Prior to showing off his physical skills at the NFL Combine, a display that had more than a few teams salivating, Cam Newton stirred the pot by telling a reporter that he considers himself an "entertainer and an icon" in addition to being a football player.
Only one problem: you can't be any of the above if the league locks you out.
Two short months ago the decision by Newton and fellow Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, along with other top-rated juniors like A.J. Green and Nick Fairley, to forego their senior seasons in favor of the NFL was a no-brainer. Their stock wasn't going any higher if they stayed in school, and the risk of injury was too great. It was time to take the money and run.
Now, they have to be saying, "What happened?"
With a potential NFL lockout looming at midnight Thursday, players whose college coaches and teammates wanted them to stay in school and play one more year while their families and agents told them to go play in the pros could end up with nowhere to play.
Even the draft is up in the air. League officials say it will go on no matter what, but talk of a boycott looms large. Caught in the middle are young men who thought they were making a prudent decision for their careers. Now they could be left with nothing.
At least Newton can pay the rent. The Auburn star has signed an endorsement deal with Under Armour reportedly worth $1 million a year, one of the highest endorsement deals ever for a not-yet-drafted player.
"From an endorsement perspective there's more at stake for you if you're looking for a deal or being considered," said Marc Ippolito, president and general counsel at Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing. "Companies are going to hold back and won't want to spend money on a player if there's no season. If you already have a current deal, the marketer is fretting because they put money behind a talent, but with no season, they obviously won't do much of an ad spend."
Newton, according to Ippolito, is the lone exception. "I can see Under Armour saying he's a big enough name that they can do ads around him regardless of the season," he said. "But if you're a top pick and expecting the usual offers, there might be a big hold back until we see a resolution."
Resolution appears to be nowhere in sight. The latest word is if the union decertifies (a tactic recommended to them by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka) and the owners proceed with a lockout, the players will name Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Tom Brady as plaintiffs in an anti-trust lawsuit against the league.
The owners, sensing a growing anti-union mood in the country and capitalizing on the drama and turmoil coming out of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, appear to be in no mood to budge.
Even President Obama is weighing in. When faced with competing questions on the NFL and Libya Thursday afternoon, Mr. Obama addressed the NFL first.
"You've got owners, most of whom are worth close to $1 billion," the president said. "You've got players who are making millions of dollars. My working assumption at a time when people are having to cut back, compromise and worry about making the mortgage and paying for their kids' college education is that the two parties should be able to work it out without the President of the United States intervening. I'm a big football fan, but I also think for an industry that is making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way and be true to their fans who are the ones who, obviously, allow for all of the money that they are making. My expectation and hope is that they will resolve it without me intervening because it turns out I have got a lot of other stuff to do."
Cam Newton has a lot of other stuff to do as well, like throw to receivers he knows at Auburn during college workouts on March 8. After that, Newton and the rest of the juniors who came out early could very well be watching from the sidelines wondering where it all went wrong.
