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Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith bought insurance ahead of College Football Playoff | Report
Cotton Bowl: Reporter reactions to Ohio State vs. Texas Longhorns
Ohio State football beat writers Bill Rabinowitz and Joey Kaufman react to the Buckeyes’ 28-14 win over the Texas Longhorns in the 2025 Cotton Bowl.
Jeremiah Smith has taken his first season at Ohio State by storm, putting the star freshman on pace to be one of the Buckeyes’ top wide receivers of all time — and potentially the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL draft by the time he is done in Columbus.
In order to ensure that, Smith’s family has taken out permanent total disability insurance (PTD) ahead of the College Football Playoff, according to a report from CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd.
Smith is not eligible to declare for the draft until after his junior year at Ohio State, which would make the 2027 NFL draft the earliest he could leave. His insurance lasts until Aug. 1, 2027 or when he signs an NFL contract — whichever comes first — per Dodd.
Per Dodd, Smith’s insurance policy protects him from a career-ending injury both on and off the field, and is with Leverage Disability and Life Insurance, a Southern California-based athlete insurance firm. He does not have loss of draft value (LOV) coverage as part of his policy, per Dodd.
“If this kid steps off the curb and gets hit by a car, he’s covered,” Greenspoon Marder law firm’s head of insurance recovery Richard Giller told CBS Sports.
Dodd, citing sources, reported it is rare for freshmen to receive permanent total disability insurance. In addition, Dodd reported Smith’s premiums cost is $7,500-$8,000 per million of coverage, citing additional sources.
A player receiving insurance has become more common for players over the years, especially in bowl games. A most recent example is Colorado taking out full insurance for its players, including Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.
Outside of a quiet CFP Cotton Bowl semifinal against Texas, against whom he finished with just one catch for 3 yards on three targets, Smith has impressed during the Buckeyes’ CFP championship run.
In the Buckeyes’ first two CFP games against Tennessee and Oregon, Smith combined for 290 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 13 catches. Smith enters Monday’s CFP championship vs. No. 7 Notre Dame with 1,227 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns on 71 catches on the season.
Shortly after Ohio State’s win over Oregon, ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky said if Smith were eligible for April’s NFL draft, he would be the No. 1 pick and “it wouldn’t even be close.”
“He would easily be the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft,” Orlovsky said on Jan. 2. “You will have teams in two years, for that ’27 draft, tanking for him.”
No. 8 Ohio State will play No. 7 Notre Dame in the CFP championship on Jan. 20. The Buckeyes opened up as a -9.5 point early favorite on BetMGM.
Ryan Day will have some very familiar competition in the Big 10 soon.
The son of the Ohio State football coach, R.J. Day, announced his commitment to Northwestern for the Class of 2027 on Sunday.
Northwestern plays in the same conference as Ohio State and the schools will face each other.
R.J. Day, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound quarterback from — not surprisingly — Columbus, Ohio, has started for three years at St. Francis DeSales HS as he heads towards his senior season.
According to reports, the younger Day had other offers from Purdue, Syracuse, Cincinnati and South Florida, as well as others.
Northwestern has eight quarterbacks on head coach David Braun’s roster.
And the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats is Chip Kelly, who served in the same role for Ryan Day at Ohio State when the Buckeyes won the title in 2024.
Kelly, the former head coach at UCLA and Oregon, was also the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire when Ryan Day was the team captain from 1998-2001.
Most recently, Kelly was the OC with the Las Vegas Raiders before he took the job with Northwestern.
“It’s really surreal when you think about the relationships that we’ve had with those two as a family over the years,” R.J. Day told ESPN earlier this month. “Coach Kelly coached my dad in college, so that adds another layer to it.”
Cincinnati Reds legend and well-known gambler Pete Rose was possibly more than just curious about Ohio State football’s 2012 season when he texted Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer.
Appearing on “The Triple Option” show with Alabama running back Mark Ingram May 6, Meyer told a story about his relationship with Rose.
After OSU hired Meyer, the Reds asked him to throw out the first pitch at a game. Meyer threw to his son, Nathan, and walked into the dugout, where Rose, MLB’s all-time hit leader, was waiting to greet him.
“I couldn’t get enough talking about ‘Big Red Machine,’ and he wanted to talk college football,” Meyer said on the podcast, explaining how the two spoke for hours and exchanged numbers.
Meyer said that during his first season, Rose texted him early on. He wanted information about the team, like news on Braxton Miller’s shoulder injury.
“I told that to someone, and they said, ‘You’re an idiot. Do you know he’s trying to get information from you for gambling, and you could get in trouble?’ ” Meyer said.
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Though Meyer asserted that he never disclosed much, he started to steer the conversations clear of college football after he realized Rose potentially wanted information for gambling.
The two had another conversation in Las Vegas, where Rose told Meyer he gambled daily after retiring.
Rose was banned from baseball for betting on the sport, something he admitted to in his 2004 autobiography. Rose was reinstated in 2025 and so is considered eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Still baseball’s most prolific hitter (4,256 hits), Rose died in 2024.
GIRARD, Ohio (WKBN) – Over 100 athletes came together for the 5th Annual Trumbull County Special Olympics Invitational Saturday morning in Girard.
These athletes represent five different schools across Trumbull County to compete and spread the message of inclusion, achievement, and sportsmanship.
The Invitational continued its long-standing tradition of honoring the legacy of Randy Suchanek while celebrating the dedication and accomplishments of Special Olympics athletes throughout the region.
“You can hear all the excitement for this, for the athletes that are here today,” said superintendent Bryan O’Hara. “They work hard all year long to participate. We’ve always worked hand in hand with the rotary to get this accomplished is a lot of work behind the scenes.”
Participating schools included Ashtabula, Geauga, Columbiana, Kent-Portage and Trumbull Fairhaven
“There’s a lot of nice participation from girard students as you see behind us, and a lot of participation from the community helping out,” Girard-Liberty Rotary co-president Andy Kish added.
O’Hara added that the event keeps everything in perspective, seeing the athletes compete in the spirit of fun, along with the courage and determination that they show.
Alex Sorrells contributed to this report.
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