Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players

It's well known nowadays that millions of dollars are flowing to college football players. Now that players are allowed to do endorsements through name, image, and likeness deals, playing for a big college can mean big bucks. But did you know that millions of dollars are now flowing into high school football too? High school football is this kind of beloved warm feelings about it, like Friday night lights and all that. That's our colleague, Harriet Ryan. She's an investigative reporter based in Los Angeles, where high school football is a very big deal. Southern California is just a completely different beast. The competitive level, the number of d one prospects, it just it rivals Florida or Georgia or Texas. Families come from all over the country to have their kids play in in Orange County or LA. And for a long time, Harriet's been hearing rumors that high school players there were getting paid under the table. There's a lot of great high school football teams here, and I, you know, always got this well, everybody knows it's dirty, but, you know, I'd never seen it proven. And when I started working on this story and I started seeing the amounts, I was very surprised. At its most elite levels, there is a very ugly side to it, that, you know, basically turns the best players into commodities that can just be sold around like their assets. What I was hearing from agents and other people, you know, they said, look, when you're giving teenagers vast amounts of money, a lot of bad stuff happens. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Friday, January 16. Coming up on the show, inside the black market for high school football players. Say you've always wanted to sneak away for a last minute long weekend in Napa. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you could do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard? To have some fun with our money, like treating yourself to a private wellness retreat or scoring incredible seats to a concert you'll never forget. So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad. Join their 19,000,000 customers today at empower.com. Not an empower client paid or sponsored. If you've been diagnosed with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, this is what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Imagine being a million miles away. Tremfya couselkumab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy. With Tremfya, clearer skin is possible. In clinical trials, at least seventy percent of patients saw at least ninety percent clearer skin at sixteen weeks. Results may vary. Tremfya is also indicated for adults …