For the longest time, I grouped Fantatics in my head with that company that sold big heads of players. I know the title says it, but Fanatics is just an unserious company. This may all stem from the fact I think Michael Rubin is a dweeb. Michael Rubin is the “founder” and CEO of Fanatics (I’ll come back to him later). And I stayed out of the jersey drama because everyone was kind of hitting the high points with those pieces of cloth. Now, I did think that the ballsack pants were just a high-end fashion choice, not a mistake. You’ve heard of knuckleballs, get ready for the moose knuckleballs.
But the inspiration for the blog doesn’t stem from anything related to the MLB or the uniforms. It actually stems from Marvin Harrison, Jr. and his preliminary NFLPA contract.
I’ll be honest I wasn’t fully up on the situation surrounding Marvin Harrison, Jr.’s NFLPA situation. I can see why Cardinals fans (and maybe some Colts fans) are excited to buy his jersey. I can also see why MHJ is weary just to give up his name to Fanatics, unchecked. Also, as a second-generation star whose dad has jerseys being sold by Fanatics, he understands the game. But the takeaway from McAfee was not about MHJ’s intelligence when it comes to signing name and rights deals. No, the takeaway is Fanatics locking college players into long-term, bad contracts.
If you listen to the first two and a half minutes of the Pat McAfee clip, you’ll hear that Fanatics approaches college sophomores, with “names”, for an autograph and card deal. This deal then runs for 4 years, which for some, can be years into their NFL tenure. And, of course, there are a lot of athletes who took this, because offering a 19-year-old without any financial guidance a big-money deal seems like a real win. Then those same kids get to the NFL and realize their name is worth much more than the deal they signed at 19.
And someone will inevitably make the argument, “They’re an adult, they knew what they were getting into.” This person, with his 1cm beard and Oakley sunglasses, will say this and then try to guilt his child for going 0-4 in a travel ball league by saying, “Do you know how much money my mother and I spend on you? And that’s how you hit?” He would take that Fanatics deal at 37, 45, and 53. This is a predatory NIL contract offered by a company with unchecked power over the sports jersey and memorabilia market.
Realistically, this blog should probably be about NIL. There is an issue about the unchecked power of NIL. And even though I think NIL is hurting college sports, it was a necessary balancing act so Nick Saban couldn’t hoard fifteen 5-stars on his second-string who were disincentivized to transfer. At the same time, there seem to be no checks on what kind of NIL deals are offered. This Fanatics deal is the first of many predatory deals that are going to come to light in the next years.
And this is just the overall representation of Fanatics as a company. A predatory company so focused on the bottom line and growing with brand deals, that their products, and the overall company, is utter shit. We all know the issues with the jerseys; those have been well-documented. But then there are the wait times for products. And there is the customer service that just doesn’t respond or isn’t helpful. Prices are also way too high, and that doesn’t even take into account the quality; there’s no reason a jersey should be more than like $60. Or even the fact there seems to be no quality control coming from Fanatics, which is spilling over to MLB teams.
I’d like to believe this is a top-down problem. Again, I hate Michael Rubin because I think he is a huge dweeb who needs repeated validation. I also hate that he’s called the founder of Fanatics when he bought it from some brothers in Florida. That’s like saying Ray Croc is the founder of McDonalds. But what just rubs me the wrong way is his stupid Fourth of July White Party. It’s just a billionaire inviting a bunch of celebrities, who don’t care about him, to make him feel cool on Instagram. It screams that he wanted so badly to be cool, and now he’s using rappers to look cool on Instagram. It’s a bunch of people showing up so they can be photographed.
The entire company of Fanatcis sucks. From the top down it is genuinely a plague on sports. And Fanatcis has somehow taken over the entire market. Look at every major league in America. Why are all the jerseys incredibly bland and uniform? Because one company controls everything. There’s a reason people are dying over the Rays’ skateboarding ray because it gives a bit of personality where there used to be so much more.
Watching a billion-dollar company exploit college athletes so it can sell more bland and subpar products is demoralizing. Good on Marvin Harrison, Jr. for at least calling the company out. Some league needs to make an example out of this exploitative, horrible company. Until then, we’ll just have to pretend jerseys made of the same material as a paper towel will suffice.
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