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It’s been close to a decade since the college football world found itself grappling with a new trend as more and more players planning to take their talents to the NFL started opting out of bowl games. Former Michigan tight end Jake Butt declined to do so before suffering an injury that had a major impact on the trajectory of his career, and he’s shed some light on what it really cost him.
In 2016, Stanford’s Christian McCaffery and LSU’s Leonard Fournette ruffled plenty of feathers when the RBs announced their plan to skip the bowl games their teams had qualified for to start preparing for their transition to the NFL.
It was a fairly controversial move at the time, but it quickly became a common practice among highly touted prospects who followed in their footsteps in the seasons that followed.
Michigan TE Jake Butt declined to go that route when the Wolverines qualified for the Orange Bowl in 2016, but disaster struck in his final game when he tore his ACL. The John Mackey Award winner had been projected to go in the second round of the NFL Draft prior to the injury, but he ultimately fell to the fifth after the Broncos selected him with the 145th overall pick.
That injury continued to plague him over the course of an NFL career where he only appeared in eight games before retiring in 2021 less than two weeks after signing with the Bears.
His bowl game injury is frequently used to highlight the potential downsides of playing in one of those largely meaningless contests if you’re a guy with NFL dreams, and while Butt maintains he doesn’t regret suiting up, he outlined just how big of an impact it had in a video where he shed some light on the practice of opting out.
I am one of the poster child’s of bowl game opt outs. Here’s a deep dive into what it cost me and if I’d change my decision pic.twitter.com/nWdUjiPn8t
— Jake Butt (@Jbooty88) December 18, 2024
Butt noted he lost millions of dollars by slipping to the fifth round (he reportedly received more than $500,000 from an insurance policy he’d taken out before the Orange Bowl) but also missed out on some big perks due to the nature of what was officially designated as a “non-football injury” because it happened before he made the leap to the NFL.
Those sacrifices included the $20,000 check NFL players get for agreeing to appear in the Madden games, the 401(k) match the league offers, a “year of service” that determines the pension players receive when they retire, and the health insurance coverage he didn’t qualify for.
Butt noted he also would have gotten another full month of preparation for the NFL combine players largely sacrifice if they continue to practice with their team. He insists he doesn’t second-guess his decision, but it’s pretty easy to see why plenty of guys choose to opt out given what they stand to lose if they’re injured.