💵 Why Jeremiah Smith is Paying $160,000/Year to Play at Ohio State

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Call me old-fashioned, but one of the things baseball does better than any other sport is build its stadiums in cities.

If you’ve never seen these charts before, they’re some of my favorite data visualizations in all of sports:

• Location of MLB ballparks in relation to downtown/city center

• Location of NFL stadiums in relation to downtown/city center

There’s a video idea in there somewhere, I just have to find it.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why Jeremiah Smith is Paying $160,000/Year to Play at Ohio State

📉 Biggest Loser: The Bears Are Leaving Chicago (For Real This Time)

🏆 Winner’s Circle: How Jerry Jones Losing a $300K Coin Flip Led to Donald Trump’s Presidency

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🗞 The Big Story

Jeremiah Smith is paying $160,000 per year to play at Ohio State, but it’s actually one of the smartest financial decisions in all of sports.

NFL Draft Eligibility: Admittedly, football is a weird sport. Because even though Smith led the Big 10 in receiving yards and touchdowns as a true freshman last year and would have easily been the No. 1 overall pick in the most recent draft, according to Dan Orlovsky, he’s not actually allowed to declare for the NFL until 2027.

Fortunately, Smith will still earn millions of dollars every year while he’s at Ohio State, but even his estimated $4.2 million NIL valuation pales in comparison to what he’ll be making once he actually gets drafted. Still, there’s no guarantee that he’ll actually see any of that money.

Let’s just say Smith does get drafted first overall in 2027 – if we just used what the number 1 overall pick got paid this year, Smith’s first contract would be worth over $48 million – and that’s not even accounting for rookie salary increases over the next two years.

But what happens if Smith somehow suffers a career-ending injury while he’s still in college, and suddenly goes from earning millions of dollars in the NFL to nothing at all?

Unfortunately, in a sport as violent as football, that’s a real possibility, which is why at the end of last season, Smith’s family did something that very few players can afford to do.

Smith’s Security: Before the most recent College Football Playoff, Smith purchased something called a permanent total disability insurance policy, or PTD, to protect himself in case he suffers a career-ending injury.

According to Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports, this insurance policy protects Smith from any career-ending injury both on and off the field, and expires on August 1, 2027, or when he signs an NFL contract, whichever comes first.

The Cost: But while a policy like this may sound like a no-brainer, it’s actually extremely rare for a player as young as Smith. That’s because with two years of college football still ahead of him, the amount he has to pay every year for this insurance is insanely high. In fact, according to one industry source, it likely costs Smith up to $8,000 per million of coverage per year.

Which means, with a reported $20 million policy, Smith is likely paying $160,000 per year for this plan. However, on the bright side, if Smith were to suffer a career-ending injury between now and Draft day, he’d get paid out $20 million and likely be set for life.

And honestly, if he’s already making $4-5 million per year in college, hedging your bets is really the smart financial move here.

📉 Biggest Loser

What the hell is going on with the Chicago Bears? And no, I’m not talking about Caleb Williams or Ben Johnson, I’m talking about the fact that after months of threatening to leave Chicago to build a new stadium, the team just made a decision that football fans everywhere should be pissed about.

Background: If you recall, back in 2023, the Chicago Bears purchased an old horse racing track in Arlington Heights, a suburb over 35 miles away from Soldier Field, for $197 million and released the renderings below for a new stadium complex.

However, those plans were quickly derailed after Arlington Heights denied the team’s request to lower its property taxes. Instead, the team released these renderings in 2024 for a $4.7 billion dome right next to the team’s current stadium on Chicago’s lakefront.

The only issue with this proposal was that it required $2.4 billion in public funding, which Illinois governor JB Pritzker called a “nonstarter.”

Backtracking: So, as a result, the team turned their attention back to Arlington Heights, where, after two years of going back and forth, they finally announced that they’ll be building their new stadium in the suburbs.

Now, don’t get me wrong, even though Soldier Field is a dump, I hate it when teams move to the suburbs, but that’s not even close to the worst part about this decision.

Because in the line directly following the stadium announcement, Bear’s President, Kevin Warren, brags about how this new stadium will require “zero state money for construction,” but that’s not even close to the full story.

Behind the Move: See, while it is true that Illinois taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the $2.4 billion in public funding requested for the lakefront stadium, what Warren isn’t telling you is that as a part of the team’s move out to the suburbs, the team cut a sweetheart deal with the city resulting in them receiving a $5 million tax break every single year.

The team is even currently trying to lobby for a bill that would allow them to freeze their property taxes going forward, likely saving them millions more annually.

But honestly, I’m not sure if I’m more upset at the fact that an organization worth $8.9 billion is trying to screw their own community out of $5 million every year or that one of the best views in all of football is now being abandoned forever.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

How did Jerry Jones' losing $300,000 on a coin flip lead to Donald Trump becoming president?

Stick with me on this one, I promise it all connects in the end.

Cowboys’ First Sale: In 1984, a rare opportunity emerged for a few of the country’s richest men: one of the most popular football teams in the country was for sale for just $50 million. Naturally, a potential Cowboys’ sale attracted suitors from all over the place, including one real estate billionaire from New York City named Donald Trump.

See, Trump had been trying for years to buy a professional football team; however, he publicly rejected the idea that the struggling Dallas Cowboys were worth $50 million, even telling the New York Times, “I feel sorry for the poor guy who is going to buy the Dallas Cowboys… he’ll be known to the world as a loser.”

Instead, Trump decided to save some money and buy the New Jersey Generals of the recently formed USFL for $10 million that same year, claiming that there would be more room for profit in a new professional football league.

A Second Chance: Now, of course, Trump was wrong, and the USFL filed for bankruptcy just three years later, at which point he was given another chance to buy the Dallas Cowboys, but this time for $150 million. However, what he didn’t know at that time was that he’d have to go up against another businessman who was willing to gamble everything.

Even though the Dallas Cowboys were reportedly losing $1 million per month in 1988, an oil tycoon named Jerry Jones decided to put up his entire net worth to buy the team.

Jerry describes how the deal was agreed upon on the back of a napkin one night, but as we recently found out, it only happened because Jerry and then-owner, Bum Bright, decided to settle their final disagreement over who owed the last $300,000 with a coin flip.

Jerry ended up losing the flip and had to pony up an extra $300,000 to buy the team – but by moving so quickly, he denied Trump yet another chance at buying America’s team.

And even though Trump would try two more times to get into NFL ownership, including as recently as 2014, he was never able to get a seat at the table and decided to instead spend his time running for president.

Talk about a butterfly effect.

⏱️ In Other News

• The truth behind college football’s latest $40K marketing stunt

• Baseball is Ruining Gambling

• How Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin invented the beer cart

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

I want to shout out my favorite new creator, @Data_By_Faro.

This legend built his own computer model to predict NFL games and went 11-2 in the first week. By the time you read this, the game will have already happened, but for what it’s worth, he’s taking the Packers over the Commanders.

@data_by_faro

#fyp #nfl #espn