Ryan Knudson

Middle school practice?

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.

By the end of Belle'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, Bell's mother crossed paths with someone named Brett Stey, who's known around the LA football scene as the Money Man.

According to Stey, 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 Money Man.

But playing for high school teams isn't the only way for players like Bell to make money.

Bell started playing in an elite seven-on-seven 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.

Bell played on a team called Trillion Boys.

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.