Phil Williams Commentary: College football needs to fix its 'opt-out' problem

There were bowl games galore in the early part of January. Some of them were the run-up to the Jan. 8 college football championship game. On every one of those fields, kids were playing hard for their teams ….. well, at least most of them.

This bowl season saw a rash of what has been referred to as “opt-outs:” players deciding it was just too risky to play a post-season game with their team out of concern it could hurt their chances in the upcoming NFL Draft.

I understand the desire to play for millions of dollars a year in the National Football League. At the same time, the players' teams were left hanging while they took care of themselves.

What happened to putting the team above yourself? In this present day of the transfer portal, big money for the use of their name, image or likeness (NIL), and now of opting out to take care of No. 1, I have to ask an unpopular question: Have we raised a generation of self-centered overly-entitled sissies?

In 2024, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams and one major bowl game executive recently asked the question: “What if they threw the biggest national championship party ever, but the best players didn’t show up?”

In 2016, Leonard Fournette of LSU, and Christian McCaffery of Stanford, caused a stir by skipping their postseason bowl games. Both were expected to go early in the NFL Draft and the chance to earn generational wealth was deemed too much to risk.

Since then, opting out has become all too common. Florida State was opt-out central at the Orange Bowl this year. ESPN recounts that the Seminoles played “without their top two quarterbacks, top two running backs, top two receivers, starting tight end, three starting defensive linemen, two of three starting linebackers and three starting defensive backs. They were down 29 scholarship players in all.” FSU was routed, 63-3, by Georgia.

Afterward Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said, “People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this.” He went on to say, “It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program and they’re in the position they’re in.”

Across the nation, top players told their teams that their own personal well-being was more important than their team experiencing victory. “I got mine. You get yours. Good luck, fellas.”

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the team meant more than anything. Rudy Ruettiger dressed out for just one home game to play for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Young kids grew up dreaming of playing for Paul W. "Bear" Bryant. Other kids had aspirations of playing on the big fields like the Rose Bowl and the Superdome in that one extra bowl game.

Football was that place where you learned the value of being an integral part of the team and even when you were hurt, you begged to play just one more game with your team.

Football legend Peyton Manning did that. Raised in a football family, Manning played for the University of Tennessee. In his junior season in 1996, Manning led the SEC with 243 pass completions and a 64% completion rate. The 1996 Citrus Bowl is legendary. By season's end, Manning was a top contender for the Heisman Trophy and predicted to be a first round NFL Draft pick. He could leave Tennessee at the top of his game. But in January of 1997 Peyton Manning asked for a press conference.

Wearing a coat and tie, and working with notes that he had prepared in advance, Manning said that he had sought wise counsel, prayed over it, and really wrestled with what to do. He made it clear it was a decision that he did not take lightly. He spoke about how much college football and his teammates had meant to him. But he said that he had made up his mind and would never look back, saying, “I’m going to stay at the University of Tennessee.”

The crowd went wild.

With everything to lose, Manning decided to return to his college team for his senior year. He made no money from selling his name, image and likeness, and there was not a transfer portal to move to a bigger school.

In Manning’s senior year, his team rallied with him and went 10-1, beating Auburn for the SEC championship, and coming one game shy of finishing as the No. 1 team in the nation. Manning was named that year as a first team All-American and second overall for the Heisman. He blew away his stats from the prior season, finishing his college career with over 11,000 yards passing.

He was a first-round draft pick and went on to become one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history with 14 Pro Bowl appearances, five times as the NFL Most Valuable Player, and played in four Super Bowls. Seven years after his senior year at Tennessee, the university retired his number and one of the streets leading to Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium was named after him.

Funny how all of that worked out. The idea of being with his team was all that it took for one of the greatest players in football history to stay on. He could have left and no one would have faulted him. But he loved his team, and his team played their hearts out for him because of it.

We need more people who are willing to risk it all for the bigger picture. People who are able to say “This is about more than just me.” It starts by instilling in our young men the idea that being a part of at team is still meaningful.

Opt-outs are cop outs, and coach Smart was right: “We’ve got to fix this.”

Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Phil Williams on college football players opting out of bowl games