by John Walters
Knight Moves*
*The judges will also accept “Getting His Phil” or “Bucks For Ducks”
It’s been a sweet 24 hours for Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight. Yesterday Nike announced its quarterly earnings after the bell, beating both top- and bottom-line estimates (we don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds impressive). Today shares of the stock soared 12% (coincidentally, about $12/share). Knight owns 40 million shares of NKE stock, which if you carry the one and divide by, I dunno, it’s around a $500 million payday. In one day.
And so what, you say? Well, the University of Oregon football program is an unofficial subsidiary of Nike (Knight ran X-country there forever ago), and today is national signing day, and with NIL now you can basically buy the team you want. We’re not sure this is why 5-star safety Peyton Bowen, out of Denton, Texas, flipped his commitment from Notre Dame to Oregon this morning, but we’d not rule it out.
The Irish did land another 5-star named Bowen, linebacker Drayk Bowen out of Indy. Oregon finishes with the 8th-best recruiting class, according to 24/7 Sports, Notre Dame with the 9th. The Irish were as high as 3rd a week ago but lost both Bowen and another 5-star, Keon Keeley, the latter of whom chose Alabama.
Quick story about Knight: He met his wife, Penny, when she was taking an accounting class he taught at a juco in Portland. His company, not yet called Nike, was a one-room office with two employees so he taught to earn a few extra bucks. In walked this student whom he referred to as a “Julie Christie lookalike” (which was saying A LOT in the late Sixties) who happened to be the best student in class. Phil offered her a job. The rest is history.
What Next For The Irish (Stanford? Etc.) ?
This tweet says it all…
Hence, I’m curious to see how my alma mater will react and/or respond to the NIL tsunami that really has yet to crash on the shores of college football yet. Worth noting that between 1870 and 1900, the first 30 years of college football, three schools accounted for every national championship: Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Now, sure, not as many schools played football, but now it’s 2022 and none of those Ivy League bastions figure into the national championship. Yet the institutions have not diminished a whit: in fact, they are all ranked in the Top 5 academically in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.
During the era of the two World Wars and in the period between, Army became a national powerhouse, winning a few natties and accounting for three Heisman Trophy winners. The Cadets still play FBS football, but it’s been decades since they’ve been relevant in terms of the national title.
So whither the Irish, or Stanford (Nos. 19 and 4, respectively, academically)? Do they want to remain part of the Football Industrial Complex as it enters its nuclear age? For now, the Irish still have the prestige to compete while Stanford has a YUUUUUUUUGE endowment and a sublime campus and climate. But we’ll have to see how NIL affects student-athlete dynamics and whether seven-figure quarterbacks will even be required to take classes (take a bow, Cardale Jones! You’ve won).
Spoke Just Like A Baroness
One of our all-time favorite films, The Sound Of Music, aired on ABC Sunday night. We sat through all of the commercials because it’s a sheer classic and it reminded us that Julie Andrews ruined us: ever since first seeing this film we’ve had a penchant for guitar-playing nuns who make their own clothes.
Anyway, as we watched, for the first time we gave a little thought about what ever happens to The Baroness (played by Eleanor Parker). We know she’s a wealthy widow, based in Vienna, and when Captain Von Trapp gently dumps her (what is Austria doing with Naval officers, by the way? It’s a land-locked country), she tells him with a smile that she’ll just have to return to Vienna and find a man who needs her…or needs her money (Don’t sell yourself, short, sister: you’re a dish!).
Anyway, that’s where she makes her head-held-high exit (even if she did scheme to vanish Maria). But what comes next? The Nazis, of course, and is anyone or their wealth safe in an occupied country?
And here’s where we’d like to get Netflix or Apple TV on the phone and pitch The Baroness as a series. What becomes of her? Does she save her skin (and money) by marrying or even becoming a mistress of an SS officer? Or does she work with the resistance (a more interesting sub-plot) while still wearing elbow-length while gloves? So many possibilities. Tell us you’re not intrigued.