IT Today: Through NIL, Michael Taaffe and other Longhorns help the community with skills camps
Welcome to Inside Texas Today! On weekdays, Inside Texas Today will provide the latest on Texas Longhorns sports from around the Forty Acres. This morning, how Texas defensive back Michael Taaffe and other Longhorns took advantage of NIL laws and held skills camps in the Austin area.
Here’s the Thursday, July 21, 2022 edition.
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Much has been made about Name, Image, and Likeness and its current effect on college football, with most of the attention being negative. For all the problems with NIL, there are genuine and wholesome benefits to the development. One is the ability for current student-athletes to hold skills camps.
Facilitated via the PreSnap app, Michael Taaffe, DeMarvion Overshown, Hudson Card, Roschon Johnson, Luke Brockermeyer, Anthony Cook, Gunnar Helm, Jaden Alexis, and Charles Wright hosted skills camps on Monday and Wednesday at Westlake High School for elementary and middle school students.
Over 120 campers showed up at the home of the Chaps for the events, which Taaffe said he hopes shows college football fans that not everything associated with NIL is a negative.
“It’s awesome,” Taaffe said. “It’s special for me because I grew up here. With this NIL stuff, you get to do so many things. This is an opportunity to actually give back and be an influence on little kids and young men in your community. Growing up in Westlake, it’s special for me and I’m excited to be a part of this.”
While a handful of Texas players have deals with car dealerships, fast food chains, and countless other local and national businesses, Taaffe insists the presence of NIL does not drive any sort of wedge between players on the team.
“I think NIL is blown out of proportion,” Taaffe said. “It seems like a big deal, but inside our locker room at least, it’s not a whole big deal. We’re focused on one thing, and that’s winning national championships. With that being said, there’s opportunities to make money and there’s opportunities to make a difference. I think this is a great opportunity. Yes, we’re going to get a little cash, but the end goal is to make a little difference in the community, and that’s why we’re here.”
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During the camp, Taaffe and Cook worked with defensive backs, teaching footwork techniques for various types of coverages. Helm and Alexis worked with receivers, showing how to cut and plant before finding the ball. Brockermeyer and Overshown helped with linebackers, working on how to strip the ball from defenders and keeping proper footwork through a tackle. Johnson was with the running backs, and was one of the vocal presences in the camp along with Taaffe. Wright and Card worked with quarterbacks, helping signal callers from the entire Austin area with RPO footwork.
Was it weird for Wright, the former Austin High Maroon, and Card, the former Lake Travis Cavalier, to conduct business on a Westlake practice field?
“If it was up to them, they probably would have gone to Austin High or Lake Travis,” Taaffe said. “I tried to tell them the three-time state championship high school should be probably be the one hosting it.”
These camps provide a brief respite from the grind of offseason conditioning, even in the 100-plus degree heat on field turf. But when the time comes to put the pads on in early August, Taaffe says the team is ready to roll.
“Everyone’s so excited,” Taaffe said. “The culture is changed an insane amount. Everybody is just excited to win. There’s no negativity in the locker room at all. Everybody is just excited to compete. Know that we’re taking it one day at a time, all we’re looking at is victory.”
