5 LSU Football endorsement deals that would’ve been fun to see over last 10 years

As of July 1, LSU football players can make money off their name, image, and likeness.

Not long after midnight on July 1, college athletes all over the country started cashing in on their new opportunity to make money off their NIL.

It’s a move that was a long-time coming and will completely alter college sports as we know it.

This is a new era and we’re going to see a lot of things in the coming weeks/months that we never thought we’d see in college sports.

But that’s a conversation for another day.

The first thought I had on Thursday when the new NIL rules went into effect wasn’t about the players currently playing at LSU, it was about the players that previously played for the Tigers.

What kind of endorsement deals would we have seen with past players?

Obviously, the next thing I did was open up my Macbook and start typing away.

Here’s what I came up with — five endorsement deals over the last 10 years that we missed out on because of previously restrictive NIL rules.

Odell Beckham Jr — Major League Soccer

Odell Beckham Jr is essentially a super athlete. He likely could’ve gone pro in a number of sports.

Soccer, however, has always been a sport close to Beckham’s heart.

In fact, Beckham almost joined the US team when he was 13.

“When I was about 13, I was going to go join the (US) national team, but growing up how we grew up, you couldn’t just leave the country and go play another sport, so I had to stick with basketball, baseball, and football,” said OBJ in 2018 (via CBS Sports).

MLS doesn’t get a lot of attention compared to other major professional sports in the United States.

Perhaps using OBJ — a star wide receiver at LSU at the time — as a spokesperson would’ve been beneficial for both parties.