Opinion: The negative media commentary questioning the defensive lineman exposes a deeper problem of the NFL and NCAA’s distaste for player agency.

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Kayvon Thibodeaux, University of Oregon’s star defensive lineman, was drafted to the NFL’s New York Giants this week. Thibodeaux proved himself to be destined for the league in his three seasons at Oregon, leading the team in sacks his junior year and winning multiple Pac-12 awards for defensive players. And, at the NFL Combine prior to the draft, Thibodeaux furthered his fame, clocking in an outstanding 4.58-second 40-yard dash and benching a position-best 27 reps of 225 pounds.
Thibodeaux went fifth overall, an undeniably huge accomplishment for him and the Ducks football program. However, despite his accolades, Thibodeaux’s entrance into the NFL Draft wasn’t without controversy.
Members of the media, like ESPN’s Todd McShay, have often been quick to question Thibodeaux’s focus and competitive drive on the football field. Media reports of his disgruntled behavior have also come out of the Ducks camp on a few occasions, leaving him with a media-driven narrative questioning his reliability as a player and his dedication to the game: a potentially deadly reputation in sports.
This narrative has followed Thibodeaux to the draft. Many NFL analysts and reporters have discussed his attitude and competitiveness as a potential downside for his draft selection, marking him further down in pre-draft mockups and big boards. ESPN’s Todd McShay, for example, wrote that scouts are beginning to doubt Thibodeaux as he “doesn’t play with the same fire as some other top prospects.”
While there is no way to fully prove the validity of these claims, a key problem with this poor narrative surrounding Thibodeaux is the basis of the arguments. One of the main drivers of the lack-of-focus commentary is fueled by Thibodeaux’s interests and successful ventures outside of football.
Thibodeaux was one of the top college athletes to capitalize on the NCAA’s 2021 Name Image and Likeness ruling. His main endorsement deal was centered around a collaboration with Nike and Phil Knight to create his own NFT art collection. Thibodeaux has always been vocal about his desire to create avenues for himself outside of football and has been widely successful as he enters the draft with the most endorsements.
While it is true Thibodeaux has these interests outside of football, this media narrative that it somehow detracts from his game is problematic and also deeply revealing of the often-exploitative nature of football.
College football players’ rigorous schedules give them no time to work alternate jobs and make academic exploration and success extremely difficult. Far from discouraging athletes from pursuing hobbies outside their sport, we should want them to make their own money and control their own futures in the event of a career-ending injury or other circumstance.
The reason Thibodeaux’s outside ventures are portrayed as negative is because of the NFL’s and NCAA’s lockdown on player agency. The NFL is one of the few professional sports organizations where players almost never get contracts that guarantee their income even if they get injured. The league just wants to make money off the players, not elevate and highlight them as individuals. And the media narrative exposes this notion.
It is clear Thibodeaux is passionate about football — one simply doesn’t make it to this level without it.
“I don’t think I need to convince teams [that I love football],” Thibodeaux said. “But that’s the media narrative. There always has to be some narrative that’s drawn. For me, I’m an L.A. kid, and if you know the adversity I went through to get here — and the things that I had to sacrifice, and the things my mother had to sacrifice for me to be here — you’d really understand how I feel in my heart. When you talk about fire, when you talk about passion, I think you can’t really explain it.”
So before one continues to question Thibodeaux’s passion, it is important to examine why league-affiliated media portrays him in this fashion. Thibodeaux’s on-the-field track records speak for themselves, and an athlete’s passion and drive can’t be fully measured or seen from a media perspective.