh heck yes Simon Gratz it's where I first met Okanak because Latrobe would bring in a top tier basketball team every year

yeah and we were on our finals break and our coach was recruiting Jamie ah so he said hey what do you do would you like the you know it's so we went down that's right and saw them play against the large steward I think it was Sean Smith and

Charles Stokes what a lineup well Rashid almost ripped a goal off the roof yeah that was a year before but the year after they came back with I mean they just kept producing him at Simon Gratz

no matter they were I'm sure they still are having fall deckless women they were top top tier I was a crazy team crazy

small world though right yeah they would they would have had NIL money back then if I could you imagine that that's a great question that I I always

posed to athletes so I know from yesterday or what do you think your NIL value would be today it's all any oh my God if we could have done that back then

yeah because again there was a lot of a lot of athletes that could have benefited big time from those opportunities I think and it's as an athlete that

at least in the high school ranks back then I've experienced and played against someone and I could I'm sure you could do I mean just name off a few that

is a shame that they couldn't benefit from it well and I told Brad you know we do pre production so when me and

Brad were in pre production here today before before you started to film was tell me story about when I was a young man I and you know I say

young man now it's aging myself but when I was younger I was helping with the McDonald's all American game when it was here in

Pittsburgh in 1996 so the listeners know when we were talking about the story we were rocking on our rocking chairs out front out for

absolutely back when I was it so but I was Tom Brad part of my duties was was escorting some of the celebrities you know around you

were an escort I was an escort not in that capacity okay not in that capacity but I was escorting some of the celebrities around

from event event and one of the individuals was a you know a top tier division one basketball player I mean he was a star

ended up being an NBA star and still involved in and major basketball this day but you know he was talking about buying Christmas gifts for his parents in the

student store and he was buying his own jersey and didn't get anything for it so he's like I'm going to go into our bookstore and I want to

spend $150 on two jerseys I just you know I want to give that as a gift back to my parents but what's wrong with the thought of me

actually going to buying my own jersey I get nothing for and that benefits going to go back to the university makes no sense no that doesn't make any

sense and before we go any further down the road I want to let the listeners know just a little bit more about yourself how did you get into

you know I always find it fascinating because you know you and I were very close in in law school we hung out we played

intermural basketball we even played intermural football one one semester because we just accidentally signed up for the wrong league but that was we we hung out all

time and and I knew you had a sports background and you're you're coming from a very talented family or your father gifted gifted athlete what got you into the space

so sports from a young age no I wasn't much of a reader so the way that my parents enticed me to read was to read the sports section in back then we had to Pittsburgh Post Gazette which was our morning

edition and the Pittsburgh press which was our evening edition the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's going away I was going away now but I would read that sports

section covered a cover every single day so I can recite stats as I got older my mother got me probably the most

valuable thing that I had was my sports illustrated subscripts yeah remember those I read it in front of back with Steve Ruchin and remember in the back with his

his editorial face the crowd right at at the end I'm going to be honest I never read it front the back I don't the only

to swim should issue the only swim say that was that's the one I paid most attention to so much and he still hasn't

they're valuable but I would read sports solicit I would consume as much as I could passion not for I didn't have

any business purpose whether it was just passion then at that same McDonald's all American game you know when I was

escorting some of the guys some of the guys from Penn State I asked one of the guys that you know who handles all

this stuff for you and we told me who the agent was I was like you know what I think I can do that but then do you

know any agents just so happen that the honorable Dwayne Woodruff who's not a judge former Pittsburgh

Stealer former Super Bowl Pittsburgh Stealer and very well respected well respected attorney was an

agent as well as an attorney he was certified he happened to be my family's attorney he represented my

dad on matters so you know of course I corner him one day and I'm like judge back then it was Dwayne

Mr. Woodruff no I want to be an agent can you help me out like how can we do this little that I know

my dad had already went to Dwayne and said hey my kid's going to come knew he wants to be an agent but he

got to go law school first so we're not doing this before it before he goes to law school so I got a

I'm so happy he said well I got a judge what Jeffery said you know Eddie when you're done with law

school the minute you're done with law school you call me and we'll figure this out right so the

minute I literally we probably walked off the stage once the you know the graduation party there

after and he was there and I said you know what we're doing this and we did it it's been a fantastic I

know it's almost 25 year ride of representation of athletes now as a certified certified NFL

PA contract advisor you know and BPA certified agent in an attorney when I tell people I'm

going to attorney with those licenses not necessarily you know the moniker of agent you know

everybody kind of looks at you know can look at you differently when you can you come out and say hey I'm

an agent but I'm an attorney with certification in just so folks no you don't have to be an attorney

you do not even though you are dealing heavily with contracts heavily with contracts and that

negotiating background you know dealing with with complex business issues things of that nature

comes in really handy I you know it's a deaf senior president is an advantage right to be able to

do those things yeah so you know the sports thing was pretty natural I know I play as a kid

growing up you know was a modest athlete but love love the sport and then I you know you get married

life goes on you have kids you don't know where your kids are going to end up you hope they end up

doing some cool things your kids did some really cool thing I mean loan behold 3d one athletes

right man like from this D3 kid mom 3d what athletes that is the and how do you get real

story when we have portion and we talk about the real athlete in the family and the real reason

that he had to become an agent it was just and it's funny because my my oldest played

baseball University Buffalo so at that point there's there's no an aisle right that wasn't

even a talking point then my middle goes and plays basketball at the Air Force Academy

the same time I was there yeah and skeens he when James was a in his last year at the

academy Paul skeens was a freshman on the baseball team well and and you know

because of the service academy the NIL stuff wouldn't have mattered anyway because they can't

take it right right so then my youngest who arguably is the most athletic of the three

well she made USA today I remember that story that was the rest of story she calls me

the data that's approved says dad you're in this business I need deals I'm like honey it's not that

easy it's not that easy you know at that point she's playing the Patriot League

which is a great league it's a great academic league but but the high Bucknell the

high Colgate West Point right they're all there but when you're looking at

opportunities at least back then in the collective days it was based on your

following right you know they they wanted to see like what kind of reach can the

business get you know for for engaging but especially athletes at that level

like it the more higher profile back then p five now p four schools a little bit

easier because of the visibility so you know saying your daughter why I just this is

going to be rough but you know helping her figure out even for product so it was a

great teaching tool right how to how to be a brand ambassador you know how to build

out that brand people forget name image likeness right intellectual property

this isn't paid apply we have we have to tell the quick story on on Lauren and

how she got she went from being a graduate assistant to all of a sudden been

the starting point guard yeah that was that was really crazy so my daughter is

at Loyola Maryland had an extra year everybody had the covid year so everybody

afforded an extra season right and she was one of the covid kids that was

playing at that time and she's she's exhausted her eligible as far as

academics right because now she's I shouldn't say exhaustor eligibility but

academically she was graduating so she's like dad you know what I'm going to

put my name in the portal let's see what happens right so she got five

opportunities none of which she wanted to return to so she's like all right now

what am I going to do and there are five division one opportunities some local

some not so local but just nothing really resonated with her yeah so she

she gets a call from one of her previous coaches and says hey we have a

graduate assistant position available at our school and she interviews

for it and unfortunately doesn't get it but that coach calls another

school and says I have a great candidate she calls Providence so I have a great

candidate for you this young lady played for me I think she'd be fantastic

Providence hires her well that first year Lawrence killing these girls in

practice and I'm hearing this from the coach like she's she's giving it to her

right right right you take a Pennsylvania girl up to New England she had a

dominating no high that's a big bass player at big bass player I didn't realize how

big so I got their Fulverver dreams right right right over the book oh I know it's

not far from there no I know well when I get the experience of your first

down so then the second year she's doing the same thing in practice and the

coach says jokingly do you have any eligibility left yeah well Lawrence said

actually I do maybe eight days later she suited up playing against

Columbia right right two games later she's starting yeah playing 38

minutes and big east basketball wow and she played great basketball I mean it

was it was a great unforeseen I'm sure by on her part thinking that she was

going to get that extra year but it made USA today we were fortunate you were

nice enough to invite Tony and I up to watch her play Yukon if we got right

behind the bench with the problem that was a lot of fun and what it what about

I mean you see it on TV but then to go to experience it first hand when you

have a sold out crowd on a Tuesday night and you got fireworks going I mean these

these ladies and that coach up there there are rock stars I mean rock stars

it's amazing they played that game in the Hartford Civic Center yep it was a

big east opener in both teams I think we're tied at that point for first place

in the biggest right so we go and it's like a Laker game I mean the the atmosphere

was unbelievable and I happen to know one of a graduate who played at Yukon

so I'm you were there I was texting Dorn again I'm like you guys got

pyrotechnics music and the response I got was we want to defeat you before

the tip off they do they at all it's intimidating think about it you're coming

from an arena where you know they got pre-game music you got fanged I mean this

was a spectacle it was it was it was it was incredible jump but yeah

jumbo trauma I mean but but wait a second oh it was sold out sold out so I'm not

we're not talking about half of them no we're talking talk about to the

to the rafters just loud as can be amazing so again really proud of her and

happy for her because this is about life experiences it is and what a great

what a what a great story what a great experience you have to be so proud

of all three or kids and I I've gotten to know each of them in a different way

are so special it's you and you and Porsche and like why and the apple

doesn't fall far from the tree I mean you guys are special people I mean

that was one of the common bonds we had in law school when we first met is that

we were one of the few only married couples that were going to law school

and we got to talk about that and the commonality of basketball and then obviously

law and we just took it from there yeah I was dragging kids the class sometimes

so you know what this is a perfect opportunity for me to break in and do

something is totally self-serving but for all of us thank you pencil

vania thank you pencil venue for instilling in us and in your children the

drive and commitment associated with trying to be great at athletics sports makes

you a better person if you commit yourself to it and I also want to say thank

you pencilvania for having such a wonderful set of world class universities

we just named how many of their local here and we can name 20 more thank you

pencilvania for everything you do for us thanks for taking such good care of us

cheers to that I'm reaching I don't want to knock the mic over again when

that I'm sure if you if our listeners saw my mic went from this side to that

side as we're getting used to these new boom mics which they are nice

but now I can see where I'm talking and I'm not going to hit it again

unless we get really animated and I'm coming across the chair and that

might be the bourbon or the ice cube you might have to watch out you guys

have to watch the outtakes you already got a close-impersonal with the mic

I did mic miss half of the night yeah I did it might knock anything else

we'll we'll just keep track of that you know so far it's only the the

bottle the microphone that lay if I may add though the reaction they cat

like reflect he's so quick because we kept the bottle he realized what was

important how would the mic get the bottle so let's get into some of the

main topic here let's do let's let's let's dive in you know because you know

we got a little bit of mr. Edwards background he is well respected and I

just want to say you know he and before we do I do want to since we are in

Super Bowl week oh nice I do want to talk to about two more topics before we

get into really dive into the NL because when we get in the NL this is

it's going to be intense yeah okay and we're we're not going to back around

yeah we're out for a while so I got I got two things that I think we we need to

talk about Super Bowl week we you know you being in the space that was how

you started there was before and I was you were NFL that was your your focus

so tell us a little bit how you got into the NFL who was your first if you can

tell us so I don't know that yeah this is this is actually a cool story and

you know I know he won't mind me telling the story which is good and I got to

meet him through you at when we were at Oakmont and he's really nice guy so

Andy Lee was my first client University of Pittsburgh and I you know so you

take the Asian test you you for the NFL PA you you apply in January you take the

test in July you don't find out to October so in the recruiting cycle if

you're recruiting new clients you're behind the eight ball right stress it's

enough to make you drink it's enough to make you drink so I get get my certification

in October oh my god not now what do I do now I this is real I got I got a good

guys so I had a friend who reaches out to me as it's Eddie I don't know if I could

help you how I can help you but here's a phone number for Andy Lee he is a the

biggie special teams player of the year two years consecutive you know I pick

your pick guy pick log great great guy so I'm like all right he's like here's his

number it's all I got so I remember this so vividly it was it was black Friday

after Thanksgiving I'm like I'm gonna get this guy call another at home so I give

him a call I said you know this Andy Lee is like yes this is it I'm like this is

Eddie Edwards look I'm a brand new agent I just got licensed I have zero

clients but I'd love to represent you I'm like and I promise you I'll give you

everything I got I will work my tail off for you I will consume all information

everything you know if you more meetings meet mom and dad season's over you know

you're gonna do everything by the book you know can't give the kids anything so

these are just you know you're allowed to talk he signs with me so my first year

as a as a certified contract advisor by the NFL PA I had a draft pick right

I guys in the combine he was amazing and I got to do I got to do a I got to

do a shoe deal right because I mean he's a punter so let's let's be honest

me because punters don't usually get that kind of spotlight but Andy Lee brought

that spot he was an all pro how many years I mean he he he went on with so many

great teams I mean he was one of the best punters that ever played the game he

absolutely one of the best punters one of the best people that ever played the game

yeah because Andy Lee is is is one of the best as a human being you know off the

field as a family man on the field you know performed at the highest level I

mean 19 years think about that 19 years 19 years he had one person

represent him over 19 years now I'll tell you what the best part of it is we're

still friends to this day yes you talked to him last week you know we talked

probably every other week couple times a month I mean that's the value in this

in what you get out of it because there's always going to be a beginning in a

net right to every every professional career is a beginning in a net but

when you have those relationships that extend beyond I mean Brad was with us

last year at a at an event you know we were golfing you had a chance to meet

him I mean I don't view it as transactional no what we do is transactional

but at the end of the day it's the relationship with the individual right so

and I tell people say any well why do you why law like why law versus that

you know the contractual stuff with the with the agent business and I do both

but I tell people if I'm working as your agent that's a succinct period of

time I can be your attorney forever right for all your endeavors so and I

like being that piece of the puzzle being the piece of the deal team you know a

lot of these people consider consider us family after a certain period of

time I consider and I consider you family and I like being a part of that

fabric right I enjoy that again passion for what you do you know being a

zealous advocate on behalf of your client that's what I like to do it's fantastic

now we get a little bit of insight into your personality we do so well you know

what do we what do you say we take a break we're gonna take a break and then she's

glass we're gonna refresh glasses stoke the fire not Michael not Mike the phone over

right I can't even talk you know it is you had your blood but it's happened for

the night Brad I know but now it's two you know so come back we get into some of the

nuts and bolts about the world and I'll develop some of your ability to

understand and learn from this man's experience and we're gonna get his

Super Bowl pick before we yeah we got to get the Super Bowl pick you know got to see who

he's looking at we'll be right back in a world increasingly governed by

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and we're back and I can't wait to hear what you have to say

and I'm sure our listeners are on the edge of their seat to hear about

your NFL pick but we're going to take one pause because we've been enjoying this

bourbon and we have to share a little bit what you brought today

so I brought Rowan's Creek it's a will it product

you know I it's funny I didn't start drinking bourbon until I think 2018

a good friend of ours Curtis Akin is a connoisseur

he's a connoisseur and he's also if you're not the sharpest dress man

it's a close second or first I mean Curtis is always dressed

that's not even close yeah Curtis he is he is

I never feel like I'm dressed like a farmer the night we went to hang out together

I'm honest we'll have been wearing dungaries it was it was very embarrassed

Curtis is always I mean he looks the part he he's so smooth plus

being a pit fan and watching him in the 80s when he dominated the point guard

position I mean he was one of the best you know I know we've been telling stories but one of the interesting

things so I've known Curtis since I was in middle school always looked up to my

pit guy yeah pit basketball their media guide

one year had a picture of the team and I kept it for years and I finally

gave it to Kurt but the team picture was the entire team it suits

and I promise you at 21 22 years old

we know that Curtis Akin was the best dressed man in that photo

so he now owns a provato 14 which is the premier

thank you for taking us there yeah no it is the premier

it is the premier and it is the exclusive and it's so

you would not know it's at least his first provato in Pittsburgh you would not even

know it exists it's very discreet right next to his business

gated entry you walk in a gorgeous putting green in the back of course

which caught my eye and then this beautiful showcase room

where all the members have their own locker you have this beautiful bar

I think the first night you brought me and it left such an impression because they had a little

couple absolutely going on in the corner and of course

Kurt you know just dressed to the nines I mean he is the perfect host

he's a perfect host again better human being

and helped me to develop a bourbon palette

he takes members of the club to

for certain bourbon tours so you go into bourbon trail

he took us to Buffalo Trace where we met the original master

Blanton's grandson and you know the one of the things that resonated

with me and Kurt probably has the most impressive bourbon collection

I've ever seen like literally the hands down top to bottom he's got it all

and he's also got the red velvet room

the red velvet room right downstairs you can drink a bourbon that

sells that price points it in a red velvet room actually affects the flavor I mean it does taste better

the ambiance is amazing yeah

not to mention the four screen you know sports the best advice I got

from this gentleman from Buffalo Trace Freddie Johnson

so I'm going to say his name because he's an amazing human being if you're ever at Buffalo Trace look him up

he said to me one day he goes Eddie what kind of bourbons do you have

I'm like rattling off all these names rad you've seen some of the things I have again not even close to Kurt

but I've got I got a couple things in there you have a pretty nice collection

and he said Eddie are they open?

Eddie bourbons meant to share

he's like it's meant to bring people together amen I want you to open those bottles

and share them well that resonated well you think about it and I

resonates with us because everything's always better with bourbon yeah always better with bourbon what a segue

a shaveless plug right a segue see how we work together

could you imagine us in court together oh no I don't want to be on the other side

I'd like to get you in court you're always on the contract side I would love to have you in court one likely to be a client

you do criminal law

actually we set it up this way

Brad and I are representing Deakin here yeah we are

please the court no but uh so let's get into the real heart of the matter

we are at the cusp of Super Bowl Week

and we got two other prominent teams and I did call these two teams before

but again what was what was the hard part of calling it they were both the best in their division

so but they they survived and there were some good games going through the playoffs

could have gone either way a few times a few controversial calls

Buffalo coming to mind and it cost I think it cost a coaching job so

uh who do you see and who do you like uh coming up

you know I usually tell people I root for players not teams

because of the business that man yeah fair um you know so I I want to see a good game

I mean I think at the end of the day I mean I've been to so many Super Bowls so many Super Bowls

as you go annually and well you know what I tell you I'm gonna share a little insight with you

if you haven't been the one and you can go to one great opportunity

you know I got to take my dad to his first and last because he didn't want to go back

because it's it's it's a chore um but you know watching it at home

there's something about that there's something about it because you know you go there's security

there's lines there's all that other good stuff you don't get the replays

right um well in this change with 4k TV with the with the camera angles

with the sound the you know it is it's a different game than the blurry game that

we grew up watching absolutely but but the NFL does such a tremendous job they do me it's a show

remember at the end of the day everybody forgets this is entertainment right the reason

they're able to have such large media contracts it's entertainment

they want to entertain well from the pre show to the halftime show to the post show

during the game it's been entertaining this year and and these two teams I think

are going to battle it out there they're both very strong they both got great

uh up and coming you know Sam Donald me know you just you know his last few

years have just been a fun to watch coming from Minnesota to now Seattle

and then Drake May those shoes those shoes are so big how

did he fill the goats shoes and now look what he's doing I mean he

speaking of shoes uh and that maybe the good segue with Drake May since

during the North Carolina shoes North Carolina yeah I'm a shoe official

I know I mean I don't know how I put this in frame do I just lift my

no just lift this right up there it is yeah he's got pan make Jordan and he's got

sneaker pants on payroll those are impressive so how did you come by those

I can't tell you okay you got to have a plug

you got to have a plug such a thing as a sneaker plug and I got a sneaker plug

well you can't buy those no you can't buy I think they'd be hard to find but

it's a it's a great shit and look it's about your personality the great

thing about professionalism now and if you noticed it you know downtown around

you see people with suits on hmm a lot of times they'll have tennis shoes on

you know in the right environment right you can't do that all the time

I can't go into court but it demonstrates your personality so I

I look the shoe thing for me isn't like some of these people doing it five or

10 years when it's become you know the cool thing to do I've been doing it since

the mid 80s you have I could I could tell you my first shoe

tell them the first shoe that actually met something was the

feel as back when I was in seventh grade no good yeah right then I got the

conversation school they were the conversation's weapon yep yeah yeah I was the

first person in my school to have air Jordans yeah okay I had the which for

$65 at the time oh the rebot rebot rebot yeah there we also had the air

Jordans yeah nobody else had Hakeem Elijah Wands

ectonics oh the ectonics I had them yeah I actually had that was our team shoe

I want I wanted I wanted air Jordans my dad's like no no no

ectonics are good for you no and and and and and sneakers have evolved and I

I joked to this dad oh this isn't the topic of our discussion but you know I

I love the days where you get to go to them all you get to wait in line right or

notice somebody to get the shoe right put lock now with all the bots and all

this other stuff like I I'm an old guy I got no shot

unless you have a plug unless you have a plug yeah somebody could help you out

that's right that's right but you know speaking of shoes that fits into

this whole thing because now the shoe companies

are impacting they are and I know but you still haven't shared your

Super Bowl picks you know I'm not gonna do it I was like I was like you know he's kind of

side-tracking that I mean again it's interesting I mean you got two new coaches

with two new teams right you know uh no but nobody picked either one of these

teams to be there not not in the beginning of your that's for sure you know if I

if I if I it's tough I mean I I think from a momentum standpoint

maybe the Seahawks they look tough because they look really tough they look tough

but but how can you not love Mike Raible and what he's done in New England I got

an opinion and and and and you know Jake Jake man what he's done up there with the

opportunity I think it's impressive you know he's one that he's he's one the the city

in the area back over again I mean unfortunately when Bell check you know I had to leave

and talk very he retired or moved on to Tampa for uh what first retired and then moved on

to Tampa right and then uh uh you know that that's a hard loss I mean I'm not even a

New England fan but I could feel it from down here I mean that's a heart you're you're talking

about two legends that had a 20 some year stretch going together it's changed it is inevitable

right and that's what's the most difficult for the fans but they but they've but they've

done a wonderful job this quick to be right back where Tom Brady took him so many times

uh and and again kudos to their personnel departments right to finding the right pieces of the

puzzle people forget there's a lot that goes into this right it's not just in coach in the

X's and O's it's the Jimmy and the Joe's right so it's the individuals who are out there the

scouting departments who are working you know diligently to find those right pieces of the

puzzle it's it's free agency that's you interact with those guys absolutely you have to

yeah that's what well but but that's you know when you pull back the curtain yeah you have to

interact with with personnel departments right you have to interact with college personnel for

your college prospects right you have to interact with pro personnel for your pro prospects

right for for for free agency you know get data how do you feel about this guy how do you think

if it's in your system no again and it goes back to what do we discuss first when we we got on the

set here was relationships you gotta have those relationships sure you know you got to shake the

hands and and people say to me all the time that you know you travel so much you go to some cool

places it's hard it's exhausting right because you're on you know you're going to all start games

not just to see your guys but to interact with the scouts who are there evaluating that's right

yeah you never want to commoditize those personalities and those people because these are humans we're

talking about it's the same level of due diligence that any investors going to do in the market

absolutely you can trust the data but sometimes the data is not going to portray the reality you

got to have a you got to have a relationship to help you see beyond the data help you learn stuff

that's not apparent the data right remarkable the parallels well it's not so much the good stuff

they do either yeah you got to know the bad things they do yeah I always ask my first question

what are the knocks it what are we up against yeah and and then these are this is all the due diligence

that's so intense because the Super Bowl is the biggest betting uh game of the year and I don't

bet on a normal basis but I Super Bowl is probably the one time I do I like to be in squares

yeah me too I like to be part of the that and I'm picking the Patriots you know where I'm at

Seahawks from me um I'm just going to cut it off there I don't want to be negative

Deacon you told us yeah I tell you again last week yeah I tell you again next week yeah yeah

that's all that's because you were you you had uh yeah we're not talking yeah we're not talking

and I'm a fan and I'm not we're doing so there we go there we go um but I mean great transition

again into NIO what we're here to talk about um no so I tried to pull it on twice but we're not

going to get it so he got it it's fine but we're we don't that was a fantastic transition

yeah that's the lawyer that's the lawyer and and and and let me just tell as a close friend of

years for 26 years I've done uh multiple business ventures with you which I've been privileged to

it's been so much fun and seeing you work behind the scenes your ethics which that goes so long

I mean Eddie is uh you know and just so you know he was the chair of the Pennsylvania ethics

board and yeah I was a hearing committee chair that's right for the disciplinary board which

that that that shows you that our peers think of Eddie so highly in regard so Eddie I just want

to put that out there and look I was I know I was teasing you trying to get it out I know you

can't do that but the again but it's interesting we were talking about evaluation

think about that in the sense of you know how you're putting together your your rosters now

for collegiate sports personalities right personalities matter work ethic matters but but but the

the evaluation of talent think about when the portal opens and how you have to evaluate to fill out

your roster now it's a whole different game whole different global global and it's talking

about a 10 team league is no global business now it is and I think this is what what has really

ruffled feathers in the NIL is because that predictability that business model that governance

model that was in sports collegiate sports especially has changed overnight it's been disruptive it

has and so all this stuff that you work so hard and you got so good and you got so familiar as a

coach and you worked your way through the ranks whether it was a grad assistant whether it was

playing and then getting into the coaching area and you can see why some of these coaches are

frustrated you can see why some of these administrators are frustrated you can see why the fans are

frustrated because everything's changed well you think about the ecosystem right it was grassroots

basketball you know whatever it was football now seven on seven will go evaluate we're going to

identify these freshmen to come in our program we're going to develop them over years hopefully they

don't transfer they graduate as seniors go to the NFL do whatever they do right now in the

advent of you know you can transfer after the years over you've got a portal you know that's out

the window right you know there's still evaluation at the younger stages but in a win society

where people want to see you know that ROI in our business immediately right they got to win

so in order to win you want to go to proven commodities you talked about commodities early

proven commodities and what is that as you go into the portal you evaluate this guy played it maybe

a mid major or low major he could fit well into my high major program I see his film I see what he

did against in his non-conference games against other teams and you go and you get those individuals

now who has been better and just on that evaluating commodities who has been better at finding

the secret gems and Kurt Signetti at Indiana I mean that story this last I mean that that story

this last year you have what right unbelievable yeah they have mastered it I mean that was a

master class and how to put together a roster is he maybe rewrite in the script and maybe rewrite

in the book on how to perform at a high level you know Nick Sabin his mentor when he was at Alabama

he had the script on right he was the repeat guy that was always there competing every year

in and out and NILs would drew him out of it at least on the face of it right so here he got

Kurt Signetti who was a part of that but he's figured it out he's figured out quickly they did

a tremendous job I mean I'm not privy don't you know what they spent and you know who got water

where but when you just look at the constitution of the roster and going and finding like a Mendoza

Mendoza wow right right that mean wow that's that's incredible there's that offensive line they got

from Notre Dame that's a huge pick I mean they they they they grab that kid I mean they brought a

lot of guys over I think from JMU and yeah thank you they had 13 13 top I mean that that says a

lot about your coach too I mean if you're willing to jump and go with him to the next level that's

disruptive right and and but now you have that buy-in from your players at JMU and and beyond that

like you know how the statistics in front of you but I think they had the least amount of

four and five star players on the roster in any other school the five stars if they had any

if they had any so when you go back and look at it you know there's different ways to view talent

but you know they found the best combination versus the most amount of four and five star athletes

that you hope turned into you know national champions so spot in that talent is a unique skill that

maybe signati has in a way that others don't seems pretty clear that he might but that ain't the

whole story you got to have a pile of money to help pay for it and Indiana have that in a unique way

as well right so I mean obviously they had they had the support to do what they need to do you know

last year was a unique the revs well it wasn't revs sure at that point but you know the opportunity

to pay the players is a unique place because of the advent of the house settlement that's right so

the house settlement didn't take effect until July one so what so just for listeners what what

was that settlement so the settlement was a consolidation of cases which finally allowed the

universities to do two things they they were able to to to pay a settlement so athletes they

come through for a certain period before this time you know over a 10 year span it was about

2.5 billion in the settlement right to the to those student athletes and it allowed universities

not directly pay and they were alleging that their name image and likeness right right yeah and I

want to make that distinction yeah make make make the distinction I think it's important to understand

what that case was well well I think the distinction of what this is is really important because I

think you know when you talk about bantering and restaurants and family gatherings it's you know

it almost sounds like it's paid a play it's not it's name image likeness that's an IP right

right sure right to exploit your name image and likeness and you're right just just like the

beautiful face over here and this you know the the in the beautiful face behind the camera with all

that makeup on it but I mean it it is your face your image your likeness nobody else has a right

to put yourself and that's and that's yourself so now I'm sorry let me ask you say it's and it can

be 100% predicated on your skill on the field but it doesn't have to be if you have the ability

as an athlete to go out and maybe you're a you know kind of a midling bench player but you have

something unique about your personality the people are willing to sponsor me I mean there's no

limits to who can get name image and likeness on the right and fact I'll tell you that something

interesting I've heard of of programs that have brought in athletes that may or may not have

made a roster in the past and they have an incredible social media following right right so I

just read something every day and saw something every day that that is actually now becoming

kind of trending and because it's they're looking at it as a business right they're looking at

their rate of return that we're talking about right and that's also been some of the negative

sides right well it's a visibility I mean and just to go back to that to the name image and likeness

just pieces just for clarity right again now the student athlete can monetize that they can monetize

that you know through the university through revshare and they couldn't be for right and that was

that was illegal and you would get kicked out if you got if you if you if you did that that was

it was in fact players that even took anything beyond the scope listen when I was a my brief

fleeting association with division one sports I couldn't have a job for fear of there being

some sort of impropriety or somebody paying me for something giving me money that I wasn't didn't

last very long I didn't realize like a pillow was a sport yeah right right but yeah I mean to

the point um it's competitive aqua pala by the way well you know there's a way for us to compete

like motherfucker something yeah we'll have a karaoke session yeah okay I'm sorry to be

interrupted but no but but again now they have the opportunity through the college university to

monetize that that name image and likeness right you know first service is allowing the college

and university to exploit their name image and likeness to the benefit of the of the program right

up to the 20.5 million dollar cap which is funded by sponsorships media and ticket sales right so

this cap no this is so interesting because you know they they set this arbitrary cap

is that going to come under fire well no because I mean they have their formula okay or how

they came up with the number you know taking the average that's all part of the settlement right

it's all part of the settlement so let me say this to to your listeners the CSC has a great

website college sports commission breaks all this down for you so for those you know merits like us

who want to learn about the looks and the crannies and you know you know really get behind the

curtain you can go there and and find all the data that you want and this is very now this is

very helpful to understand how this all progressed so the initial lawsuit that arose that ended in

that 2.5 billion dollars they allege and how many years did they go back that they were alleging

was a 10 years that athletes that had already been out of sports yeah I think it went back to

I think the years 2016 right was the year 2014 one of the two um but I mean it's starting

back if you want to go back it's over the band it'll ban it yeah it'll ban you she'll

live basketball and I know that complaint was he's he's are you know you know I can remember playing

in like sports but I mean it went back to e-sports right you know and save basketball yep

where you know you're using athletes you know their likeness in the game you know exactly who they are

that was a video game it was a video game right there was licensing that came with that that

didn't go to the student athletes that's right so now you flash forward student athletes are saying

wait a second you know you're you're exploiting our intellectual property yeah and we get some of that

and so the lawsuits that kind of arose after the get Austin so it's what resulted from the settlement

there's did revshare also result from this every where we're at right now is a derivative of that

cell okay so tell the listeners how rep what revshare is and how that came about so again the

revshare is the college university's ability to pay the student athletes for the exploitation

of their name image and likeness right it's supposed to put everybody on that somewhat of an evening

even playing field but the issue is there's a cap it's 20.5 and again 20.5 is made up of I predict

that's coming to be ready to take its sales and sponsorships but here's the issue guys just

because that's the cap doesn't mean that's what you have to spend yeah right so P4s are automatically

in that group and if you're not a P4 you could opt in there was a what's a P4 power four

school okay such as you see you see a big 10 big 12 right so my wake forest even though they're

part of that group you're in that group you're in that group no but but would it allowed for a lot

of schools to do if you opted in was you know you you know one of the biggest things was you got

the roster spots right there's increased roster spots now so you know football was 85 scholarships

now it's 105 roster spots oh my you read the articles could affect walk on to another

opportunities for student athletes on you know and that's been that's been a very good if you're

looking at the pros and cons of how this was all but it's good and if you look at sports like

I think baseball has 36 roster spots now when it had 11.7 scholarships right right so that's

phenomenal and now every spot you have above those scholarships spots that you previously had

they have to come out of your revshare cap right so that's how you fund it but now if you're

a baseball program and you're fully funded you could have 36 scholarship baseball players

train some and remember I use baseball as example because I'm a baseball dad

of a kid who played you know those aren't those weren't full scholarships only for some of you

had to make 11.7 scholarships spread out across an entire roster you're a golfer sure the same

thing he's a drinker and a golfer I've golfer he could play but but but you know when you think

about that you think about the power of that you think about you know non-revenue generating sports

what they call the Olympic sports now yeah right now that's a bonus for those student athletes

now have the ability to actually be on scholarship that's right the problem is football programs carried

a lot more than 105 student athletes right so that's where it affect that's the the back end

effect now you know as it's had to have in all those walk-ons you got 105 roster spots well then

the major case you know as two lawyers talking back and forth and I think it's helpful to understand

why the college athletes athletics just did this what seemed like to the the normal person a knee

jerk kind of reaction where they just one day you weren't allowed to do it next day it's game on

see that's where somebody from like me comes in it's like we had this regulatory regime forever

and it's how we all understood amateur sports and then one day it all goes away and it seems to

the casual fan who doesn't keep up with this stuff every day I'm not you are a casual dresser

I mean those crocs are fantastic with those socks and you know that hat but yeah go ahead it

seals it seems like such a departure from the way we all came to understand amateur sports you know

I know that we all think about it as though this is like okay the kids are getting paid but

there's a whole another piece of this which is the collective right and then there's the rev

share there's the collective there's the third party deals because I mean there's still

collectives but remember out of the CSC there's a whole new you know kind of process for how you

view those because they don't want those to be you know there's third party deals that be a

circumvention of the cat right which they theoretically could be if used in an appropriate manner

right under the CSC you know there's a there's a there's a process you should go through any any

NIL deal over six hundred dollars how's it go you know it has to be put in NIL go and be evaluated

by the CSC the College Sports Commission right to see a who are you doing to deal with they want

the deals to be with the real third party they can't be just wink wink nod nod it has to be a deal

with a real entity for services all right Billy so I'm gonna fire back at that is that really free

you know we're talking and that was a suit that resulted after the settlement and that is the

is it the all Austin allston yeah allston supreme court suit where they came under fire for

antitrust because they were you know dominating this and they were and then it concurring depending

I think justice justice cabinet said you know that if you're gonna limit the players ability to do

what they want to do then they're not truly independent contractors as they would be treated on

any other industry and the college athletics is not above that right they're they're not exempt

from that and if you're gonna continue to do that then you're gonna be considered an employer

and I think that's the white elephant in the room but what my point in that regard is if you're

gonna limit their ability and you're gonna have to still go in front of a panel you're still gonna

have to go in front of a commission you still have just close all that are they not still doing the

things that the supreme court said you can't do but you have to have a framework you definitely

have to have a framework but but why do they have this framework I mean what why don't they just

let the free market flow and let the student negotiate their name image and likeness to their own

why are they involved in that negotiation well I think they're involved to try to enforce the

terms under the house settlement so that you're not exceeding the 20.5 cap right because you think

about it you could do these deals you could say I read Brad Martino I'm gonna pay you a thousand

dollars that's gonna count against this revshare cap but then I'm gonna pay you a five million

dollars see this is like this this this and a separate deal and I circumvented the cap you

so but this is where I have a really big problem with because it was a settlement that set this

cap it wasn't the courts and there's non-lawyers that's well and interesting and I would take this

back to the supreme court and say that cap is arbitrary you're you're setting a cap on the free

market that would be must see TV people well you're setting a cap for the colleges and universities

and how they can spend that money well that they can spend that that that's within their confines

right so no the student athlete can go out so the student athlete and then that's where I'm

confused those those those third-party deals do not count against the cap okay good good that

that's where I was a little bit and I appreciate you illustrating that for clarity because a lot

of people get confused no I I do I'm thinking it's a cap involved then are we still not limiting

that no free market there's a cap on what the college universities can do to exploit there's

student athletes revshare got it got it and that makes a lot of sense then you have third-party

deals which could include you know somewhat collectors but collectors have to have an actual

business purpose they can't just be a facilitator so to speak right kid could go beyond that and do

their own deal right they could go out beyond that they could do their own deal which is evaluated by

the college sports commission so now they come and they say we need to make sure these are

legitimate deals that fall within the confines of this new structure that we have and I can

understand because it's because otherwise it would just be a passing of the suit case and they

want to make sure the college universities aren't setting up companies out there to facilitate and

work their way around the cap so we have so much more discuss any you know I'm going to leave you

with this they want to know who the pay or is yeah right they want to make sure that the deal has

a valid business purpose and then there's a compensation range to make sure this all fits now we're

look you're going to see I think litigation at some point when certain deals get rejected by the

CSE because they do not all of them pass muster I think that's what I was in there there's a there's a

third party that be litigation yeah because when you talk about free market and when you talk about

value who am I to tell Brad Martino what what what Deakin Palmer is worth to him any third party deal

right and conventional wisdom would tell you you know what are the social media you know followers

look like you know what we kind of outreach do you have in the community all these other you know

factors that you could use to try to determine Deakin's a mystery right he's a mystery he's a

mystery we have so much to talk about I mean we can go on and on and at times limited this week but

you know I do want to continue this conversation I mean there's so much to talk about with NIL

we're just starting to get below the surface of why it's here and there's so much to talk about

what's going on in this day and age where the contracts are coming from why they're moving

why the timing at all where's it going in in the future and where do we see going in the future so

we're gonna wrap it up today but we'll be back here in part two with Eddie Edwards this is

definitely one conversation we want to continue to keep going right Deakin totally and you know

sending us out we just really want to say we really appreciate all of the love and support

that we've gotten so early on hopefully this conversation is is speaking your interest you want

to come back and hear the rest of it there's a lot more we're going to go through I know I'm just

trying to figure out some of the questions that I want to ask Eddie when I get a chance to talk

these guys are doing all the smooth thinking I'm focusing on the fast drinking but you know

it was a bad hair day too it was a bad hair day but you never know we were next week we might

do something special with the hair but definitely want to say thank you so much for tuning in

love you everything's better with bourbon and we're looking forward to seeing you next week everybody

cheers to that thanks Eddie thank you guys thank you guys appreciate it

cheers has been the better with bourbon podcast with Brad Martino and Deakin Palmer new episodes

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