It always seemed like Ty Simpson's decision on his future was between two options: returning to Alabama for his final season of eligibility or entering the NFL Draft. But in the Transfer Portal era, there's always option No. 3, even for a player as loyal as Simpson.
And while the portal wasn't on his radar initially, a monster offer by Miami gave him enough pause that he had to consider it.
The Hurricanes, desperate to find another portal QB with Carson Beck out of eligibility, reportedly offered as much as $6.5 million to Simpson for a one-year rental, asking him to delay entering the draft for a year and head down to Coral Gables to pilot a likely National Championship contender.
In speaking with David Pollack on a recent podcast, Simpson talked about how close he actually came to bypassing the draft to take Miami's offer.
“I think the last offer was definitely one that I just had to sit down and consider, because it would have been life-changing money,” Simpson said, via Pro Football Talk. “It would have made me the highest-paid player in college, and it was something to where I was like, I can’t just ignore this. I have to sit down and think about it. That’s how I am, I don’t want to do anything sporadic. I want to sit down and think it all out, and it really just came down to how I wanted to be remembered and what do I want to do.”
It got to the point that Simpson even reached out to Nick Saban for advice:
“I actually talked to Coach Saban about this,” Simpson said. “The things he was talking about were, do you want to play football in college, or do you want to play football professionally? And he was like, ‘Take the money out of it, take the rounds out of it, what do you want to do next year?’ And without a doubt, without hesitation, I said, ‘I want to play professional football.’ And he was like, ‘Well, there’s your answer.’
Ty Simpson solidified his Alabama legacy by turning down Miami's $6.5 million offer
No Alabama fan can blame Simpson for considering the Miami offer. $6.5 million is life-changing money. Most rational Tide fans wouldn't have even blamed him for taking the offer.
But he didn't.
Because his Alabama legacy meant more to him than the money he could have earned next year. That's a special characteristic, especially nowadays in a college sports environment that lacks loyalty and is full of mercenaries.
Simpson didn't win the National Championship for the Crimson Tide like he wanted, but he's an Alabama legend regardless.
Add us as a preferred source on Google