Johnny Napp Benched- NCAA Says Naparlo Has To Put Music On Hiatus
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
By Dustin Dopirak
Daily News Record
If John Naparlo wants to play basketball this season, he has to stop cowboying
up and partying down for a while.
The James Madison senior, whose stage name is "Johnny Napp," has not
participated in any of the Dukes' first four practices because of NCAA eligibility
problems caused by his budding country music singing career.
Chief among those is the use of his likeness on the album cover of his debut
CD "Cowboy Up and Party Down" as well as on promotional posters and
his Web site, johnnynapp.com.
The pictures call Naparlo's amateurism into question because they violate an
NCAA bylaw that says an athlete may not "permit the use of his or her name
or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of any
commercial product or service of any kind."
Naparlo was told by the NCAA in mid-September that he must remove his picture
from his CD and promotional material before he can practice. In addition, he
can't record or tour during the basketball season, because athletes are not
allowed to work while their sports are in session, according to another NCAA
bylaw.
"The Web site and the album are the biggest things," Naparlo, a 6-foot-3
reserve guard, said Tuesday. "I have to try and take care of that before
I can practice."
Naparlo isn't sure he can do all of that - and he's not 100 percent he wants
to.
Taking the picture off the Web site is easy, but the CD is already available
online through Amazon.com and iTunes. The album cover features Naparlo sitting
in a field wearing a cowboy hat.
Naparlo said he expects to know by the end of the week if the commercial sites
will remove the CD if asked to do so, and if he can remove the rest of his promotional
material. Then, he has to decide if it's worth it.
Taking the photos off of his Web site and album will assuredly slow a career
that was making quick strides. He has already opened for two national country
acts, David Allan Coe and Jason Aldean, and has attracted interest as a headliner.
The former walk-on said he doesn't want to skip his senior basketball season,
but Naparlo is unlikely to receive much playing time this year and has to wonder
if a season on the bench is worth putting the brakes on his music career.
"My initial reaction is 'yes,'" Naparlo said. "It depends how
much has to come down. I definitely want to play basketball for my senior year.
That's just something I'm going to be sitting down with my dad and coach [Dean
Keener] and [JMU compliance officer] Kurt [Johnson] trying to figure this stuff
out."
Keener and Johnson were informed in mid-September in a letter from the NCAA
that Naparlo would be forbidden from practicing until the matter was resolved. "I think he's certainly talented and the biggest thing for him is that
he knows basketball is going to end in four or five months for him, but this
musical career could last a lifetime," Keener said. "You have to weigh
the odds, do you stop something you can do longer? That's the biggest thing
for him and his family, do I give up basketball for something for the long term?"
The hubbub started in June when JMU's Johnson read a newspaper story about Naparlo's
music career. Johnson contacted the membership services division of the NCAA
to make sure Naparlo was not committing an NCAA violation. "I have to protect the athletics department," Johnson said. "I
had to inquire as to what was going on, to get a dialogue with the NCAA and
make sure what John was doing was permissible. The last thing we want to do
is to participate an ineligible player. Then you have a whole host of ramifications.
But I wanted John to be able to do both. The report I sent them was in John's
favor."
And, in Johnson's mind, the word he got back was pretty favorable."The NCAA actually could have declared him ineligible as soon as it found
out, but they wanted to continue to work with him because they said they didn't
have any previous experience with a situation like this," Johnson said.
"I don't want to say they were lenient, but I'd say it's been an amicable
situation between us and the NCAA."
NCAA spokesman Kent Barrett said he had never heard of a situation regarding
a student-athlete who also is a recording artist. He said the rule, however,
is intended to maintain amateurism in college sports.
"It really goes down to one of our primary principles and that is that
student-athletes are supposed to be amateurs," Barrett said. "Endorsement
for a product goes against those amateurism principles. That's the same reason
you wouldn't find a student-athlete doing a commercial for a used car dealership.
There are student-athletes. They shouldn't be using their role to make money
for themselves or other people."
Naparlo isn't buying that his role as an athlete is making him money, though.
After averaging just 1.8 points in 13.7 minutes per game last season, he doubts
that his athletic prowess is doing much for his album sales."One of the examples I got was that if Peyton Manning made a country album
when he was at Tennessee, it would sell 50,000 copies just because he's Peyton
Manning," Naparlo said. "But I don't think there's really a comparison
there between me and Peyton Manning."
So for now, Naparlo is working out on his own to prepare for his return to practice,
though he isn't sure if he will ever play again.
It's going to be a lot more difficult to promote myself if they're telling me
I have to take every single thing down," he said. "So I have to sit
down with my family and figure this out. Is it worth it to put this entire thing
on hold?"
This isn't the first time a James Madison athlete has had eligibility problems
because of outside activities. Former swimmer Matt Miller had his eligibility
revoked in 1996 because he posed for a "Best Hunk" contest in teen
magazine Young and Modern for a $10,000 prize. He didn't win the contest, however,
and had his eligibility restored. Miller went on to become a professional model.