Skull Session: Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson in NYC (For Real This Time), Sonny Styles Ended Ryan Day's Basketball Career and Miyan Williams Has a Unique Way to Spend Draft Week

By Chase Brown on April 25, 2023 at 5:00 am
Garrett Wilson
Barbara J. Perenic / USA TODAY Network
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Lives will change this week at the NFL draft.

Let's have a good Tuesday, shall we?

 AARON ROGERS → GARRETT WILSON. In March, Trey Wingo temporarily broke the Internet when he tweeted that a deal between the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets that would send future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the Big Apple was "done." Turns out it wasn't – at least not yet.

On Monday, ESPN's Adam Schefter announced that Rodgers was finally headed to New York to play for the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets, where the four-time MVP and one-time Super Bowl champion will team up with Garrett Wilson, who was ecstatic when Wingo's report of Rodgers to New York was picked up and passed around social media weeks ago.

This time around, Wilson was much more reserved in his response to the news.

He'll be excited soon enough.

Wilson, the 2022 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, collected 83 catches on 139 targets for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns in his first season with New York. He did that with the likes of Zach Wilson (the quarterback drafted nine spots ahead of Justin Fields in 2021), Joe Flacco and Mike White under center.

Imagine what Wilson's stats would look like with Rodgers, who has a career completion percentage of 65.3% and has collected over 59,000 passing yards and 475 touchdowns to only 105 interceptions from 2005-22.

Yeah, I would like to see that. And I can't wait to actually see it this fall.

 SONNY STYLES HOOP MIXTAPE. Before I dive into this section, I want to thank those who contributed to Sonny and Lorenzo Styles' fundraiser for the Huckleberry House's Sleep Out Campaign on Thursday in Columbus. The fundraiser initially aimed to raise $5,000, but the Styles brothers finished with $9,704. That happened because of your generosity, so I thank you.

Back to our regularly-scheduled program.

Nathan Baird of Cleveland.com posted an article last week that didn't cross my timeline until Monday. The headline reads: "Did Sonny Styles end Ohio State coach Ryan Day's basketball career?" Naturally, I clicked the link. I read from top to bottom. I draw my conclusion that yes, yes, he did.

From Baird's article:

During a Q&A with Ohio State basketball coach Chris Holtmann during Thursday night’s Spring Festival held by name, image and likeness collective THE Foundation at Value City Arena, Day went so far as to call basketball “my first love growing up.” He used to mix it up with Buckeye players — and prospective players — in pickup games earlier in his coaching career.

...

The exact timeline was suspect, but Day said during a summer barbecue for recruiting targets, he challenged Sonny Styles — “I think he was in eighth grade,” Day said — to a game of one on one.

“I’m not lying — I went up to guard him, and I was talking a little trash,” Day said. “He crossed me up, I rolled my ankle and he dunked... And that’s the last time I touched a basketball. That’s the honest-to-God truth. Swear to God. So there’s no more basketball for me.”

I laughed at that quote for nearly five minutes on Monday. I can only imagine Ryan Day, likely in his late 30s or early 40s at the time – and as Baird wrote, "once a 3-point launching, defensively minded New Hampshire basketball star who led Manchester Central to a state championship" – calling out a middle-school aged Styles, getting his ankles snatched and watching as Styles slammed one home. Life comes at you fast.

The cajones on Styles, too. He dunked it? He already put the man in the dirt, so why not lay the ball in and call it a day? Any chance you have to show off your athleticism to a Division I coach, I guess you have to.

However, he's lucky Day didn't rescind his offer to Styles on the spot. I certainly would have because me, personally, I wouldn't take that kind of disrespect. Luckily Day is a better man than I, and the relationship remained intact, leading to Styles becoming a marquee member of the class of 2022. Hopefully, he can show off some of that athleticism that's developed over the past five years with the Silver Bullets this fall.

 MIYAN WILLIAMS, EVERYONE. Since NIL legislation came into play in July 2021, the deals that often make headlines are Ohio State quarterback partners with this apparel brand, Ohio State wide receiver partners with this pass-catching machine, Ohio State offensive lineman partners with this car dealership, and so on.

However, those aren't the only deals NIL legislation made possible for student-athletes. While, yes, some Buckeyes – especially those with household names, such as football and men's basketball players – secure those kinds of sponsorships, the greater percentage of Ohio State athletes have smaller, less noteworthy ways of profiting from their name, image and likeness.

For example, Ohio State women's volleyball defensive specialist Sarah Sue Morbitzer, who Griffin Strom wrote a featured article about in March, has run camps at her alma mater Hamilton Township High School in Groveport, Ohio, since 2021. They let her invest in her childhood community, and she makes some cash from it, too. Sounds like a fair deal.

But then again, that avenue toward NIL cash flow is not exclusive to lesser-known athletes. Miyan Williams, who is undoubtedly a household name in Buckeye Nation and likely has NIL deals out the wazoo, has followed suit after Morbitzer, running the Miyan Williams Impact Camp for the second consecutive year at his old stomping grounds, Winton Woods High School, this week.

This kind of opportunity won't alter Williams' NIL evaluation for On3, but that's not the point. Instead of using the platform for the cash – at least not entirely – Williams has chosen a path with this camp that alter his heart and mind as he impacts Cincinnati youth while he continues his football career at Ohio State and in the NFL.

What's that worth? Well, I'd say it's priceless.

 OLYMPIC VILLAGE. Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan provided his wrestlers with a special token on Monday. That token was a gold singlet for the team's 23-15 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor this past season.

The Buckeyes have had this tradition for several years, one which mirrors the football program's gold pants tradition that started in 1934 when head coach Francis Schmidt told those who wondered how Ohio State would fare against That Team Up North, "They put their pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else." Schmidt's teams defeated Michigan in four consecutive seasons – all by shutout.

Seeing that Ohio State's hatred for Michigan leaks out from football into the school's other 35 varsity programs, including wrestling, Ryan chose to model after Schmidt's idea and bring gold pants to the mats in the form of gold singlets.

"We copy football. Whatever they do, we do," Ryan told Eleven Warriors. "I learned early on in life to be a wise follower."

That much has been true of Ryan's decorated tenure at Ohio State. Ryan also copied Urban Meyer's black stripe tradition with a black shirt ceremony for his program's most dedicated and hard-working wrestlers. Featured members include Kollin Moore, Luke Pletcher, Kaleb Romero, Ethan Smith, Sammy Sasso and Carson Kharchla, among others.

With the program's first-ever national title in 2015 and multiple top-five finishes at the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships in the last decade, modeling after the football program seems to have paid dividends for Ryan's program. If I were him, I think I would continue.

Here's to more gold singlets in the future, Coach.

 SONG OF THE DAY. "Brothers" by Penny and Sparrow.

 CUT TO THE CHASE. ESPN announces layoffs as part of cost-cutting by Disney... Cities reviving downtowns by converting offices to housing... Deion Sanders sees numerous Colorado players enter transfer portal... Zoo seeking "seagull deterrents" to wear giant bird costumes, scare seagulls... This floating ocean garbage is home to a surprising amount of life from the coasts.

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Prognosticating: Indiana

Dry Goods Contest

Across The Field: Indiana Beat Writer Zach Osterman Says This Might Be the Hoosiers’ Most Important Regular Season Game Ever and QB Kurtis Rourke Has Played Well Under Pressure

Kurtis Rourke
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