Flip-flop

 I love college football. I can spend hours watching games or listening to them on the radio. I think that my love for the sport really blossomed during my time in college where we would spend Saturday’s tailgating outside the field, smoking meat and cutting up with friends. This was before the days of the transfer portal and NIL. It was back when loyalty and player development meant something. Nowadays it seems like players don’t play for the love of the game or the name on the front of the jersey, but rather they are out for themselves and whoever will give them the best deal for their talents.

I cannot fault these young athletes for wanting to get paid for the merchandise that bears their name. I do however think that we are sending the wrong message to kids at the high school level and younger. We are teaching kids that hard work doesn’t matter as much as natural talent. We are sending the message to kids that instead of learning and maturing, it’s better to transfer where someone will pay you more money. This doesn’t just relate to sports either. If you look at the employment field, all this is teaching kids is that they don’t need to work to improve themselves, they can just go to a different job where they might get a little more money. As an employer, I’d be a little concerned if someone applied for a job and their resume showed that they never spent very much time in one spot. I’d begin to question their loyalty to a company. I’d wonder if after I spent my time and resources trying to make them better if they were going to jump ship and go somewhere else.

In the ranching world, you play a long game. The bull that you buy at the bull sale this spring won’t have an impact on your steer crop until a year and a half later, and if you keep heifers, he won’t have an impact for two years when you will see calves out of them. I think that player development is a lot like this. Coaches recruit players that have some natural talent, they also recruit players that are coachable and willing to work hard to grow as players and as young adults. With bulls, most of the time you get a first-year guarantee if they get hurt or are unable to perform. Some of these players don’t even give you a six-month guarantee. These universities are spending astronomical amounts of money on players that get their tail in a tether and fly the coop without so much as a chance of letting the coaches or universities see the fruits of their labor.

I don’t know what the answer is to fix this problem, but I’d sure like to see some of the powers that be do something about it. Maybe limit the number of times that a player can transfer schools or force them to sit out a certain number of games when they do transfer. That goes the same for the coaches that abandon their team before they even get to the bowl game, they earned a bid too. I for one believe that values of loyalty and patience need to be taught to some of these kids. Take advantage of your opportunity when it comes, but don’t keep flip flopping around between schools without making a difference at the one that you chose.

 A very wise friend of mine once told me that it is best to bloom where you are planted. It’s hard to produce any fruit when the roots are shallow. That’s all for this time, keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire and God bless.

Meinzer is a fourth-generation rancher raised on the southeastern plains of Colorado. He and his family live and ranch in Oshkosh, Neb.