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College athletes can earn a lot of money through social media by building a brand and putting up sponsored posts. But social media has gotten much more toxic, especially with the rise of sports gambling. Now many people in college sports are asking themselves, is this worth it? NPR's Becky Sullivan has the story.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: In real life, it would be hard to imagine a stranger harassing Cam Corhen. He's 21 years old, 6 foot 10, 235 pounds of muscle across his big frame. And he's a Division I college athlete - a basketball player for the Pittsburgh Panthers. None of that, though, stops people on the internet.
CAM CORHEN: Especially with this sports betting and everything now, it's just so different. After the games, you'll check your DMs and people are wishing harmful things on family members.
SULLIVAN: He was a sophomore when he got his first really disturbing messages from an angry gambler.
CORHEN: And I got hurt in the game, and I messed somebody's parlay up, I guess.
SULLIVAN: Corhen had to leave the game early. He scored only two points. His team won. But when he got on the bus afterward and turned on his phone, his home screen was filled with threatening messages.
CORHEN: I hope your mom dies. Like, it's some crazy things. And, mind you, these are people on burner accounts, so you don't know who they are or you don't know their identity. And you lost their money, so they say really hurtful things.
SULLIVAN: He was only 19, barely a year removed from leaving home. It rattled him. Finally, this summer, he decided to log off entirely. Practically every athlete today has a story about harassment, gamblers, death threats even. But it's not so easy to just quit social media because being online is basically a part of the job description for college athletes these days. Here's Kyla Deck, a guard at SMU.
KYLA DECK: It can maximize the money you're making. It can maximize the stage that you're putting yourself on. Like, you know, as an athlete, you want to be out there. You want people to know your name. You want - you know, it puts you in rooms that you might not be in.
SULLIVAN: Yet the harassment of athletes online has become an epidemic. In college, the NCAA says basketball players are most at risk, especially around March Madness, when their data shows thousands of abusive or threatening messages are sent to athletes, many of them from gamblers. Some of the threats are so alarming and specific that the NCAA has to alert law enforcement. More and more players and coaches are deciding that being on social media at all just isn't worth it.
JEFF CAPEL: Look, I've had people at the university like, you should tweet more. You should do this. And they're probably right. I have to protect my peace, though.
SULLIVAN: This is Jeff Capel, Cam Corhen's head coach at Pitt. He himself quit X and made his Instagram private a couple years ago after online criticism had started to seep into his home life.
CAPEL: My kids were seeing stuff at home, my children. I'm seeing the stuff. It's affecting me. And I made the decision then that, look, I don't need this. I don't want this. I can't do this anymore.
SULLIVAN: Social media has become so baked into the business of college sports now, though, that teams have whole staffs dedicated to churning out creative content for players to post. That's true at Florida State, where Brooke Wyckoff is the head coach of the women's team. Sometimes she wonders, what is this all even for?
BROOKE WYCKOFF: We spend tons of time and thought and energy and money on photo shoots for recruits and photo shoots for the team. They're not helping us win a basketball game, but they're helping us get the word out about Florida State.
SULLIVAN: Players can make thousands with sponsored posts - ads, essentially - on their feeds. But some have decided that the juice isn't worth the squeeze. North Carolina's Reniya Kelly is one of the country's best point guards on one of the country's best teams. She could be an influencer if she wanted, but she doesn't.
RENIYA KELLY: I just hate social media 'cause, like, you need to have it so you can reach different people and get your name out there. But it's, like, at some point, when can you just enjoy the sport for what it is?
SULLIVAN: Kelly grew up spending time outdoors - touching grass, so to speak - so she already has a vision of life after basketball. A vision that doesn't involve the internet.
KELLY: I want to be a farmer. I want a garden. I want crops. I want to have peach trees, apple trees. I want to have everything. I want to be able to go outside and grocery shop on my farm.
SULLIVAN: She's a junior now, with a chance at a career in the WNBA. After that, there'll be nothing to stop her from going off the grid.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Charlotte.
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