NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.—Kirby Smart is in an enviable spot at quarterback this year with top NFL prospect Carson Beck back for another season, but it’s Georgia’s newest player at the position that is in the news as SEC football head coaches gather here for spring meetings.
Jaden Rashada is suing Florida coach Billy Napier, a top booster and a Gators support staff member for a $13.85 million NIL deal that fell apart before the then four-star prospect was to sign with the school in December 2022.
Smart was asked Tuesday on the first day of the SEC spring meetings about a report from 247Sports that he gave “his blessing,” for Rashada ‘s attorney, Rusty Hardin of Houston, to file the lawsuit after Rashada informed Smart about it.
“Say what you will, he told me the day before they decided to do the lawsuit,” Smart said. “I told him that would be between his family and his attorney. I’m not involved in it. Georgia’s not involved in it in anyway.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Pensacola, about 85 miles from the Sandestin Hilton where the league meetings are being held through Thursday.
It accuses Napier, top Florida booster Hugh Hatchcock, and former director of player engagement/NIL Marcus Castro-Walker of fraudulently inducing Rashada to back off a $9.5 million NIL deal with Miami by leaving Rashada with the impression he’d be able to make more by flipping to Florida.
It claims the three men lacked the intention and ability to fulfill that commitment even though Rashada agreed to and signed the $13.85 million deal and committed to Florida on Nov. 10, 2022. Less than a month later, the lawsuit says, the now disbanded Gator Collective abruptly terminated it.
Castro-Walker and Napier made “extraordinary efforts,” the lawsuit claims, to persuade Rashada he would still be paid and “continued…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kirby-smart-said-uga-football-181209210.html
Author : Athens Banner-Herald
Publish date : 2024-05-28 18:12:09
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
