re: Jaden Rashada sues Billy Napier, Florida booster over NIL deal

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That's his claim, but he has no evidence of this other than "they said!" They aren't party to the contract, and the contract was cancelled within legal terms.

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So what's your explanation as to why he signed with UF despite UF cancelling his deal, then withdrawing from UF after signing day?

Is your belief that he was just stupidly thinking he'd still get paid even though nobody told him he would?

Or do you think it's more reasonable that someone was telling him he'd get the money still and he left UF after finding out that money wasn't coming?

To me the latter seems to fit what actually happened. I can't think of any reason he'd sign with UF and then immediately leave unless there was a promise made that wasn't fulfilled. It's not like he just "loved UF so much he signed with no money", because if that were the case he'd have stayed at UF.

Basically what the UF defender argument seems to be is that he was lied to but he can't prove it so screw the kid. That seems to be what Napier, Hathcock and company are doing as well.

UF rightly looks like a bunch of jackasses screwing over a recruit in this scenario. It's tough to see any situation where that wouldn't be what happened. They might get away with it without paying him, but it doesn't change what they did.

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Why isn't he suing the collective if these were the terms? That would be very cut-and-dry. The contract says "if I sign with UF, I'll get the money" then he has a clearcut claim.

Instead he's suing a third party for interference with circumstantial evidence only. He knows this claim holds no water, and just wants some cash to go away.

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He's not suing the collective because they were within their rights to cancel the contract (I'm assuming they had some sort of grace period written into their deal to be okay with not paying the first payment due even though they cancelled the deal after the first payment was due).

He's suing those who told him he'd still get the money despite the deal being cancelled, which were Napier, Hatchock and Castro-Walker. They were telling him to not look elsewhere and that he'd still get the money from the cancelled deal, just coming from another source (based around Hathcock). He was promised to have a million dollars wired to him just after signing day as the first installment.

Was he stupid for believing those three? Yeah, in retrospect he was dumb in trusting them. But the lawsuit that has currently been filed is against them for committing fraud, which prevented him from getting a NIL deal with another school because he stuck to his UF commitment because he believed they'd live up to paying him based on the original deal

The reason why it's all three rather than just Hathcock is that Napier and Castro-Walker kept telling him that Hathcock was trustworthy and would definitely pay him. It took all three working together with their lies to convince him not to go back and try to get his original deal with Miami.

The tortious interference is that their fraud, both about the initial NIL deal that was cancelled (which Hathcock had his hands in) and the promises of him still getting paid after the UF NIL deal was cancelled caused him to be unable to get the 9.5 million dollar contract with Miami. Their promises of higher pay without delivering caused him to miss out on a nearly 10 million dollar deal in hand (that he had already signed). Their fraud through their NIL deal and subsequent cancelling but sitll promising him to pay caused HIM to breach the Miami contract.

The link below does a pretty good job detailing what's happening.

LINK /

some exerpts:

"Hathcock (on behalf of himself and Velocity Automotive), Castro-Walker and Coach Napier orchestrated and executed a fraud upon Jaden and were substantially and knowingly assisted by one another in carrying out the fraud," the lawsuit says. "Each of their individual schemes would not have succeeded without assistance from one another."

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At the crux of the argument are the actions of Napier, Hathcock and his company, Velocity Automotive, as well as Castro-Walker convincing Rashada to eschew a previously agreed upon $9.5 million NIL deal to attend Miami in favor of Florida. Rashada committed to play football at Miami in June 2022 under the terms of that deal, but the lawsuit alleges that Florida employees and boosters never backed off in their pursuit of the talented Pittsburg, California, product. It includes allegations that Hathcock told Rashada, "whatever Jaden needed to come to UF, Hathcock would make happen."

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To sway Rashada's decision, Hathcock and Castro-Walker offered the $13.85 million deal with $5.35 million, including a $500,000 signing bonus, to come through Hathcock's Velocity Automotive company and the rest through Gator Guard, the NIL collective that he started. Hathcock had previously committed to donating $12.6 million to the Gator Boosters, and early media reports stated the Gator Guard raised $5 million in its first 24 hours.

Before the deal was finalized, however, Hathcock informed Rashada's representatives that he no longer wanted to route the NIL payments through his company because he planned to sell it, according to the lawsuit. Instead, he and Castro-Walker proposed money coming directly from Hathcock and the rest coming through the Gator Collective, Florida's other NIL collective. That involved Eddie Rojas, CEO of Gator Collective, who allegedly texted Zager about the impending deal: "Tell Jaden we look forward to setting him up for life. Need to set up his brokerage accounts asap. Dude is rich and we just got started." The deal was officially signed on Nov. 10, 2022, with the first $500,000 payment due to Rashada on Dec. 5.

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Instead, a day after the $500,000 payment was due, the Gator Collective sent Rashada a termination letter of the $13.85 million deal. Still, the lawsuit claims Napier and Castro-Walker went to great lengths to convince Rashada that they would make good on the promised money even without the contract. Castro-Walker told Rashada's agents that the Gator Guard would now take on paying the deal and that "Hathcock, through the Gator Guard, would personally guarantee the $13.85 million obligation himself."

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It all came to a head on Dec. 21, the first day of the early signing period, where Napier allegedly personally vouched to Rashada that Florida alumni "were good on their promise that Jaden would receive $1 million if he signed with UF on National Signing Day" and that Hathcock would make the payment. Harlen Rashada later texted Zager, "Coach Napier said [Hathcock's] on a plane and that he will wire 1 Mil. He wants the paper work and I'm sending it if you are good."

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Hardin told CBS Sports that Napier never should have been making those promises, which, at the time, were also against NCAA rules. "That's not a role he should have been involved in, he shouldn't have made those promises and he should have stayed out of that whole area," Hardin said. "He didn't."

Less than a month later after early signing day, Rashada asked for his release from his letter of intent with Florida. He ultimately decided on Arizona State, his father's alma mater, where he wasn't promised any NIL compensation.

Kid and his family are everything wrong with CFB

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He had an offer contingent on signing with UF that only he signed. That offer was subsequently revoked. We don't know why, but we know it was legal to do this and the contract was never executed.

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We do know what he tells us he was told.

According to him:

1 - Hathcock was originally going to pay him the money through his company. Castro-Walker was involved in the process of setting this up.

2 - Hathcock then said he was selling his company, so it would instead be in part paid directly from Hathcock and in part from the "Gator Collective". Castro-Walker was involved in the process of setting this up. This offer was signed by both him and the Gator Collective, but had a clause that allowed for termination up until some point before signing day which the Gator collective invoked. (the belief is this happened because Hathcock wouldn't give them the part of the money he promised.

3 - The Gator Collective cancelled the deal, but Hathcock claimed that he and his collective, the "Gator Guard" would pay the 13.5 million, starting with a 1 million dollar bonus after signing day. Castro-Walker AND Napier both worked to convince Rashada to believe Hathcock.


The big liar here is Hatchcock. He kept telling Rashada from when he was committed to Miami, through when he eventually left UF that he was going to make him a millionare and he was lying out his arse.

Castro-Walker was backing Hathcock up the whole time, making him seem legitimate when he should have been distancing UF from Hathcock.

Napier only came in at the end, telling Rashada to trust Hathcock to pay in order to get Rashada to sign. He's the "smallest liar". He may have been hoodwinked by Hathcock as well so he is the least likely to be held liable.

Everyone who's not a UF fan is going to believe Rashada on this. They may say "serves him right" or "he should have known better", but the reality is that a UF booster who runs one of their collectives (Hathcock), UF's then Director of Player Engagement and NIL (Castro-Walker) and UF's head coach (Napier) all kept telling him to believe in them that they'd get him millions, and they lied.

Yes, most rational adults know that Florida lies and cheats. But Rashada trusted them and they fricked him over.

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Everyone who's not a UF fan is going to believe Rashada on this.

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I really don't think so.

They might think it's plausible, but they're not going to just trust a kid who was going down every possible avenue to get paid (and is continuing to do so) without ... any demonstrable evidence.

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I really don't think so.

They might think it's plausible, but they're not going to just trust a kid who was going down every possible avenue to get paid (and is continuing to do so) without ... any demonstrable evidence.

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For me to not buy his story, you have to give me an alternative story that explains what happened.

It was kind of the same thing for me with covid. In a normal year the number of deaths increases from 10,000 to 50,000 from the prior year in the US. This is simply a count of the number of people who died.

In the first year of Covid, it went up nearly 500,000 from the prior year. I'm open to the idea it wasn't covid, but you have to give me some alternative explanation for why an additional half million people died. Until you give me a viable alternative reason for the increase in deaths, I'm going to accept the one I've given.

So I'll ask again... what alternative story is there for Rashada leaving Miami for UF, then staying with UF after his deal was cancelled, then leaving UF after signing day if it isn't the story he presented?

So far the only story we have is "he was lied to by Hathcock, Napier and Castro-Walker". If you aren't going to give us another story that fits what happened, why do you think anyone wouldn't believe Rashada's story?

The kid and his family were seeking the highest bidder, they want the $$, period. The kid isn't worth anywhere close to those early Miami/UF NIL offers and went to Arizona for nothin. Wonder what UGA's NIL Collective is paying him for his "services?"

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What you're talking about is what the lawyers can prove.

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The lawyers have no intention of proving anything. This is a nuisance suit, the point is to get 'go away' money. That's all this is.