Johnny Napp Benched

This is a news story about a James Madison basketball player who had to decide between his country music career and his senior basketball season because the use of his likeness on the album cover was a violation of NCAA rules. He eventually decided to quit basketball. This story placed third in its category in sports news story in its circulation category in the Virginia Press Association awards for 2006.

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 sure he wants to.

Taking the pictures off the Web site is easy, but the CD is already available on-line 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 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 Allen 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 that I’m going to be sitting down with my dad and coach [Dean Keener] and Kurt 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. These 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 the 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.