Julian Lewis, a seventeen-year-old quarterback from Carrollton, Georgia, used state NIL rules to pay an $11,000 emergency vet bill and to purchase multiple high-end vehicles and jewelry. Lewis ranked No. 2 on the 2025 ESPN 300 list and is competing to start as a true freshman at the University of Colorado under Coach Deion Sanders. Georgia permits high school athletes to profit from endorsements. The NCAA's 2021 reversal allowing college athletes to monetize name, image, and likeness exposed the obsolescence of many high school amateur rules and accelerated change in youth-sports economics.
Thank God Julian Lewis played his high school football in Georgia. Otherwise, dear Coco might not still be with us. Back in the spring, Coco, the seventeen-year-old star quarterback's beloved miniature dachshund, got sicklike three-days-in-the-ICU, emergency-surgery, wipe-out-your-savings kind of sick. But because the Peach State lets high school athletes make money off endorsements, Lewis could afford the $11,000 vet bill.
I ask a shirtless Lewis over FaceTime in June. He's just returned home from a workout at the University of Colorado. The quarterback from Carrollton, Georgia, whose nickname is JuJu, was ranked No. 2 on the 2025 ESPN 300 list of the top recruits in the country. This fall he's competing to be the starter as a true freshman on Coach Deion Sanders's buzzy team.
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