Daily Bull 2.26.18: Nick Starkel What Are You Doing?

Here is a headline that you may not have thought you’d see today or maybe ever:

Texas A&M QB Nick Starkel asks for Ellen’s help to meet Justin Bieber.

Whoa, Nick. Maybe a little more focus on reading coverage and a little less on daytime TV coverage. Awful dad-joke sprots taeks aside, this really is an interesting suitcase of information to unpack. We’re entering an age where the lines between “amateur” sports and celebrity are growing more and more blurred by the day. Johnny Football ran with a superstar crowd. Sixteen year-old high school football players are verified on Twitter and treated as royalty by a fawning “industry.” Katy Perry can ogle Trevor Knight on GameDay. And so on and so forth. Being a college QB was already a huge deal, but here at the peak of the social media age it’s something else altogether. (Somehow, Johnny partying with rappers five years ago seems normal now when compared with Nick wanting to hang with Bieber. It speaks to the constant evolution of this landscape.)

We’re in a unique niche in history between rapidly expanding new territories where a couple of things might eventually happen: a) technology fails or b) the official school sports protocol catches up to it. But for now it’s the Wild West out there on the ol’ web: student-athletes hobnobbing with celebs and making pleas for plugs and connections. The science is out in front here, and Dr. Malcolm is not being heard.

But hey—Nick should be able to do whatever he wants, within reason, as long as it doesn’t impact his ability to be a key part of the football team. Let the pearl-clutching Boomer Ags knee-jerk all they want, once the Facebook shares take off or the Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: emails begin making the rounds. As for this blog’s official opinion? As usual, our favorite safety and Twitter spirit animal has spoken for us already.