Forwarded this newsletter by someone in your network and want to receive it yourself? Subscribe here 

Got any feedback for me? Respond to this email or on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter).

Good Thursday Morning. Here’s the rundown of this week’s Sports Business Playbook:

• 📰 This Week’s Topic: Arizona Cardinals’ rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has taken a unique approach to his first few weeks in the NFL and not signed a group licensing deal with the NFL Players Association. The move is bold and a sign of the times for big names in NIL-era college sports entering the pros.

• 🍸️ Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party: Want to show off your sports knowledge in a public setting but don’t have time to read the deep dive? Hit the “Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party” section at the bottom for a CliffsNotes of this week’s topic

• 🤯 “Whoa of the Week”: The NFL gets Netflix for Christmas, Caitlin Clark sets another record during her debut, and women’s soccer continues to ascend.

• 💪 Weekly Reminders that Sports are Awesome: The Mariners’ amazing promotion from heaven, and the Chargers social media team remains undefeated during NFL schedule release season.

Hey team,

The NFL Draft was a few weeks ago. Now, most of the drafted rookies have reported to mini-camp with their respective teams, and we’ve already begun to hear the bantering in the Twittersphere about which guys are the missing piece, the franchise saviors, or the surefire busts based upon out of context video from a few non-contact drills and what the local ESPN beat reporter picked up in a conversation with the offensive quality control assistant.

Football season is so back.

Off the field, fans now have the opportunity to buy all of the touted rookies’ jerseys through the official NFL Shop, powered by Fanatics.

Well, all of them except one.

Star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (MHJ), the fourth overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals out of Ohio State and son of NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison, has not signed the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) group licensing agreement (GLA), which allows over 80 partnering companies to use the players’ name, image, and likeness, including Fanatics.

Until an agreement is reached, no official NFL apparel with his name can be sold, and he can’t be featured in other prominent NFL-adjacent products like the Madden video games.

MHJ’s decision is unique and bold, and it’s an empowering sign of the times for big names in NIL-era college sports betting on themselves as they enter the pros.

In this week’s SBP, you’ll learn:

• What is a GLA and the leagues traditionally use them

• Who is MHJ and what are his motivations for holding out

• Why it matters in the broader context of sports licensing

What is Group Licensing

A GLA is an agreement between a player and the league’s player association where the players association has exclusive rights to market a player's name, image, likeness, and other personal marks — i.e., signature and voice.

The NFLPA introduced the GLA in 1972 to protect the marketing rights of its players and ensure players receive a share of the revenue generated. In today’s world, it’s how players end up in Madden and have jerseys, memorabilia, and trading cards sold by retailers like Fanatics.

Here’s how it works in practice.

If a company wants to use six or more players in a promotion, it has to have a GLA with the NFLPA. The company must then pay each of the players a cut of the revenue. That “cut” can increase based upon the star power of certain players and how much revenue they drive.

As you would expect, this is a big business.

Almost all leagues utilize a GLA of some sort, and there are now standalone entities — i.e., OneTeam Partners, Winners’ Alliance — that will represent these associations out in the market as they help negotiate licensing deals on behalf of the players.

In 2023, most NFL players earned about $30,000 in royalty payments, and higher profile players earned more than six figures. The biggest stars, though, — i.e., Patrick Mahomes — could make $4+ million dollars annually due to their outsized popularity in jersey sales and other memorabilia.

It’s important to note that this does not preclude the individual players from going out and signing individual sponsorship deals (i.e., Mahomes and State Farm), and while union membership is mandatory, players are not required to sign the GLA.

In fact, while this is usually an incredibly routine procedure and nearly every rookie signs up for the GLA during the NFL Combine, there is some precedence for players not signing.

Former NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington did not sign the GLA, so he was never in the Madden game. A wackier occurrence happened in the MLB when Barry Bonds refused to sign on with the MLBPA. This led to a (white) power hitting mystery man named “Jon Dowd” playing outfield for the San Francisco Giants in the iconic MVP Baseball games in the early 2000’s.

While it has been done before in rare instances, I think Harrison’s motivations are different from these former players.

Why is Harrison doing this?

Harrison was a star wide receiver at Ohio State for three years. Despite being 0-3 in his career against a certain in-conference tea〽️ (had to do it!), he accumulated myriad accolades for his on-field performance and was considered one of, if not the, best pound-for-pound player in college football.

He cashed in via NIL off the field as well, including a reported $1 million memorabilia deal with Fanatics.

Because he was surefire top pick, Harrison has not done things done by the book ahead of the NFL Draft. To put it in perspective, here’s how the process goes for most players:

• Go to the NFL Combine and do some or all of the drills (i.e., 40-yard dash, vertical jump, throwing [if a QB], and running routes [if a WR/RB/TE]), and meet with teams for interviews

• Work out at your school’s Pro Day — an event on campus where all draft eligible players can work out for NFL scouts

• Fly around the country to have private workouts and meet with interested teams. Each team can invite up to 30 players.

Harrison, on the other hand, skipped the Combine, did not participate in Ohio State’s pro day workout, and had two team meetings total before the Draft. In short, MHJ bet on himself and dictated the terms of engagement with teams.

And it worked out in his favor, as he was the first non-QB taken, going #4 overall to the Arizona Cardinals.

Now that he’s officially made it to the NFL, he’s looking at the GLA and seeing a similar leverage point.

Given that he was making seven figures guaranteed in college off of Fanatics and he’s now being moved into more of a variable, revenue share-based model with the GLA, it’s likely that he wants to renegotiate with them and reach some form of exclusive agreement.

Not signing the GLA is one move he has to try to bring them to the table.

In the interim, he is free to negotiate individual deals with brands. He has already negotiated a shoe/apparel deal with New Balance and locked in an endorsement arrangement with shampoo company Head & Shoulders, and I would expect his team is actively working on others.

Plus, he is currently selling signed memorabilia — photos, college jerseys/helmets — on his own website, aptly named The Official Harrison Collection, for a few hundred dollars a piece.

What does this mean for the broader sports licensing landscape?

Is MHJ really losing out on that much right now by just doing it on his own? The answer is probably no.

He’s got major name recognition and will be able to drive significant revenue via other endorsements, and he can afford to wait Fanatics out.

Fanatics, on the other hand, has an interesting dilemma.

According to John Weinfuss of ESPN, no one from the NFL or Fanatics has given up information on how much money MHJ could have made if he had signed the GLA and his jersey had gone up for sale like other players.

The reason for playing it close to the chest feels fairly obvious. The more ho hum the GLA signing process with rookies is, the better it is for Fanatics.

Having to negotiate incremental deals with star players in each rookie class or risk a similar holdout is both inefficient and costly. But, they also cannot afford to cave on this quickly because it will set the precedent for players in subsequent classes that this is a viable path.

I bet Fanatics finds a middle ground and negotiates with him on an exclusive collection. He signs the GLA and the general jersey sales begin to flow, and they work out a separate deal for game worn, signed memorabilia and other exclusives.

This model has been done before before with other superstars across sports — Tom Brady, Shohei Ohtani, and Bryce Harper — so it’s not unheard of. The major difference is that MHJ is forcing their hand ahead of his rookie season, so there are more unknowns with how his career will pan out.

To be clear, the type of hardball that MHJ is playing is not going to work for every major college player entering the pros.

But, it’s a potential roadmap for the high end stars whose games translate well to the NFL. You could see a very similar playbook being run by someone like Shedeur Sanders next year in the event he performs well and is drafted high.

Despite all of the criticisms of NIL, many of which are valid, the MHJ negotiation is a good example of the positive aspects of the concept.

It has leveled the playing field in the business-to-player relationship, and it has enabled the marquee players to develop leverage in college that they can carry forward as they begin their pro careers.

Most importantly, though, it has conditioned the players to be more aware of their value and the agency they have in this process.

That’s a win.

🍸️ Impress Your Friends at a Cocktail Party

Want to show off your sports knowledge in a public setting but don’t have time to read the deep dive? This section is the CliffsNotes of this week’s topic

• Opener: Arizona Cardinals’ rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has taken a unique approach to his first few weeks in the NFL and not signed a group licensing deal with the NFL Players Association. The move is bold and means his NIL cannot appear on group licensed items like jerseys, memorabilia, or video games (i.e., Madden), to name a few.

• Shot: GLAs have been around for 50+ years and are meant to protect players while ensuring they get a cut of the revenue. If a brand wants to use six or more players for their advertising or product, they need a GLA. This ubiquitous across all sports, and the NFL has 80+ GLA partners at this point. Players can make between $30,000 to several million dollars based upon how big of a fanbase they have.

• Shot: MHJ was a star on the field at Ohio State, and that allowed him to build a significant NIL portfolio off the field. He had an existing deal with Fanatics that reportedly paid him $1 million or more per year.

• Shot: This GLA is normally noncontroversial and is signed by rookies during the NFL Combine. MHJ has done his whole pre-Draft process differently though, and he’s now looking to use the GLA as leverage to try to bring Fanatics back to the table.

• Chaser: The type of hardball that MHJ is playing is not going to work for every major college player entering the pros, but it’s a potential roadmap for the high end stars whose games translate well to the NFL.

  Despite all of the criticisms of NIL, this is a good example of the positive aspects of the concept. It has leveled the playing field in the business to player relationship, and it has enabled the marquee players to develop leverage in college that they can carry forward as they begin their pro careers. Most importantly, though, it has conditioned the players to be more aware of their value and the agency they have in this process.

🤯 “Whoa” of the Week

Insane, mind-blowing things constantly happen in the sports business world. Here was my favorite of the past week.

1. The NFL gets Netflix for Christmas

2. Of course Caitlin Clark’s debut set a record

3. Women’s soccer with another monster number

💪 Weekly Reminder that Sports are Awesome

This newsletter is, of course, mostly centered on the business side of sports and the things that happen off the field. That being said, it’s important to remember why we fell in love with sports in the first place, though.

This section is meant to highlight the amazing things that happened in sports this week that serve as that reminder.

1. The Mariners’ “Hot Dogs from Heaven” promotion is next level

2. The Chargers’ social media team continues to dominate the NFL schedule release. Watch until the end credits for a fun dig at Harrison Butker, who recently made some, let’s just say, interesting, remarks during a commencement speech recently.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what feedback you have.

Also, if you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider sharing it with your friends and network by clicking the social media icons at the top of the newsletter.

Until next time, sports fans!

-Alex