Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players
The Journal.
The Wall Street Journal
4.2 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | It's well known nowadays that millions of dollars are flowing to college football players. |
| 0:10.7 | Now the players are allowed to do endorsements through name, image, and likeness deals, |
| 0:16.7 | playing for a big college can mean big bucks. |
| 0:20.4 | But did you know that millions of dollars in are flowing into high school football, too? |
| 0:25.7 | High school football is this kind of beloved and cherished institution in our country, |
| 0:30.5 | and we have a lot of warm feelings about it, like Friday night lights and all that. |
| 0:34.6 | That's our colleague Harriet Ryan. |
| 0:36.5 | She's an investigative reporter based in Los Angeles, |
| 0:39.3 | where high school football is a very big deal. |
| 0:42.2 | Southern California is just completely different beast. |
| 0:44.8 | The competitive level, the number of D-1 prospects, |
| 0:48.0 | it just rivals Florida or Georgia or Texas. |
| 0:51.8 | Families come from all over the country |
| 0:53.0 | to have their kids play in Orange County or L.A. |
| 0:58.1 | And for a long time, |
| 0:59.8 | Harriet's been hearing rumors that high school players there |
| 1:02.0 | were getting paid under the table. |
| 1:04.3 | There's a lot of great high school football teams here, |
| 1:05.9 | and I always got this. |
| 1:07.8 | Well, everybody knows it's dirty. |
| 1:09.4 | But, you know, I never seen it proven. |
| 1:11.9 | And when I started working on this story and I started seeing the amounts, I was very surprised. |
... |
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