Missouri’s Drinkwitz Getting Crushed for Comments About Players’ NIL Payments

Many college coaches have not held back their disdain for athletes’ newfound financial freedoms since the advent of widespread rules governing NIL rights. None, however, have done so with a turn of phrase quite like the one Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz used Tuesday morning at the SEC’s meetings in Destin, Fla.

Drinkwitz was asked about sports gambling and pointed out that NIL rules allowed some players to make more money than his pediatrician brother-in-law. It was the kind of comment that might have found a more receptive audience had Drinkwitz’s own salary—$4 million—not been a matter of public record.

"We're giving guys, 18-22-year-olds, life-changing money. People are making more money on NIL than my brother-in-law who is a pediatrician who saves lives," Drinkwitz said. "And we kind of do it cavalier and we think there's not going to be side effects and issues? There's bad actors out there, bad actors out there always trying to make a dollar, running around campuses trying to gather information. It's going to become a key issue in our locker room."

Drinkwitz was roundly ridiculed for his comparison, especially in the wake of his pedestrian 17–9 record since the Tigers hired him in Dec. 2019.

Many noted that the structure of his contract will see his salary escalate in future seasons.

Some found humor in Drinkwitz's lack of self-awareness.

ESPN personality Myron Medcalf weighed in, comparing Drinkwitz’s salary to that of another local public official in Columbia, Mo.