By Hall means
Red Bulls navigate child labor laws to work homegrown teen onto NJ pitch
Julian Hall is like any other teenager in New Jersey.
Hall, a New York City native, enjoys hanging out with his friends and playing video games — his go-to is “Call of Duty” — and at 16 years old, he still falls under the protection of the state’s child labor laws, which created a uniquely soccer situation this season for the Red Bulls’ young forward.
Before turning 16 on March 24, Hall had been subject to New Jersey child labor laws that prevented 14- and 15-year-olds from working before 7 a.m. and past 7:30 p.m. That meant the homegrown forward for the New Jersey-based Red Bulls couldn’t make his season debut until recently because most of the club’s games started after 7:30 p.m.
“I mean, it wasn’t an ideal situation, but we got there in the end,” Hall told The Post ahead of Saturday’s Red Bulls match against LAFC.
Hall was finally able to make his season debut on March 23, when the Red Bulls beat up a Lionel Messi-less Inter Miami side in an afternoon match at Red Bull Arena.
He subbed in for the final 11 minutes of the game as the Red Bulls picked up their third win of the young MLS season. Hall was allowed to be on the bench during a February match against Nashville, but Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz is happy to now have him available more consistently.
“It’s a good thing now that we know he’s able to play every week and I don’t have to look and maybe an away game he’s able,” Schwarz explained. “It’s good that he’s also then in our rhythm, in our training rhythm and also then sometimes you have the opportunity to play for the second team. This is necessary for these young players.”
Hall signed with the Red Bulls last season at 15 years, 167 days old, making him the secondyoungest homegrown signing in franchise history. He’s got plenty of expectations placed upon him.
The teen has been part of Red Bulls Academy since 2020, playing 10 games for the Red Bulls reserve team in the MLS Next Pro league in 2023 before signing an MLS contract. He made his MLS debut in September, becoming the second-youngest player to debut in MLS since Freddy Adu played his first game for the league at 14 years, 306 days.
Earlier this year, Hall had been linked to interest from some of Europe’s top clubs including Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
“I wasn’t blind to all of these things,” Hall said of the expectations and overseas interest. “I clearly see the things that are going on and whatever’s going on, on social media, but I just tried to stay away from it. Like I said, I’m true to myself. I know what I’m doing.”
It’s not often that an athlete Hall’s age is able to turn pro in the United States. The NBA, NFL and MLB have age restrictions for players in the respective leagues that would prevent a similar situation.
While the practice is more common in domestic leagues overseas, it has happened in the United States on occasion in soccer — last year 13-year-old Da’vian Kimbrough signed a pro contract with the Sacramento Republic FC of the United Soccer League.
Hall described the experience of turning pro so young as lifechanging and acknowledged he wished he could experience more of “teenage life,” but he added that he doesn’t take anything for granted.
“I try to take every opportunity outside of practice and games to just live a normal life,” Hall said. “I think ever since I became a professional, I haven’t changed as a person. I’ve always been the same person I’ve been since I was younger.”
Hall will be on the bench in Los Angeles this weekend for the Red Bulls, and he’s expecting more opportunities to open up with the labor law issue out of the way.
“I think it’s just more of having that trust in the coaches and [their] trust in me to whenever they feel the time is right to give me that opportunity,” Hall said.
There is an effort in the New Jersey State legislature to allow for minors who are 14 and 15 years old and are employed as “professional athletes” special working hours “after 11 p.m. and following 12:01 a.m. of the next day if that employment is a continuation of a workday which began before 11 p.m.”
A bill was introduced last month in the state senate and referred to the senate labor committee.
Where’s the line? When does all the attention start becoming detrimental? Is it all worth it, or does it come with a cost?
Ryan Garcia has always craved the spotlight. He’s used social media to attract so many eyeballs, leveraging his engaging personality, knowledge of social media trends, ability to self-promote and boxing exploits to become one of the most-followed athletes — not even just among boxers — in sports. He has 10.5 million followers on Instagram, 7.1 million followers on TikTok and 719.6K followers on X.
To put that in perspective, Aaron Judge has 1.7 million Instagram followers, Francisco Lindor has 1.1 million and Pete Alonso has 351,000. Aaron Rodgers has 2.3 million followers on the platform, Sauce Gardner has 1.1 million and nobody on the Giants has more than 350,000. Jalen Brunson, who has taken over the city with his Knicks heroics, has 454,000. You get the point. The 25-year-old Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), from Los Alamitos, Calif., possesses an extremely attractive and lucrative following, which has helped him create some of boxing’s biggest fights recently. It’s brought him to perhaps the biggest moment of his career Saturday night, when he’ll challenge 25-year-old Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) for the WBC super lightweight belt at Barclays Center (9 p.m., DAZN pay-perview, also available on PPV.com).
“I actually discovered him on social media,” the legendary Oscar De La Hoya, who won 11 world titles in six weight classes and is now the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which has Garcia as one of the top stars in its stable of fighters, told The Post. “I slid in his DMs. I had watched his fights and told him I want to meet him. The next day, we sat down in the office with his parents and we were talking deals. He got it right from the start.
“When I signed him many years ago, he was already accumulating hundreds of thousands of followers, and now he’s a master of promoting himself and promoting the fight game through his social media platforms. He’s brilliant at it and he gets it. I strongly feel he’s great for the game. … He’s a genius.”
Originally, Garcia drew in fans by showing off his incredible hand speed in videos that often went viral. His trash talk and affinity for fashion and music piqued followers’ interest, as well.
But in the lead-up to Saturday’s bout, Garcia’s love of social media has made
him a punch line, and a shift from self-marketing toward extremely disturbing posts has ushered in doubts about his state of mind.
In recent months, Garcia said on Instagram Live he was “gonna start exposing everybody. I’m not being held hostage. I’m free now.” He posted a video in which he announced he was divorcing his now-exwife, Andrea Celina, just one hour after a different post announcing the birth of their second child together. He claimed “elites” tied him up in the woods at California’s Bohemian Grove and forced him to watch kids get raped. There was a bizarre video which captioned “the death of Ryan Garcia,” which prompted Celina to publicly express concern for his well-being. He’s suggested the world is in “the end times.” After a scheduled appearance to throw out the first pitch with Haney at Tuesday’s Mets game was called off, he posted he will “expose the Mets so bad and the mlb [sic].” There are too many worrisome posts to list them all.
Of course, there have been no such exposés and no evidence to support any of his other bizarre suggestions.
Then there was influencer Jailyne Ojeda suggesting Garcia had gotten drunk and forcibly tried to kiss her. Garcia responded with a post saying “no means yes sometimes.”
Garcia’s posts prompted the New York State Athletic Commission to give him a psychological test before clearing him to fight.
“I don’t control his social media,” De La Hoya said. “I’m not with him 24/7. What he posts is on him. Sometimes I think it’s a little too much. I’ve been watching some stuff he’s been posting, and it’s not necessary — stick to the fight.”
For someone who has profited off of his comfort in the public eye, Garcia is now seeing the other side of the coin. What once helped build him into a star is now the medium through which he’s embarrassing himself.
At first, some suggested he might just be acting this way to help sell the fight. But it certainly hasn’t worked. As of Thursday afternoon, the fight had yet to sell out and ticket prices plummeted from their original listings, so much so that Garcia — who now is listed as a nearly 6-1 underdog — publicly complained about it.
And Garcia believes he’s bigger than boxing, anyway. Everything he does, in his mind, is for a larger audience.
“Whether I’m boxing or not boxing, I’m just a superstar overall,” Garcia previously told The Post. “There are many influencers that don’t do boxing, yet are superstars. You’re looking at one that just happens to be able to beat somebody’s ass, and is one of the best.”
For his part, Garcia’s trainer, the esteemed Derrick James, told DAZN that Garcia puts all that distraction aside and “does zone in” while in training. But James notably declined comment to The Post this week about his experience with Garcia.
While Garcia’s reputation has changed in recent months, Saturday will truly determine just how much his recent online behavior has hurt him.
He wouldn’t be where he is without the Internet. But how far can he now go as one its infamous characters?
“Any athlete, you don’t want to be a dud out there,” De La Hoya said. “You don’t want to be irrelevant or blah. You want to be out there, you want people to know who you are and how you come across. Social media platforms right now are the things to do if you want to get your message across. … Great fighters, there’s tons of. We need more characters like Ryan Garcia.”
Time will tell if that is accurate. But regardless of Saturday’s result, Garcia will certainly post about it.