Before heading to New Orleans to lead the Washington Huskies in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. drove around Seattle — for Amazon.
Penix — a Heisman Trophy runner-up and one of college football's biggest stars — helped Amazon make deliveries. From board games to speakers to a waffle maker, Penix surprised customers at their doors with handshakes and autographed footballs. He donned the signature blue vest worn by Amazon delivery drivers and joined Amazon warehouse workers in a round of stretches before loading up on packages to make drop-offs last week.
Why might Penix spend time knocking on Amazon customers' doors? Two reasons — an Amazon milestone and money.
According to an Amazon blog post and video featuring Penix, the quarterback was there to help deliver the 1 billionth package shipped from an Amazon same-day delivery facility. Those sites, which help get packages to customers hours after clicking purchase, are key to a yearslong Amazon effort to speed up deliveries that has ramped up recently.
Earlier this year, Amazon said it would double the number of same-day delivery facilities it operates in the "coming years," adding to the 55 facilities of this type it already has. At the same time, Amazon is switching to a more regionalized fulfillment network focused on keeping products close to customers. Amazon's goal is to accelerate delivery by cutting down on the number of employees who handle an item, and the number of miles an item must travel.
Amazon uses Amazon Flex drivers, gig workers who use their own vehicles to make deliveries, at its same-day delivery facilities.
In other parts of its operation, Amazon uses a network of third-party delivery drivers to keep its warehouses humming. Those workers make an average of $20.50 per hour, a slight increase this year after Amazon committed $840 million to its Delivery Service Partner program. In the five years it has been in operation, the program has been marked by criticism from drivers who say Amazon sets unrealistic expectations for the pace of deliveries as well as from entrepreneurs who accuse Amazon of controlling most aspects of the operations and overstating potential profits for business owners.
Same-day delivery aside, Penix also likely benefited financially from the deliveries. Amazon declined to share the financial details of the partnership but said this was a paid collaboration.
Student-athletes can make anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 by working with brands to feature products or logos in social media posts, videos or other public events, according to a study from consulting firm Navigate Research and AthleticDirectorU, a media platform for college athletics.
According to Penix's profile on Opendorse — which bills itself as an "athlete marketplace" — he charges $300 or more to record a video, $500 or more for an autograph and upward of $800 for an appearance.
But it's not easy to figure out just how much Penix may have been compensated because the deals don't go through the University of Washington, a public institution. Instead, they are handled through an independent collective, which has become common since the NCAA began allowing athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness, or NIL, in 2021.
Roughly a year later, about 17% of student-athletes at Division I institutions like UW participated in NIL activities, according to the trade publication Sports Business Journal.
Opendorse estimates the NIL market could reach $1.2 billion this academic year, the third since the change. Of that, football players could account for $726 million, according to Opendorse's annual report released last summer.
Penix has worked with several other brands, including Alaska Airlines, Beats, Celsius, Epic Seats, Raising Cane's and Simply Seattle. He is one of two college football players to work with Adidas.
On3Elite, a news and analysis site focused on college athletes and NIL, estimated Penix is valued at $1.3 million. That makes him the 16th-highest-valued college athlete, according to ON3's rankings.
Standing inside an Amazon warehouse, Penix talked excitedly about the same-day delivery opportunity in a video published on Amazon's website. He signed off by telling fans he had to get going because "I got a game to win."
The Sugar Bowl between Washington and Texas, a College Football Playoff semifinal game, is scheduled to kick off at 5:45 p.m. Pacific time New Year's Day.
