Thomas Hammock gained national recognition at the start of the 2024 college football season, when his Northern Illinois Huskies pulled off a shocking upset at Notre Dame.
Hammock's postgame message earned him a lot of fans.
Almost a year later, Hammock has gotten some more attention. This time, it's for a long monologue about NIL payments to college football players. The name, image and likeness deals often disadvantage smaller Division I schools, like NIU, as their players leave for dollars at bigger institutions.
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It's worth reading every word that Hammock had to say, so here he goes:
"I told our team the other day, we lost all these guys, let's see who plays. It's all good when people put on Twitter, 'All glory to God, I'm going in the transfer portal.' Let's see if they play. How many of them guys gonna play or travel or get snaps?
"I was gonna tweet something the other day, a picture of me and say, 'You know what? I enjoyed my college experience. I didn't get one dime, but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any money you could ever pay me.' And I appreciate that, because that is long term.
"People are losing the fact that this is short term. I coached in the National Football League for five years. Five years. Don't lose focus on what the long term. Get your degree, learn valuable lessons that's going to help you in the long term of your life. That's the whole purpose.
"This is a transition from being a kid to a grownup, and I hope people don't lose focus of that. Everybody's talking about everything else besides what is the most important thing for going to college. Because if you're going to college to get a couple dollars, you might as well go get a job. This is too hard to go get a couple dollars.
"Learn the lessons that you need to learn to be successful in life for the next 40 to 50 years of your life. I would do it again for free. For free, because of the things I learned. That's why I'm standing here today, because of what I learned in college, not because of what somebody gave me.
"That's what I would tell people. And parents, they need to learn that lesson, too. Stop trying to live through your kids. Go teach your kids what are the things they need to learn to be successful. That's what I'm telling my kids.
"I don't care about no NIL, no revenue share. I (can't) care less. You need to learn things in college to get you prepared for life to be a father, a husband, to work, everything else. Those are the most important things. That's what people are missing, in my opinion. Just my opinion."
The coach pretty much said it all there.
Everyone has their own perspective on NIL, but Hammock's is definitely one worth considering. He hits on all the key points, and it certainly makes you think.
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