College coach goes viral for blistering rant about money ruining young football players

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

With the landscape of college athletics ever changing, one coach is reminding his players the real reason why they're in school and is pushing against the idea of playing college football to earn money.
Earlier this year, the so-called 'House settlement' paved the way for colleges and universities to pay student-athletes part of their revenue earned from athletics each year.
This, on top of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, means that athletes have greater earning potential in college than ever before.
Couple that with the increasing popularity and use of a transfer portal and student-athletes have become akin to free agents in professional sports.
One school suffering from that is Northern Illinois University (NIU) - which competes in the Mid-America Conference (MAC) and lost 19 football players to the transfer portal after last season.
In a blistering rant, NIU head coach Thomas Hammock railed against the changing culture in the sport and reminded his players that college is about more than jumping from school to school to earn money.
As promised, here's the full video of Thomas Hammock's impassioned remarks on the state of the transfer portal.
Hammock briefly highlighted his own experience as college athlete, saying he considers the lessons he learned in college more valuable than any financial incentive.… https://t.co/hVdRaRMPCI pic.twitter.com/bkoAweblbs
— Skyler Kisellus (@skylerkisellus) August 13, 2025
'Yeah, to me, to be honest with you, I love the challenge,' Hammock told reporters in a press conference. 'It don't bother me one bit because you know what? In life, you're going to make decisions. Sometimes it's going to work in your favor, and sometimes it's not.
'I told our team the other day, "We lost all these guys. Let's see who plays." So it's all good when people put it on Twitter, Hey, all glory to God, I'm going on the transfer portal. Let's see if they play. How many of them guys going to play or travel or get snaps?
'I was going to tweet something the other day, a picture of me, and say, You know what? I enjoyed my college experience. I didn't get one dime, but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any money you can ever pay me. And I appreciate that because that is long term. People are losing the fact that this is short term.
'I coached in the National Football League for five years. Five years, right? Don't lose focus of work the long term. Get your degree, learn valuable lessons that's going to help you in the long term of your life. That's the whole purpose.
'This is a transition from being a kid to a grown up. And I hope people don't lose focus of that. Everybody's talking about everything else besides what is the most important thing for going to college. Because if you're going to college to go get a couple of dollars, you might as well go get a job. This is too hard to go get a couple of dollars.
'Learn the lesson that you need to learn to be successful in life for the next 40 to 50 years of your life. I would do it again for free, for free, because of the things I learned. That's why I'm standing here today because of what I learned in college, not because of how much somebody gave me. That's what I would tell people.
'Parents, they need to learn that lesson, too. Stop trying to live through your kids. Go teach your kids what are the things they need to learn to be successful. That's what I'm telling my kids.
'I don't care about no NIL, no revenue share. I can care less. You need to learn things in college to get you prepared for life, to be a father, a husband, to work, everything else.Those are the most important things. That's what people are missing, in my opinion. Just my opinion.'
NIU opted-into the House settlement, paving the way for the school's athletes to receive a revenue share from the university.
The Huskies went 8-5 last season - including a program-defining victory over eventual national runners-up Notre Dame in South Bend.
But the loss of those players could set the team back as they prepare for the upcoming season in just two weeks.
NIU opens their season at home on August 30, when they host Holy Cross.