Thursday night’s NFL Draft welcomed Bryce Young as the new face of the Carolina Panthers. The former Alabama quarterback went No. 1 overall. 

Young is expected to sign a four-year deal worth $41.2 million, including a $26.9 million signing bonus, according to Spotrac’s projections.

During Young’s college career, the quarterback earned more than a million dollars in NIL deals. Recently, Young has agreed to endorsement deals with Jordan Brand, Snickers, Beats by Dre, and sports drinks BodyArmor and Celsius. 

Bama’s Billions

Young is the latest Crimson Tide first-rounder to prove it pays to play in Tuscaloosa. Since 2005, 41 Alabama players have gone in the first round and have made $1.3 billion in combined career earnings — the most of any school during that period. 

After selecting Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud with the second pick, the Houston Texans traded up to the No. 3 spot to select Alabama linebacker, Will Anderson.

Later in the round, the Detroit Lions selected running back Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th overall pick, giving the Crimson Tide 44 players selected in the first round since 2005.

In 2021, the Crimson Tide had a record-six players selected in the first round.

Ohio State ranks second with $1.05 billion in career earnings for NFL first-round picks in the same period, followed by LSU at $921 million. 

The WNBA’s revenues have nearly doubled over the last four years, although the players’ share of that money has fallen during that span. 

The WNBA will pull in between $180 million to $200 million this year, according to Bloomberg, bolstered by a huge uptick in sponsorship dollars. The report also notes that league and team revenues were about $102 million in 2019. 

Last season the player’s share of revenue was 9.3% in fiscal 2022, a nearly 2% dip from 2019. This season, the minimum salary in the WNBA is $62,285 with the maximum set at $234,936.

Under the collective bargaining agreement ratified on Wednesday, NBA players are slated to receive about 51% of league revenues. The NBA’s new CBA kicks in this July and runs through the 2029-30 season.

WNBA players have to deal with prioritization rules built into their CBA even as several of the league’s players play overseas in leagues that pay more. That was highlighted when Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner spent 10 months in Russian custody after she arrived in February 2022 to play there. 

Change could be on the horizon. 

WNBA players could choose to opt out of the CBA — which runs through 2027 — after the 2025 season, potentially setting up a fight for a revenue split similar to what their NBA counterparts have had for decades. 

And ESPN’s deal — which tops out at a paltry $35 million per season — ends after the 2025 campaign. As ratings have surged, it’s expected the next TV deal will receive a significant bump.

Amazon is making more cost-cutting moves.

The retail and media giant has decided to shut down its Halo fitness wearable. Halo debuted in 2020 as Amazon’s foray into the wearable fitness and healthcare space. 

Halo aimed to compete in the wearable health and sleep-tracking space that also includes devices from Google’s Fitbit, the Apple Watch, Oura Ring, and WHOOP. 

Some employees are being laid off as part of the Halo shutdown, which follows Amazon’s recent start of layoffs to 9,000 employees. About 18,000 jobs were cut beginning in November as part of the largest layoffs in Amazon’s 29-year history.

Consumers who bought Halo devices and accessories in the past 12 months will be given full refunds by Amazon, and Halo app subscribers no longer need to pay monthly fees. 

WHOOP, which was previously valued at $3.6 billion and had its own layoffs last year, claims Amazon’s Halo device copied its design. 

“Amazon imitated our industrial design WHOOP and yes they met with us as potential investors years ago under the [Alexa Funda],” WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed tweeted in 2020.

On Wednesday, Ahmed tweeted that Amazon Halo’s hardware design “was a complete ripoff” of WHOOP.

As Major League Soccer searched for a market to place its 30th franchise, Las Vegas and San Diego had emerged as effectively the two finalists — with the former reportedly even entering exclusive negotiations for the right in January 2022.

Now, the latter has pulled ahead, as ESPN reports that San Diego “is clearly the leader in the clubhouse” to land an MLS expansion team that could begin play in 2025.

Besides being a thriving professional soccer market — with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave and the USL Championship’s San Diego Loyal already playing there — the SoCal city has a potential ownership group and stadium solution already lined up.

The Mansour Group — run by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour — has reportedly been in talks with the league about heading up a franchise in San Diego, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a Native American tribe in the area, would also reportedly be involved in the ownership group.

In terms of a venue, the brand new Snapdragon Stadium on the campus of San Diego State is reportedly enthusiastic about allowing a potential MLS franchise to use the grounds. The stadium hosts six SDSU home football games per year, and is the home field of the Wave.

“I’m a big believer in San Diego,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in November. “I think San Diego’s a great sports market, it’s a gateway city.”