Jayden Daniels' Tremendous Temper Tantrum

Jayden Daniels was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the year in 2024 for the Washington Commanders. After an injury-filled 2025 season, the Commanders have high hopes for him in the upcoming year. From FoxSports: Jayden Daniels Remains Stellar in Training Camp and Has Commanders Dreaming Big.

But that Commanders story is a local story, Daniels is in the national spotlight for a far less dignified reason. From ESPN: Daniels Sends Cease and Desist to LSU after Pickett Given No. 5.

Apparently, the petty and petulant Jayden Daniels, who won the Heisman for LSU in the 2023 season, is currently upset that his college number wasn't retired, which, for some reason, he believed was going to happen.

And, don't get me wrong, he had a great 2023.

But it's 2026 and he plays in the NFL. So, from Washington D.C., Daniels sent a letter to the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, stating that his former university couldn't use his name and likeness anymore, since someone else is wearing his number.

Now in the olden days, before the year 2020 and the infusion of NIL money, I might have LISTENED to Daniels' argument. If you go back a hundred years to Red Grange, not only did Grange not have a scholarship to the University of Illinois, but he had to work during the summer to have enough money to go to school (like what 90% of other college kids do today.)

But also since the beginning of time, coaches and athletic directors have tried to circumvent that model by using "ringers." Paid athletes, under the table, helping to enhance the performance of the university's football team. In the 1950's, the practice was so pervasive that the NCAA was forced install an official policy of Athletic Scholarships. Instead of paying athletes on the down low, NCAA schools wouldn't pay you in cash, but in scholarships, essentially making your experience tuition free.

Editor's Note: You ever hear of the "Hundred Dollar Handshake?"

Once NIL money started to flow though, and, let's be honest, REAL NIL money only goes to the best football and basketball players, any romantic version of an athlete playing for the love of the game or an attachment to a university, or, even more absurdly, to a specific number, went right out the window.

Jayden Daniels made $2.2 million during his stay at LSU. He has no leverage for any sort of moral outrage. Your reward for playing college ball was MONEY, on top of the free education that so few college athletes acknowledge. Worry about your next paycheck in the nation's capital.

If you want to defend Daniels, and this is his only defense, Scumbag Lane Kiffin, who is scummier than any athlete that he has ever coached, is choosing a recruit over LSU Royalty. Kiffin should have known better, but he's betting on college football's new business model that the richest schools can pay the most NIL money. That's the real reason Kiffin left Ole Miss (oh, and LSU paid Kiffin the most money.)

The most talented players and coaches have been manipulating the system in college football since the very genesis of the sport, then, only whine about it when someone else manipulates the system in a more blatant and unscrupulous way.

You still want to take up for Jaylen Daniels? Okay, it's not fair that statistics say he'll likely have dementia at 50 and probably be dead at 55.

You traded your health for bags and bags of cash.

What number you wore in college is really a moot point.

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