JONESBORO, Ark. — In 2021, NCAA gained the opportunity to earn money off of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL.
This became huge for athletes with big online platforms like Arkansas State freshman Websley Etienne.
Websley and his brother Floyd have a Youtube channel called Beyond Reality and it has over 170,000 subscribers. The first video was posted in 2017. Websley is more of the face of the channel while Floyd does more of the behind-the-scenes work.
Before NIL, student-athletes couldn't monetize their Youtube channels, but that's now changed. The freshman says he's happy about that.
"It came at the perfect time for me. Doing it when I was younger, we were like what are we gonna do? How is this going to continue? Then it just happened this year and it was huge. I can continue my channel and build even more. It's a blessing and I love it," Etienne said
His videos include game videos, recruiting trips, and day in the life of student-athlete videos.
Websley has some big dreams and wanted to document it all.
"We decided we're gonna record my journey to the NFL. Nobody has that, who do you know that has that? We decided let's do that let's do it right now. As soon as we started people loved it. I have a lot of people who look up to me. Anyone who is younger and wants to be in my position can watch. I show them the exact process we go through. When I'm not in the content my brother brings exposure to kids. He records football games in the highest quality possible. " Websley said.
Websley is originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In high school, he was a three-star recruit and ranked as the 78th best safety in America. He had offers from SEC schools like Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, but couldn't turn down the opportunity to play for Head Coach Butch Jones who has decades of college football coaching experience.
"When I took this official visit, everything stood out, and being coached by Butch Jones is huge. He's that guy. When he talked to me, he let me know all the promises he had for me and that he was going to fulfill them. Since I've been here he's done that so I feel like I made the right choice. It felt like home when I got here".
Although Etienne misses the beaches of South Florida, he says he's ready to get on that football field in Jonesboro.
"I feel great. The first couple of days were hard on me but I've adjusted pretty well" he said.
Football season is just around the corner for the Red Wolves. Their first game of the season will be on September 3rd in Jonesboro against Grambling State.