Philly lawmakers want the city to fund legal and financial support for high school athletes

A Philadelphia City Council member wants the city to fund legal assistance for the families of high school athletes who are negotiating deals to profit off of their name and likeness.

The move by at-large Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, himself a youth basketball coach, comes as the state board that governs student-athletes appears poised to allow high school students to make money off of endorsements, commercial advertisements, sponsored social media posts, and the like.

The legislation, which was introduced Thursday, has eight cosponsors, a sign it likely has the support of a majority of Council. The bill would establish the “Philly NIL Youth Protection Fund,” which would pay for families with incomes of less than $150,000 a year to have up to five hours with a lawyer or accountant who can review contracts or other materials.

The bill would also require the city to create and distribute educational materials to all Philadelphia students who are eligible for the so-called Name, Image and Likeness deals. Thomas estimates that dozens of Philadelphia student-athletes could be courted annually by companies aiming to sign them, but many more could be eligible.

“These are opportunities that could change a young person’s life,” Thomas said Thursday. “But at the same time, we also know there’s a lot of predatory behavior that exists whenever money is involved.”

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association board of directors last month approved amendments to its bylaws that allow high school athletes to sign NIL deals, so long as they follow a handful of rules, like that they can’t display a company’s logo during a game. The amendments would need to pass the body one more time — likely during a December meeting — to take effect.

More than a dozen states allow high school athletes to monetize their name and likeness, and Pennsylvania’s consideration of it comes just a year after the NCAA allowed for college student-athletes to sign NIL deals.

Thilo Kunkel, an associate professor at Temple University and director of the school’s Sport Industry Research Center, said funding legal advice for high school athletes could especially benefit those who are courted for seemingly small deals.

Top-tier athletes negotiating six-figure contracts likely already have an agent and a support system, Kunkel said, but lower-level athletes who are offered $1,000 for an Instagram post might be less educated about what they’re signing on to.

“What we see at the college level is that if you have 1,000 Instagram followers and you have an interesting, distinct social media following, you’re able to sign NIL deals,” he said. “And we have seen some predatory behavior, or we have seen athletes signing contracts that are not in their favor in the long run.”

The legislation in Council was referred to committee for further consideration.

Also during Council’s session Thursday, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, introduced legislation to rename the Mill Creek Recreation Center after Tiffany Fletcher, the Parks and Recreation worker who was fatally struck by a stray bullet there in September.

Fletcher, 41, was a pool maintenance worker at the rec center on the 4700 block of Brown Street — two blocks from her family’s West Philadelphia home. Gauthier said it had been important to Fletcher that “the kids in her community had a clean and safe playground all year around.”

“It’s my hope that the center will stand as a permanent reminder of the love that Tiffany had for the community,” Gauthier said, “and that her life mattered.”

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.