Jaden Rashada is reportedly suing Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier over unpaid NIL funds.
The quarterback, who transferred from Arizona to Georgia this offseason, shouldn’t expect a warm welcome whenever he goes to Florida, especially on the back of this latest development.
According to CBS Sports’ John Talty, Rashada has filed a lawsuit against Napier and Gators booster Hugh Hathcock for fraud.
The lawsuit also names school staff member Marcus Castro-Walker and claims that the player committed to Florida because he was promised a $13 million NIL payment that the defendants named in the lawsuit never intended to pay.
It notes that Napier and others “orchestrated and executed a fraud upon Jaden and were substantially and knowingly assisted by one another in carrying out the fraud.”
“Each of their individual schemes would not have succeeded without assistance from one another,” it adds.
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Jaden Rashada Lost A Mega NIL Deal From Miami
The lawsuit also accuses Castro-Walker of having a huge role in the player’s rejection of a lucrative offer to play for Miami. The top-rated quarterback originally committed to the Hurricanes in 2022 following a $9.5 million offer but was convinced to do otherwise by Napier, Castro-Walker, and Hathcock.
“The [NIL] collective never had the money and yet they were making all of these promises to the kid,” Rashada’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, told CBS Sports.
“You dangle life-changing, generation-changing money in front of a 19-year-old kid, who grew up without it, you can’t expect that young person to not be affected by it. The bargaining power is totally unequal here.”
The suit adds that “Jaden’s miserable experience reveals, in stark and dramatic detail, what can happen to young student-athletes when wealthy, win-at-all-cost alumni insert themselves into college football’s recruiting process.”
According to the lawsuit, Rashada endured the loss of his $9.5 million NIL deal with Miami, plus other compensation, and was the victim of a new world in which boosters have the most influence. It also seeks punitive damages.
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