Rubama: VHSL’s name, image and likeness ruling could help athletes who need it. But will it also lead to chaos?

As a fifth-grader, Kam Chancellor swept hair, cleaned clippers and took out the trash at a Norfolk barbershop to earn extra money.

Chancellor — long before his stardom with Maury High and before his days as a Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks — worked five or six days a week, and the money didn’t go toward new clothes or shoes for himself. He bought food for his brothers and sisters.

I thought of Chancellor, and the many other high school athletes like him I’ve come across, when the Virginia High School League last week finalized legislation that allows athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.

I was torn. I see the good, the bad and the potential ugly of this decision. I can see NIL helping those kinds of kids who really need it.

Former Ocean Lakes football stars Lafonte Thourogood and Eli Harold can relate. Both are now assistant football coaches at Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake.

Thourogood said that NIL money could truly help players, like Chancellor, who struggle to have the basic necessities.

“We have some guys here who don’t eat and who we have to provide food for,” said Thourogood, who played for Vanderbilt and James Madison. “They have all these obstacles that they have to go through. So I do understand.”

Harold, who played for Virginia and for five years in the NFL, agreed that the VHSL ruling on NIL could help. But there also are pitfalls.

“That would have helped a lot of our situations,” Harold said. “But there’s always a blessing and curse. I also think it could have hurt in a lot of ways because some of these guys now don’t necessarily have the mental capacity to keep that same drive when that dollar gets involved. That’s the only negative side to it.”

Under the VHSL rule, athletes can profit from social media or acting as a social media influencer; product endorsements; personal appearances; autograph sessions; merchandise or apparel sales and group licensing.

The VHSL will not allow athletes to be paid as an incentive for enrollment decisions or membership on a team or for “intellectual property” of the VHSL or any member school — meaning athletes can’t be paid for activities involving their school team, uniform, mascot, logos or school name.

My fear with NIL is that parents and street agents will manipulate the situation.

Athletes transferring already is an issue in some sports. Granted, it’s expected that only a fraction of high school athletes will broker NIL deals. But will NIL be the next problematic issue in high school sports for those athletes?

The VHSL’s legislation doesn’t allow a coach, administrator, school employee, booster club or alum to negotiate an NIL deal for athletes, but what’s to stop the parents and street agents from getting involved?

Former longtime area football coach Cadillac Harris fears the worst. He sees kids making ill-advised decisions through no fault of their own.

“What immediately might look good could have a long-term effect,” Harris said. “Potentially, it has a chance to make it worse. It depends on the (athlete’s) support system and what they’re rooted and grounded in. Otherwise, they’re just going to be running all over the place. You already see it in the college ranks and what college coaches are having to deal with it.”

Corey Coffer, the Princess Anne High boys basketball coach, also isn’t a fan of NIL coming to high school sports.

“We are talking about youth athletes that’s going to start seeking out high schools solely on who can provide them with NIL opportunities,” he said. “These teenagers have no clue what to do with that money. More times than not, that money will be going to adults that are living vicariously through these athletes’ abilities.

“Let’s get back to putting the focus on developing respectable young men and women and preparing them for the real world, as opposed to worrying about how much money we can pay them to land the next star athlete. It’s going to be chaotic just like the college game is turning into a joke, and so many kids leaving schools seeking the highest bidder.”

Maury football coach Dyrri McCain is concerned about who will direct the athletes and their choices.

On one hand, he’d love to see players like Chancellor benefit from it to help their family situation. But he also knows not every athlete has someone looking out for their best interests.

“If you do get a deal, you have to make sure you have the right guys around you to make good decisions with those deals,” said McCain, who starred in football for Maury and Hampton University. “I think that’s huge because I think that you have some people who will use it for the wrong thing. You have guys losing their love for the game over their love for money.

”Whoever the guardian is, hopefully they are smart enough to help this kid out because at the end of the day, it’s going to come back on the kid.”

So let’s hope the NIL decision will be used the right way and be a good thing. But forgive me if I have doubts.

Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com Follow @LHRubama on Twitter.