(InvestigateTV) — High faculty athletes are nailing down massive sponsorship offers earlier than faculty.
Our investigators discover the seismic shifts taking place in worlds each massive and small.
In this episode of InvestigateTV+:
- We delve into the high-stakes recreation of highschool sports, the place youngsters at the moment are navigating five-figure endorsement offers and households are crossing state strains to money in.
- We uncover a hidden medical disaster, the place the classes discovered from Long COVID are lastly bringing solutions and validation to sufferers who had been dismissed for years.
- We examine the new frontier of journey scams, the place your airline miles are a useful goal for digital thieves.
- Finally, we meet a hometown hero in Portland, Oregon, a referee whose unwavering dedication helps to avoid wasting youth sports, one recreation at a time.
High School Hustle: Athletes cash in on name, image and likeness as states grapple with regulations
Across America, states have varied rules with regards to NIL offers for highschool athletes. These rules are sometimes set by every state’s highschool athletic affiliation, however in uncommon instances, lawmakers have tried to intervene in a push to legalize NIL endorsements for teen athletes nonetheless in highschool.
State highschool athletic associations – like the NCAA – are voluntary membership teams and are both arrange as nonprofit organizations or personal entities.
Our nationwide investigative staff appeared at NIL guidelines throughout America and located that about three dozen states enable NIL offers for highschool athletes.
Others strictly prohibit compensation for identify, picture and likeness, which makes getting one of these profitable offers unimaginable with out shifting if athletes reside in a state the place it’s banned.
For one gifted basketball participant, shifting from her dwelling state of Missouri was the solely choice to attain an NIL deal, her mother advised InvestigateTV.
Meet this player and a hard-working teen wrestler who are both navigating the world of NIL.
Long-illness patients benefit from lessons learned after COVID
For years, Johnalynn Sinnott was a medical thriller, trapped in a cycle of debilitating sickness that nobody might clarify.
It started when she was simply 12 years previous, when a easy case of the flu morphed into a month-long migraine. That was the begin of a painful odyssey crammed with numerous physician’s visits, ER journeys, MRIs, and blood exams, none of which supplied any solutions or aid.
Her life was derailed. Her good attendance and straight A’s vanished, and as an alternative had been changed by visits from truancy officers.
Worse than the bodily ache was the psychological toll of being disbelieved.
“Multiple doctors, after tests came up negative or whatnot, just were like, ‘Well, you’re making it up,’” Sinnott recollects. “Some people just are that straight, like you’re making it up.”
She was scared, indignant, and annoyed, affected by an invisible sickness in a medical system that appeared unwilling to see her.
Her story, it seems, is just not distinctive. She is one of numerous sufferers who’ve suffered for years from post-viral syndromes, the place the physique fails to completely recuperate from an an infection like the flu, leaving a constellation of continual signs like mind fog, fatigue, and ache.
For a long time, these sufferers had been typically misdiagnosed or dismissed. But a breakthrough got here from an surprising supply: the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to watch the full story.
How airline miles, credits could disappear into the hands of hackers
Stacey and Brian Lester had been wanting ahead to a journey, planning to make use of the roughly $800 in journey credit that they had accrued with American Airlines.
However, once they went to guide their flights, they made a stunning discovery.
“My wife, Stacy, finds out that we have no credits,” Brian says.
The credit had vanished, utilized by strangers to fly from New York to Austin on two completely different days.
The Lesters are victims of a rising and insidious kind of journey fraud. Scammers are more and more focusing on airline miles, factors, and journey credit, treating them like a digital forex ripe for the choosing. And as vacationers are discovering, defending these belongings may be troublesome, and getting them again may be practically unimaginable.
Travel professional Julie Gill says that airline rewards are a useful commodity for criminals. The fraud is commonly subtle, making it arduous to hint.
“The problem with going after fraudsters is that they are typically not the ones actually flying the ticket,” Gill explains.
Instead, the criminals hack into accounts, steal the credit, after which promote the discounted tickets to unsuspecting vacationers, who might not even bear in mind they’re utilizing stolen rewards.
Read the full story and find out how to best prevent this from happening to you by clicking here.
This referee officiates sometimes 20 games per week to help his community’s leagues, players
In the world of youth sports, there may be a disaster brewing.
Thousands of referees and officers walked away from the recreation throughout the pandemic and haven’t returned, leaving leagues struggling to seek out sufficient folks to officiate video games.
The NCAA has referred to as the scenario “critical.” It’s a thankless job, typically crammed with excessive feelings from gamers, coaches, and oldsters.
In Portland, Oregon, one man is single-handedly attempting to fill the hole, pushed by a pure love for the recreation.
John Martin is a particular breed of official.
At 55, he has labored extra video games than another referee in the Portland Basketball Officials Association for six of the final seven years, officiating 15 to twenty video games a week.
His secret?
“My best ability became my availability,” he says with a smile. “Once I learned there was such a need for capable refs to continually ref nightly, nightly, nightly, I just kept putting my hand in the air.”
Martin, a former coach who admits he used to have “a lot of problems with the refs,” brings a distinctive perspective to the courtroom. He understands the ardour of the recreation, however now sees it from the different side. He officiates center faculty, junior varsity, and youth group video games, treating the children with a mix of authority, respect, and real care.
Learn more about John’s story and his officiating style here.
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