Omar Kelly: The entitlement era of athletes is just beginning

MIAMI — Carson Beck is the new big man on campus in Miami.

The former two-year starter at the University of Georgia will reportedly earn $4 million as the new quarterback for the University of Miami after the Hurricanes won one of the most aggressive, and lucrative bidding wars for an injured underachiever.

His new name, image and likeness (NIL) deal means Beck, who is leaving Georgia after four seasons and rehabbing an elbow injury to his throwing arm, will have this 23-year-old earn more than twice as much as Denver Broncos starter Bo Nix will in 2025, and $50,000 less than Houston Texans Pro Bowler quarterback C.J. Stroud does next season in base salary because of the changing landscape of pay-for-play athletics.

But don’t think it stops there.

This era of college sports is pouring gasoline on the entitled era of athletics, turning the volume up on the everyone-gets-a-trophy movement, which is transforming into the everyone gets a payout, and needs to be codded era..

This era is leading to college and university hopping that is so bad some athletes will attend three and four schools by the time their eligibility has concluded.

I was all for freedom of movement, and players being compensated for their labor and images. But it’s time to admit it has crossed the line.

We’re pushing out legendary coaches such as Nick Saban and Jim Larranaga, who can no longer relate — if not reach — these Tiktok, Youtube, influencer athletes anymore.

What people don’t realize is that this epidemic is going to give birth to more Tyreek Hills and Jimmy Butlers, creating a generation of emotionally unstable players who wield their power like sledgehammers, and change their tune as often as they have mood swings.

NIL culture will change all of our sports, and it has already started with the entitlement mentality of the players. And this is a metamorphosis that likely won’t be for the better, and could poison fanhood.

If a college athlete can transfer four times, whether it’s because he doesn’t like how he’s being talked to by a coach, doesn’t respect his playing time or role or because he’s chasing a bigger bag, exactly how do you think this plays out in the pros when things don’t go his way?

Even though he had burned bridges at every one of his NBA stops, Butler was a good soldier for the Heat in his previous five seasons. He actually sought out Heat culture, and personified it for some time.

But when the trades he wanted the organization to make didn’t materialize, and the money started to get funny, he turned on South Florida and the Heat.

According to multiple sources, Butler has been disappointed with the Heat primarily because Miami declined to give him a two-year, $113 million contract extension this past summer, a deal that would have run through the 2026-27 season. Butler was open to signing such a deal early in the negotiating window, but his mindset changed when the extension wasn’t immediately offered by the Heat.

Then team president Pat Riley publicly criticized him at the Heat’s end-of-the-year sit-down, and from there the relationship corroded.

At this point it doesn’t appear to be reconcilable because egos fuel greatness, and often ruin teams.

Hill, the Dolphins’ biggest star, a player on a Hall of Fame trajectory, isn’t happy in Miami, either.

According to a league source, the five-time All-Pro receiver seemingly realizes the Dolphins’ window to win a championship is closing and dreams of a return to Kansas City, which hosts the Texans on Saturday, beginning their pursuit of a three-peat.

Hill left the Chiefs to secure the biggest bag he could, and got it from Miami, which gave him a four-year, $120 million contract extension, and sent Kansas City a king’s ransom of five draft picks to secure one of the NFL’s biggest playmakers.

Miami actually re-upped Hill’s deal this summer, keeping him among the NFL’s five highest-paid receivers, which was important from an ego standpoint for the diva receiver.

But now that Hill sees the ship taking on water he publicly admits he wants to abandon it, saying “I’m out,” after the Dolphins’ season-finale loss to the New York Jets, and hasn’t publicly backed off that request. And neither has his agent.

While everyone is playing nice now, and pretending that this drama is in the team’s past, the Dolphins realize they either have to unload Hill in 2025, which comes with steep financial consequences, or appease him, which likely accompanies an emotional toll.

Either way, this is a lose-lose situation, one similar to what the culture-driven Heat faces with Butler, whose seven-game suspension ends Friday, when he’s expected back on the court in a home game against the Denver Nuggets.

Just like these NIL deals, Hill and Butler have a ton of power, and hold influence on where and how they get moved.

That’s just the way business gets played today with upper echelon athletes, and oddly college talent too.

And unfortunately for the fans, if you thought it was a problem now, just wait till the next round of 18-year-old millionaires are ready to become pros, and follow Hill and Butler’s lead.

Or are they doing so already?