Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players

Summary

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The Journal. – "Inside the Black Market for High School Football Players"

Date: January 16, 2026
Hosts: Ryan Knudsen & Jessica Mendoza
Featured Reporter: Harriet Ryan
Produced by: The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates the emergence and impact of a black market for high school football players, a world where teenagers are recruited, paid, and transferred between schools for hefty sums typically reserved for college or pro athletes. Through the story of teenage football phenom Philip Bell III, the Wall Street Journal’s Harriet Ryan exposes how the newfound flow of money—once reserved for college athletes—is filtering down to high school, reshaping family dynamics, legal boundaries, and the lives of minors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Arrival of Big Money in High School Football

• Expansion from College to High School:
  • The introduction of "Name, Image, and Likeness" (NIL) deals in college football created a new money stream for young athletes. This trend is now visible in high school football, particularly in hotbeds like Southern California.
  • Harriet Ryan: “At its most elite levels, there is a very ugly side to it that basically turns the best players into commodities that can just be sold around, like their assets.” (01:13)

2. How the Black Market Works

• Street Agents as Talent Brokers:

  • Street agents act as brokers, connecting talented players with boosters and wealthy parents willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars.
  • Deals can include cash, housing, jobs, or other perks for both players and their families.
  • Harriet Ryan: “They sort of prowl parts of California... looking for outsized talent that they can turn around and essentially sell to a booster at a school or a parent at a school.” (05:18)

• Illegality and Enforcement:

  • Paying high school athletes is against interscholastic sports rules in all states, but it's not a criminal offense.
  • Enforcement is lax due to limited investigative resources:
    • Harriet Ryan: "It's not the FBI. They don’t have hundreds of agents—they’re not gonna subpoena your bank records." (06:50)

3. The Philip Bell III Story: From Prodigy to Commodity

• Early Stardom and Recruitment:

  • Bell, from Sacramento, received his first Division 1 offer in 8th grade and was recruited heavily by high school and later college programs.
  • Street agents and boosters quickly became involved, offering inducements for his transfer.
  • His family, especially his mother, became central figures in negotiating these deals.

• Escalating Bids and Commodification:

  • Offers included “$20,000 and a lead on a job,” “$50,000 and a house,” sometimes structured for one season or for the remainder of high school (05:43).
  • Bell and his mother enjoyed a luxury lifestyle, living in a mansion formerly occupied by rapper Soulja Boy, with expectations of future wealth:
    • Ryan Knudsen: “Barnes started telling her friends, quote, my son is going to be a millionaire.” (07:39)

• New Avenues: Elite “7-on-7” Leagues:

  • Bell played for “Trillion Boys” in the OT7 League (backed by Bezos and private equity), where he allegedly received per-game payments despite rules prohibiting 'pay-for-play' (10:56).

4. Family Fallout and Personal Toll

• Academic and Emotional Decline:

  • Bell’s grades plummeted after moving for football, and he confided in relatives about wanting to come home but felt trapped by his mother's financial interests:
    • Harriet Ryan: “He desperately wanted to leave... he felt like he couldn’t leave because his mother had so much financially on the line.” (11:35)

• Custody Battles and Loss:

  • Bell’s father sued for custody, citing concerns about his son’s wellbeing and his ex-wife’s alleged drug use.
  • The court ruled Bell should return to Sacramento, but the order was not enforced. Bell chose to stay with his mother.

• Mother’s Death and Aftermath:

  • Days after unsuccessful plea attempts by family, Bell’s mother died of complications related to diabetes and cocaine (16:21).
  • Ryan Knudsen (quoting father): “My family has been torn apart by adults who should have protected us, and now I’m left trying to pick up the pieces.” (17:58)

5. The Endless Cycle and Wider Impact

• Bell’s Senior Year and College Decision:

  • After his mother’s death, he moved in with another family and played his senior year at Mission Viejo, committing to Ohio State.
  • Signing day was emotional, with Bell honoring his mother:
    • Philip Bell III: “I'm just continuing it on for her because she wanted me to keep going, so that's what I'm gonna keep doing.” (19:40)

• A Widespread Issue:

  • The case is not isolated. Harriet Ryan was told, “There’s thousands of Philip Bells.” The only reason this case is public is because of the tragic outcome. (19:48)

• Moral and Social Consequences:

  • The downward creep of money into youth sports puts minors and their families in complex, often perilous situations.
  • Ryan Knudsen: “The money is just kind of dripping down to lower and lower levels… at high school these are minors… they don’t really know how to navigate [it] themselves.” (20:08)
  • Harriet Ryan: “Anytime there's a lot of money, a lot of things can go wrong... a 14 year old, a 15 year old—I mean, they're not [adults].” (20:39)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “‘At its most elite levels, there is a very ugly side to it that basically turns the best players into commodities that can just be sold around, like they’re assets.’” – Harriet Ryan (01:13)

• “‘They sort of prowl parts of California... looking for outsized talent that they can turn around and essentially sell to a booster at a school or a parent at a school.’” – Harriet Ryan (05:18)

• "We're getting a deal down here. We're getting the equivalent of $15,000 a month and this is like a deal I can't resist." – Harriet Ryan (quoting Bell’s mother) (07:31)

• "Anytime there's a lot of money, a lot of things can go wrong." – Harriet Ryan (20:39)

• “‘If you don't love football, you're not going to be able to do this.’... but it was clear that it’s become about a lot more than just loving football.” – Harriet Ryan (21:11)

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Important Timestamps

• [01:13] Money turns youth players into commodities.
• [05:18] Role of street agents and black market structure.
• [07:39] Mother seeking financial deals for Bell.
• [11:35] Academic decline and family intervention.
• [16:21] Bell’s mother’s death and resulting fallout.
• [19:40] Bell honors his mother upon committing to Ohio State.
• [20:08-21:11] Reflection on the system’s impact on young athletes.

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Final Thoughts

This episode powerfully illustrates how monetary incentives in high school sports can have profound, sometimes tragic costs far beyond the field. The commodification of young athletes, combined with inadequate oversight and the involvement of families, boosters, and street agents, has created a world in which talent is auctioned, rules are skirted, and the personal toll can be devastating.

Young stars like Philip Bell III may be outliers in their talent, but their struggles—and the temptations and pressures placed on their families—are increasingly common as the flow of cash infiltrates adolescent sports.

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Transcript

[Ryan Knudsen]

It's well known nowadays that millions of dollars are flowing to college football players now that players are allowed to do endorsements through name, image and likeness deals. Playing for a big college can mean big bucks. But did you know that millions of dollars are now flowing into high school football, too?

[Harriet Ryan]

High school football is this kind of beloved and cherished institution in our country. And we have a lot of warm about it, like Friday Night Lights and all that.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's our colleague Harriet Ryan. She's an investigative reporter based in Los Angeles, where high school football is a very big deal.

[Harriet Ryan]

Southern California is just a completely different beast. The competitive level, the number of D1 prospects, just it rivals Florida or Georgia or Texas. Families come from all over the country to have their kids play in Orange county or la.

[Ryan Knudsen]

And for a long time, Harriet's been hearing rumors that high school players there were getting paid under the T. There's.

[Harriet Ryan]

A lot of great high school football teams here. And I always got this, oh, everybody knows it's dirty, but I'd never seen it proven. And when I started working on this story and I started seeing the amounts, I was very surprised. At its most elite levels, there is a very ugly side to it that basically turns the best players into commodities that can just be sold around, like their assets. What I was hearing from agents and other people, you know, they said, look, when you're giving teenagers vast amounts of money, a lot of bad stuff happens.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan knudsen. It's Friday, January 16th. Coming up on the show, inside the black market for high school football players.

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[Ryan Knudsen]

This story is about a young man named Philip Bell III whose situation came to light in court following a tense custody battle. Our colleague Harriet was able to piece together Bell's story via court records and interviews with friends, relatives and others who knew his. Bell himself didn't comment for this story. Bell is a wide receiver and he grew up in the Sacramento area. Bell's parents divorced when he was a baby and he was raised with help from his grandparents. Pretty early on it was clear that Bell was going to be a football phenom. Here's a clip from a highlight reel.

[Harriet Ryan]

The corner of the end zone has.

[Philip Bell III]

A man got him beat his defender and Philip Bell with the score. Nice pass by Fay.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Bell was so good. He got his first D1 college scholarship offer when he was in eighth grade.

[Harriet Ryan]

He's an amazing player and what one of his coaches, one of his youth coaches said was that no matter who goes up with Philip in the end zone to get a ball, Philip comes down with the ball. You can double team him. He will still come down with the ball.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Here's Bell in a Day in the Life video from YouTube.

[Philip Bell III]

I feel like it's going to be a good game. I feel like if you like overly too excited for a game, that's where it messes you up. So I feel like every game day be regular.

[Ryan Knudsen]

By the time he was in high school, Bell got on the radar of scouts in Southern California, but not just scouts from colleges. Bell got on the radar of high school scouts, otherwise known as street agents.

[Harriet Ryan]

They sort of prowl parts of California and I'm sure other states looking for outsized talent that they can turn around and essentially sell to a booster at a school or a parent at a school. They make the deal, they make the connection.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Hmm. So there's some booster at a high school that'll pay someone for introductions to talented high school players that they may not have heard about.

[Harriet Ryan]

Yeah, I mean, I talked to a youth coach in Sacramento who said like, look, I get calls from people from Southern California who are like, I'm looking for two wide receivers. I'm looking for like an O line guy. And, you know, they're willing to pay $20,000 and they have a lead on a job or $50,000 and you get a house. He said, like the deals are structured, like sometimes this is like for the rest of high school and sometimes it's just this season we'll see how the.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Street agents don't work for the schools. They typically represent deep pocketed alumni or parents who want to see their kids play with talented players. Through these agents, players and their families can get paid tens of thousands of dollars. And some are even offered rent money, cars and jobs. Is this legal?

[Harriet Ryan]

It's against interscholastic rules in every state. You can't pay a player to play, but it doesn't violate any criminal laws that I know of. But it does violate the rules of sports, right?

[Ryan Knudsen]

The cops aren't gonna show up, but you might get kicked off the team or something like that, or the, you know, but who is, is anybody out there enforcing that though?

[Harriet Ryan]

So every state has like an association, a federation that's supposed to do this, but you know, like California Interclass Federation. It's not the FBI. They don't have like hundreds of agents. They're not gonna, you know, subpoena your bank records.

[Ryan Knudsen]

But for some families, the risk that their kid gets kicked off the team is worth taking. The money is just too good. As Phillip Bell's high school career was kicking off, his mother, Samantha Barnes, was dealing with money issues. She'd recently married a man who, according to court records, had no full time job, unpaid child support bills, and depended on her for living expenses. So when Bell got an offer to a school in la, Barnes took it.

[Harriet Ryan]

She was telling people like, look, we're getting a deal down here. We're getting the equivalent of $15,000 a month and this is like a deal I can't resist.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Bell and his mother were also put up in a mansion that was formerly occupied by the rapper Soulja Boy. They got help on the lease from a parent whose son was the quarterback on Bell's team. According to Harriet's reporting, Barnes started telling her friends, quote, my son is going to be a millionaire. In the past, players couldn't become millionaires unless they made it to the NFL. But thanks to name, image and likeness deals that are now legal in college and allow players to sign endorsement deals, players can become millionaires much sooner. And that money also flows to the people around the player, their families and their agents.

[Harriet Ryan]

You have agents who, you know, formerly represented NFL players who are now watching middle school practice.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Middle school practice?

[Harriet Ryan]

Yeah. I mean, there's like, you know, there's travel teams in football and, you know, these are under 13 kids. I mean, the thing is, if you can identify talent in at a young age and get in, even if that kid can do nothing for you financially, by the time they're in college, they're gonna be able to do a lot for you financially. And you wanna have build that relationship as soon as you can. I mean, I think the agents would also say, like, we're trying to get in there, because if we're not in there, they're going to be getting bad advice from people that don't know what they're doing. But people are trying to form relationships with younger and younger athletes.

[Ryan Knudsen]

It's sort of like all the money is just seeping down lower and lower. Like college resisted it for a long time, but now it's there with these nil deals and now it's just seeping even further, one layer down to high schools.

[Harriet Ryan]

I think that's right.

[Ryan Knudsen]

By the end of Bell's sophomore year, his mother didn't appear to be satisfied with the amount of money her son was making, and she started shopping Belle around to different schools to see if she could get a better offer. Eventually, Belle's mother crossed paths with someone named Brett Sty, who's known around the LA football scene as the Money Man.

[Harriet Ryan]

Brett Sty owns fast food restaurants, he lives in la, he owns a tire shop. He made a lot of money and he loves sports and betting on sports. And he just got really involved in supporting high school football. And he just said that like, look, it's not illegal. It violates interscholastic rules for the kids, but it's not illegal. And I enjoy it. I enjoyed building a team. I enjoyed the competitive element to it. And he said that, you know, over a series of years, he paid millions of dollars to hundreds of families. Some of those kids he played, they're now adults playing in the NFL.

[Ryan Knudsen]

According to Sti, Bell's mother told a coach that she wanted a house and an allowance of $72,000 a year, which was too much even for Money Man. For his junior year, Bell ended up transferring to Mission Viejo, a school in Orange county without the help of Moneyman. But playing for high school teams isn't the only way for players like Bell to make money. Bell started playing in an elite 7 on 7 football league called OT7. OT7 is a no tackle football league focused on passing and catching. It's backed by Jeff Bezos and private equity firms. Belle played on a team called Trillion Boys.

[Philip Bell III]

It is the unstoppable, flashy Trillion Boys.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Going head to head against a Heisman Trophy in OT7. Players are permitted to make endorsement deals, but pay for play is forbidden. However, according to court testimony, Bell was paid 400 to $700 per game, but his stepfather allegedly kept the money. In a statement, One manager from OT7's parent company said that teams that don't follow the rules are, quote, in direct violation of their agreements with us and don't belong in OT7. According to Harry's reporting, all this football didn't leave much time for Bell to study, and his grades started to suffer. Up in Sacramento, Bell's grandparents and father started to worry.

[Harriet Ryan]

Philip had always been like an A and B student, according to his dad and court records. And he got to LA and he was failing all of his classes. And there are text messages he sends to his grandma where he's just like, oh, my gosh, like, I'm failing everything. And she's like, look, we're going to get you a tutor. We can get a relative to tutor you and, you know, let me come get you this weekend. And he's like, I got to go to a 77 tournament. Like, his life just became about football. He just kept telling relatives that he really wanted to come home, that he was really unhappy, that, you know, he felt like he couldn't leave because his mother had so much financially on the line with him being there. But he desperately wanted to leave. After he sent all these panicked and upset messages to his relatives in Northern California unannounced, five of them from both sides of the family drove down and went to his school. And when he saw them outside, he said, you guys are going to get me in trouble. And they went to a restaurant and they talked and he just said, like, I can't go back with you. I can't go back with you. And he had a lot of concerns about the amount of money his mom was making. He was concerned about her health. She had diabetes. He didn't want her to work too much or, you know, he said she was having trouble, and he just, you know, said he was going to stay down there.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Eventually, his father sued for full custody and he wanted to bring Bell back to Sacramento. His father and his grandparents were worried about the mental and physical state of his mother.

[Harriet Ryan]

And from interviews and court records, I can tell you that they had really deep concerns about what kind of state of mind she was in in her situation. She was having bad money problems and they believed she was using drugs and they were concerned about.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Belle's mother said those allegations were false and she told the judge that her son wouldn't be where he was without her. She noted that 37 colleges had offered him scholarships. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of Bell's father. The judge said Bell should return to Sacramento, but also ruled that Bell could finish out his junior football season in Mission Viejo. But Bell never went back to Sacramento.

[Harriet Ryan]

Money in the black market shattered his family.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's next. By his junior year, Philip Bell had become a hot prospect in the Southern California football scene. In 2023, he helped mission Viejo win the state championship. Bell caught two touchdowns in that game. Trudeau's pass is complete to Philip Bell.

[Philip Bell III]

For a four yard Mission Viejo touchdown.

[Ryan Knudsen]

But his mother and stepfather's money trouble persisted.

[Harriet Ryan]

So what happened is in the spring of his junior year, his family is living in an apartment near a school, and they're not paying their rent and they haven't paid in a long time. And so their landlord keeps asking for the money and they're not paying. And finally the landlord just locks the doors and, like, they can't get in. You're done. So on that day when the landlord locked the doors, word goes out through the football community in Southern California. Philip Bell's senior year is for sale.

[Ryan Knudsen]

When Brett Sty, Louisiana's money man, got word, he decided to put in an offer.

[Harriet Ryan]

Money man says, like, look, I can come up with $24,000 a year for his senior season, but that's it. And so he's about to do that deal and then he realizes that it's just not going to look good. The school that he's buying kids for at that point is a poor ish public school in la. Like, not in a good area. And he's like, how am I going to explain that the star player is spending his senior year playing for this team? So he's like, I'm not going to do it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Money man was out as Bell was still being shopped to boosters. According to texts reviewed by the Journal, he embarked on a series of college visits. Over the summer. Bell and his mom, Samantha Barnes, went to visit colleges where he could make big money playing football. They toured the University of Washington, Penn State, and Ohio State. In a text to a friend after the Washington visit, Barnes said, quote, good News. They offered P350K. A university of Washington spokesman declined to comment. Later that summer, Bell's mother and stepfather went on a trip to Las Vegas. According to a police report, Barnes drank heavily and used cocaine.

[Harriet Ryan]

She was diabetic. She didn't take insulin, and she was found dead in her bed with a lot of cocaine in her system and with a condition that's caused by a lack of insulin.

[Ryan Knudsen]

A coroner ruled her death an accident caused by diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition resulting from a lack of insulin, with acute cocaine toxicity as another significant condition. After Barnes died, Bell's father wanted to bring his son back to Northern California, so he visited Bell's high school in Mission Viejo.

[Harriet Ryan]

His father tries to find him at football practice and runs into the coach in which the dad is just like, his mom just died. He needs therapy. His head is all over the place. I just want to talk to him. This is not natural. And the coach essentially says, like, I cannot force him to talk to you. You know, it's his decision, kind of.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Why didn't he want to talk to his dad? And also, didn't his dad win that court case that said he had to go back and live with him?

[Harriet Ryan]

Well, yeah. I mean, it's unclear why the court order wasn't enforced, but I've been told that it was a bruising custody hearing, proceedings for his mother, and she was curious with how her family had. Had handled things and had sided with, you know, her ex husband. And she said, I forbid you from ever talking to those people again.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Mm. And he was very close with his mother. And so, yeah. Yeah.

[Harriet Ryan]

I mean, he. It's very clear that if you just look at pictures of them, I mean, she loved him a lot and was so proud of him and I'm sure wanted the absolute best for him in her way.

[Ryan Knudsen]

In a statement, Bell's father said, quote, decisions were made about my son's life, his schooling, and his future without my consent or involvement, adding, quote, my family has been torn apart by adults who should have protected us, and now I'm left trying to pick up the pieces. His grandmother added that they wanted him to be, quote, safe, loved, thriving, and surrounded by people who truly have his best interests at heart. Bell's father and grandparents also sued Mission Viejo School District, which is denied wrongdoing. The case is ongoing. Bell's stepfather, Isaiah Sandoval, didn't respond to requests for comment. In a letter to a judge in one of the court cases, Sandoval wrote, I love Philip with all of me and would do anything under the sun for him. So what happened to Philip Bell for his senior year? I mean, he was. This message went out that his senior year was for sale.

[Harriet Ryan]

After his mother died, it appears that he was taken off the market. You know, he. I've seen messages with people talking about, like, his senior year up until she died, and then not talking about it anymore. He ended up moving in with a family that he knew from down there.

[Ryan Knudsen]

In 2024, Bell started his senior season at Mission Viejo as one of the top wide receivers in the country. And it was time for him to make a decision about where to go to college.

[Philip Bell III]

I'll be taking my next step on my journey to the Ohio State University.

[Harriet Ryan]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Knudsen]

The Ohio State, one of the best football programs in the country. On his signing day, Bell announced his decision on a national sports network. He was on a boat, sitting in front of an illustration of his mother, who on her back had the wings of an angel.

[Philip Bell III]

I'm just continuing it on for her because she wanted me to keep going, so that's what I'm gonna keep doing.

[Harriet Ryan]

Someone I talked to was like, deeply enmeshed in this world. When I told him I was writing about Philip Bell, he just kind of shrugged and I was like, what? And he goes, there's thousands of Philip Bells. I mean, the only reason we know about it is because there was this rift in the family and because his mother died. So I don't know, that made me really sad.

[Ryan Knudsen]

I mean, it just. It also just makes me think about how, you know, the college was one thing with all the money that was circulating, but even there, they're still adults with the monies that's sloshing around at high school. These are minors and they're. There are parents who hopefully have their best interest, but also can get, like, drawn in to the lure of money. And that's like a whole different factor. And like, they, you know, they're kids that are dealing with this stuff and they don't really know how to navigate it themselves.

[Harriet Ryan]

Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, anytime there's a lot of money, a lot of things can go wrong. I think that, you know, as you said earlier, the money is just kind of dripping down to lower and lower levels. And yeah, at the end of the day, a college student in most cases is a adult and they're responsible for their decisions, but you can't really. A 14 year old, a 15 year old. I mean, they're not.

[Ryan Knudsen]

With all the agents and the hype and the money for some of the people Harriet spoke to. Youth football is no longer just a.

[Harriet Ryan]

Game I was listening to. I was a football coach who was speaking to a group I was with recently, and, and he just said, like, make sure you love football. If you don't love football, you're not going to be able to do this. And I thought that's such, like a weird thing to say. But it was clear that, you know, it's become about a lot more than just loving football.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's all for today, Friday, january 16th. The show's made by kathryn brewer, pa gadkari, isabella japal, sophie kodner, matt kwong, colin mcnulty, jessica mendoza, annie minoff, laura morris, enrique perez de la rosa, sarah platt, allen rodriguez espinosa, heather rogers, piers singh, jeevika verma, lisa wang, katherine whelan, tatiana zamis and me, ryan knudsen. Our engineers are griffin tanner, nathan singapak and peter leonard. Our theme music is by so wiley. Additional music this week from katherine anderson, peter leonard, bobby lord, emma munger, nathan singapak, so wiley, griffin tanner and epidemic. Sound fact checking this week by mary mathis. Thanks for listening. See you Monday.