Julian Edelman: ‘Outrageous’ NIL Makes Colleges ‘Look Like an NFL Parking Lot’

Julian Edelman keeps a constant eye on his alma mater, but helping Kent State pay players might be too expensive for the NFL veteran.

“I’m always semi-involved with Kent State football,” Edelman told Front Office Sports Today. “Call back to get a recruit here or there. I love Kent and my road started through Kent. So I always have an appreciation for them.

“The NIL stuff that I mean, that’s a Wild West right now. You drive into Georgia and all these other schools—I mean, it looks like an NFL parking lot. You see a Lambo here. You see a Ferrari there. It’s outrageous.”

The former Kent State standout carved out a remarkable NFL career despite being a 5-foot-10 quarterback coming out of Kent State.  Edelman made $46 million in his 12 NFL seasons as a wide receiver with the Patriots, according to Spotrac.

Edelman added that he’s not opposed to helping college athletes out, but would be more interested in teaching players how to grow a post-playing media career. (Edelman retired after the 2020 season and has been hosting his Dudes on Dudes podcast with former teammate Rob Gronkowski since last year.)

“For me individually, getting into NIL, I think there’s definitely avenues where you could partner up with a lot of these young kids and create a podcast with someone who’s in the game,” Edelamn said on FOST. “I would be more on that side of it…In this day and age, there’s a lot of different verticals for these young athletes where they can go out and create something for themselves. So if I could help a lot of these young guys be entrepreneurs, I’d love that.”