Haslam supposedly wants Arch Manning

According to friends in Cleveland, Jim Haslam has a real boner to draft Arch Manning. I hope he trades a package of draft picks to someone in order to move up in the draft, and then Manning stays in for another year.
You would think Haslam would have learned something from the Watson fiasco.
Manning certainly has the bloodline, but really has hardly played to this point.
We should float the rumor that the Steelers are going to pony up a king’s ransom in draft capital to get Manning at any cost. Then Haslam would be sure to do anything to prevent that from happening. He might be provoked into shooting himself in the foot once again.

 

I mean... Jimmy Haslam is also one of the closest owners to Peyton Manning. Rather, his friendship with the Manning Family is more known than others. It doesn't surprise me personally.


This all said, Arch isn't declaring for 2026. 2027 is likely when barring extreme circumstances.

 

Regardless of friendship, would the Manning family want Arch to play for the Browns? It’s where quarterbacks go to die. Their careers do, anyway.
Arch’s name could be on the bottom of the quarterback jersey, if there is room. Ever see it? It is awesome.

 

Would they?! Very doubtful.


Peyton, Archie and Eli are all well known of the depravity that is the Browns Franchise. Letting Arch go there is no different than driving a Bughatti through a suspicious neighborhood. That said, look for Jimmy Haslam to force, rather "convince", Kevin Stephanski or whomever the next HC is to throw the season to nab him.

 

Unless is has changed, a player cannot declare for the draft, then choose to opt back to college after the draft, he could just refuse to go for a year and reenter, but would lose millions doing so Arch will make his decision after this year, so far he has allegedly stated he will return for another year, things change over night when millions of bucks are on the line.

 

I'd put 200 on it that he will not come out this year.
1. Mannings all preach learning all You can in college.
2. He is making NIL money.
3. He is from a family that nobody is hurting for money.
4. His Grandfather already said he wasn't.

 

This.

 

Someone is going to Challenge the rule that college kids can't go back to college after they get drafted. Could Arch be the man who gets drafted by an NFL team he doesn't like, and then decides to go back to college? It would be another Only in Cleveland story.

Qwen Ewers this year had a $5 million offer on the table and then slipped in the draft to the 7th round. A lot of rumors out there was that Qwen was going to challenge this rule, but he signed his NFL contract and that ended that. The rookie from Cleveland was rumored to be thinking about returning to college and challenging this rule after he started to have problems with his contract offer.

I don't see why a college player that has an agent and a NIL deal, should be banned from the NCAA if he puts his name in the NFL draft and then never actually signs a contract. Now that college Athletes are no longer Amateur athletes, there should be nothing preventing them from returning to college and playing if they still have eligibility left.

 

True.
I said that when NIL money came in to play, there would be a player who actually took a pay cut to go to the NFL. I wonder if that has already happened? Someone who had a bigger presence in college than was warranted, and who was drafted lower than he hoped. I wonder if Shadeur Sanders took a pay cut to go to the Browns? Anyone know?
Where does NIL money come from, anyway? Guys who are barely old enough to drive shilling for car dealerships owned by alumni? Guys who are barely old enough to shave endorsing razors? At first I thought it was corrupting the college game, but I think it is more honest with the money a bit more out in the open. It is a bit more honest, anyway.

 

Float a rumor? Heck, half the people on here are on the Arch Manning or bust bandwagon already.

 

Sanders definitely lost money. He had multi-millions in NIL deals. He had deals with brands like Nike, Gatorade, Beats by Dre, Google, and the 5430 Alliance. His rookie deal is 4 yr/$4.6M with <500k guaranteed. Now those brands can still deal with him but big money donors loyal to the college will not.

 

You know I've been thinking, and talking about it with other people, and since they are getting paid anyway now, I believe the College football should go to a draft now. Think of how much more even teams would be.

 

The Haslam family runs Knoxville and UT and has for a long time. Even way before NIL, if you think that Peyton and his Dad weren't raking in the $$$ from the Haslams back in the mid to late 90's, you'd have to be delusional. Peyton is UT and Knoxville royalty. Those connections between Haslams and Mannings runs pretty deep. I think this idea has a better than average chance of happening at some point. It will be interesting to watch it play out.

BTW, to give you an idea of how much influence the Haslam family has. The UT system board of trustees recently created a new at-large seat on the board. Who got the seat, you ask? None other than Jimmy's brother Bill, who was former Knoxville mayor and two term governor of TN. That's right, the seat was created so the Haslam family can have even more control over UTK and what happens down here. I realize we're not talking about TN/UT when it comes to Arch Manning. But just trying to give a bit more insight about the relationship between Haslams and Mannings. It's real.

 

Big money donors funded NIL when it first started. Now the schools can pay the athletes directly, so that means the schools are ramping up their fundraising machines and efforts. Add to that the recent settlement that schools have to pay former athletes and fund NIL deals for non-revenue sports like swimming and womens softball, the schools are trying to raise cash. They are doing that by trying to attract big money. More suites, corporate sponsorships, events, entertainment districts around the stadiums, etc. It is causing ticket prices to go through the roof. Season tickets for many of these top tier programs have become untouchable unless you're rich AF or decide to eat beanie weenies all winter long. Here at UT, they added a 10% increase for "talent fee" on top of a 5% increase in ticket prices for this season. Gone are the days, when a dad could take his 2 young boys to take in a local college football game on a cool fall Saturday in October unless willing to shell out a couple grand. Even against some D3 cupcake who comes to town to get a big payday and take a beatdown. NIL destroyed college football. I liked it better when big donors were delivering wads of cash in McDonald's bags.

 

So is it fair to say that the Haslams control the entirety of the University of Tennessee then?!


I'd be under the impression that the NCAA would investigate this; only to be reminded that they are incapable of doing... much of anything.

 

Pretty much. When my kids or their friends used to say, oh I have a class in the Haslam building. It's like, which one? The school of business is the Haslam school of business cause Jimmy's dad paid for it. Jimmy's mom, Natalie has her name on the school of music and the UT practice field is the Haslam field. Now Bill is a UT trustee. Nothing happens at UTK without buy-in from the Haslams - including Phil Fulmer getting canned in 2008. NCAA doesn't f*** with them because they'll lose. We saw that with NIL. UT punched the NCAA right in the dick.

 

All the more reason the NCAA shall continue to lose.


UT has officially opened up Pandoras Box. The question now becomes how many more levels of cataclysm await?!