Chapter 33

Jaxson Pettis
President Ellison led them back to his room so they could have some privacy.

“I never in a million years thought I’d be attending a birthday party for a student-athlete I wasn’t related to,” NCAA President Ellison said as they got comfortable.

“I planned to meet with Jaxson this morning, but when I heard what he was doing tonight, I decided I wanted to come,” Brent, the Pac-12’s Commissioner, said. Then he laughed. “I’ll admit, that’s not the whole story. My wife demanded that we go. She’s always wanted to see the fireworks from the Queen Mary and also wanted to meet David A. Dawson.”

“We’ve had our fair share of celebrities come through USC. But none of them wanted to play sports,” Jaxson, USC’s athletic director, shared. “That is, not until David enrolled.”

“I bet he makes your life interesting,” President Ellison said.

“What makes you say that?” Jaxson asked.

“Personal experience. When we met with him, David had more of a spine than his lawyer. It was clear he was in charge and knew what he was doing.”

“What, exactly, happened for him to have to meet with you?” Brent asked.

“When David submitted his application to be recruited by our member institutions, his file got flagged. Most high school student-athletes don’t own businesses, model, and act in movies. This was right around the time California first floated its NIL bill. As a part of our standard paperwork, we make everyone sign a waiver that allows us to use student-athletes’ images and the like. His camp was worried about his movie commitments and part of his income going to the university instead of to him.”

“I get that. We, too, gave David a waiver to allow him to market his movies and be paid for them. What I’m asking is why you would meet with him? Why not have him meet with your staff?” Brent asked, clearly curious.

“This was when the first NIL lawsuits came in, like the ones from the Northwestern football team, the Arizona State swimmer, and Oregon women’s basketball player. The NCAA takes any threat to our antitrust exemptions seriously. Our lawyers felt David was a potential problem for us,” President Ellison replied glibly.

“How so?” Jaxson asked.

He could tell there was more to the story than that, but the way President Ellison seemed to be deflecting, Jaxson doubted he’d get it all.

“It’s not only that he’s a high-profile athlete with deep pockets. We felt we could win any potential litigation if we rejected his waiver. The NCAA has stood up against much more formidable threats and won. What concerned us was that David doesn’t have typical connections. Before I met with you today, his grandmother had orchestrated a meeting with the governors of California and Illinois. There are also US senators from both those states and New York at the party.

“Just walking around the ship, I’ve seen Sports Illustrated swimsuit models as well as directors and producers of some of the biggest movies from the last decade. Even heads of Mafia families,” President Ellison said.

“What?” Jaxson asked with a worried look.

“David is friends with Anthony Giovanni and Kendra Bianco. We checked, and neither is involved in anything illegal, as far as we know. Now their fathers...” President Ellison began with raised eyebrows.

“You said his grandmother set up the meeting?” Brent asked.

“David’s grandfather was a man named Davey Dawson. While he was alive, he was the power broker behind Illinois politics. He was the man you went to if you wanted something done. If you could convince him that what you wanted was good for the people of his state, then odds were what you wanted to be done would actually happen. From what I was told, he was asked to run for higher office but turned it down. He liked being a behind-the-scenes guy, felt he was more effective that way,” President Ellison explained.

“But even universities that receive sanctions don’t get to plead their case directly to the president of the NCAA. I can see that David could create a media problem, but I’m missing something,” Brent said.

Jaxson agreed. There had to be more.

“Imagine David A. Dawson as the poster boy for the other side in our fight against NIL.”

“But isn’t he a double-edged sword? When you gave him his waiver, it signaled that you’re open to student-athletes from member institutions making money on their name, image, and likeness,” Brent said.

“David is hardly the first waiver we’ve granted and won’t be the last. What it shows is that on a case-by-case basis, the NCAA will grant a NIL waiver. And if you read his, he is only allowed to fulfill the contractual obligations that he’d made before he started school at USC,” President Ellison clarified.

“And...?” Jaxson prodded.

“And we wanted to get David involved with the NCAA, as I’m sure the Pac-12 and USC also want. It’s the same reason companies like Range Sports paid him a lot of money to be the face of their company,” President Ellison said. “He’s a very personable, believable guy.”

“My media department is champing at the bit to utilize him,” Jaxson said. “Not only because of the obvious celebrity; it’s what he’s done since he got here. Since the spring, he’s used his contacts to get us an assistant baseball coach he met while filming The Royal Palm in Cuba. That led to us signing three Cuban ballplayers who all have professional potential.

“David is currently taking a film class that has him doing a sports talk show. I’m told that his vodcast gets more clicks than everything else that the School of Cinematic Arts has ever produced in its history put together. And our football recruiting coordinator loves him. David talked a five-star transfer into signing in about five minutes, and got a five-star quarterback to consider coming to USC when we thought we had no chance.

“You know how much time a student-athlete has to commit to their sport. David does all that, spends time with his family, and maintains a perfect grade point average,” Jaxson shared. “This is while he was being named the MVP of the baseball team and selected for the All-Pac 12 team.”

“After this weekend, I plan to go back and talk to my staff,” Brent admitted. “Our media partners—Fox, ESPN, and the Pac-12 Network—would love to have David as one of the conference’s leading players. Fox wants to feature USC’s opener as their game of the week because that’ll be the first college game he starts. Usually, a game against UNLV would only rate Pac-12 Network coverage.

“Fox and ESPN want star power. David is the number-one-rated recruit in his class. And he just happens to be an Academy Award-winning actor who has two of the biggest box office hits in theaters. That fits the narrative they’re looking for. The only fly in the ointment is that your coach hasn’t named him the starter,” Brent said.

“Why is that?” President Ellison asked.

Jaxson had wondered that himself. David had readily agreed not to trash Coach Clayton for now, but Jaxson wondered how much longer that truce would last. In Jaxson’s opinion, David taking potshots at Coach Clayton would easily have been justified. To protect his chosen quarterback, Coach Clayton had moved David to defense, which David had agreed to, surprising just about everybody in the athletic department.

Their starting quarterback had been injured during spring practice, and it became apparent they had no one to step in and take his place. David was moved back to quarterback and, after he knocked the rust off his skills, had frankly shown he deserved the starting job.

On top of all that, Coach Clayton had played games with David’s promised scholarship. Jaxson had been forced to step in to rectify that injustice; he would have to follow up to ensure that Coach Clayton had taken care of it.

Jaxson was sure most players would have crucified Coach Clayton in the press. David had shown maturity, even when, as Jaxson had learned from his sources, the starting quarterback had tried to have him injured. His only retaliation was to point out Coach Clayton’s blatant favoritism.

Jaxson knew that quarterback wasn’t the only position Coach Clayton had messed with to allow an inferior player to start. Coach Clayton preferred older starters. The best example was at defensive end. Percy Wilkes was a five-star recruit out of Texas who should never have been redshirted.

What kept Jaxson from making a change of head coach was that they’d gone 11–2 last year. And Jaxson was new to the job. That all added up to his hands being tied. You didn’t fire a head coach with that kind of record unless he was molesting boys or committing some other egregious infraction.

While David made a lot of sense on more than just the football front, Jaxson couldn’t be seen dictating to his head football coach who should start.

“Coach Clayton feels Matt Long has been in the program longer and benefited from being Ridge Townsend’s understudy. Besides, like David, Matt was a highly rated Elite 11-level quarterback in high school,” Jaxson said.

“I understand your having to back Coach Clayton, but at some point, you’re going to have to remind some people that you are the athletic director,” Brent said.

Jaxson had to admit to himself that Brent was right. He was also very aware that David was good friends with the two significant boosters for USC. Hell, David’s grandmother was dating one of them. These were the men who’d arranged for him to become the athletic director in the first place. Jaxson had no doubt that if they became unhappy, he could easily be replaced. Donating a combined $100 million a year to the university gave the two boosters that kind of leverage.