Typically the media career is saved for when the athletes playing days are all over. But Alabama quarterback Bryce Young is taking advantage of his platform at it’s near apex.
It was reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday morning that Young has signed a deal to host a new college football podcast for Colin Cowherd and IHeartRadio’s podcast network “The Volume”. Joining Young will be fellow popular college football podcast Jake Crain, host of The Volume’s Jboy Show.
“I just thought, you know what? This is really cool,” Cowherd said to THR. “It’s an opportunity for fans to hear somebody, to get the perspective of the quarterback, the on-field coach of Alabama, the best dynasty of my life. So it just felt kind of natural.”
If not for the new name, image and likeness regulations in college football, a deal like this would not come to fruition. Young has taken full advantage of such rules as he was reportedly already close to being a millionaire before he even took a snap as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback.
“I think this generation, that is what they know, that iw hat they have grown up with their whole life. So them putting a microphone in front of their face and doing a 30-45 minute show, talking about the week? That’s a Thursday night for them. It’s not outside the box. It is very much who they are,” Young’s agent Ed Berry said to THR. “I definitely think this will be the first of many that you see make these types of moves.
“They can pick up their cellphone and go live on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and you can engage with your entire audience. So why would that not correlate and bounce over to podcasts and digital media deals?
The Volume has been rather proactive when it comes to providing a spoken platform for college athletes as a similar deal was met with Notre Dame football players Kyle Hamilton, Cam Hart, Conor Ratigan and KJ Wallace back in August.
“It won’t be the first time a quarterback talks after the game,” Cowherd said, “but it is the first time that I remember that a big-time college football quarterback at a national powerhouse has a platform — and you will hear them every Tuesday.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
