Colorado sent $1 million in mascot money to Jadeveon Clowney while recruiting him
If Ralphie bucks are worth anything, then Jadeveon Clowney is already a millionaire before he's played his junior year of college football.
In this fantastic profile of Clowney in the New York Times about the legend that's surrounded him long before the Michigan tackle, the article talks briefly about the amount of mail that Clowney received as the number one high school recruit in the nation.
From the Times:
All the best universities — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana State — wrote regularly. Colorado wrote the most, even sent a box of fake money — total pretend value $1 million — with the team’s mascot, a Buffalo, in place of the usual picture of a president. Harvard, oddly, corresponded.
Clowney was a member of the 2011 recruiting class, so the box of Ralphie bucks would have likely come from Dan Hawkins' staff. And in case it needs any clarification, the Buffs would have wanted Clowney to play division one football, not intramurals. (Mascot money pay-for-play is not covered in the NCAA rule book.)
You have to give Harvard props for jumping into the Clowney recruiting frenzy too. Imagining Clowney terrorizing the Ivy League is fun, and so is envisioning the recruiting clout Harvard could have thrown around after landing the consensus top recruit in the country.
Another fact from the piece: Jadeveon's father, David Morgan, says the proper way to pronounce his son's name is "Ja-dev-e-on" instead of "Ja-day-v-on."
When you have a few minutes, give the entire article a read. In just a week we'll see Clowney on the field for the first time since that Michigan game against North Carolina. And hopefully he's still kept that box of money somewhere. It could be a good long-term investment.
