The trickle-down effect from college athletes’ chance to sign endorsement deals has reached high school football.
Pittsburg quarterback Jaden Rashada has signed a four-figure deal to promote the Athletes in Recruitment app through his social media, ESPN reported Tuesday. He’s believed to be the first prep football player with an endorsement contract.
Rashada is a four-star recruit and ESPN’s top-rated dual-threat quarterback in the 2023 class. He has offers from 10 Pac-12 schools in addition to Auburn and Oklahoma, according to recruiting site 247Sports.
He posted his first tweet mentioning the AIR app Tuesday morning:
“I’ll be taking my recruitment to @theAIRapp! Coaches if you’d like to stay posted and find me, hit the link. Also players who are at a point where you are looking for an opportunity, hit the link as well!”
The app was founded by former SMU punter James Sackville, 24, and aims to connect prep players to college and recruiters.
Rashada likened the agreement to his recruitment.
“I was already handling it like a business in recruiting when I’m talking to coaches,” he told ESPN. “They’re offering me $200,000 in education, so it didn’t feel much different. It was just a few more things to learn.”
Shortly after the NCAA changed its rules under court pressure, the National Federation of State High School Associations sent a release that it would not allow prep athletes to profit from their position on teams, but the California Interscholastic Federation has bucked that ruling.
Prep athletes are allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness in California as long as they do not use their high school’s name or marks, 247Sports reported in July. At least four other states allow high school athletes to profit from deals like this, while ESPN reported that there are 15 states that explicitly ban such deals.
Rashada started his prep career at Liberty, then briefly transferred to IMG Academy in Florida before returning to the Bay Area and Pittsburg ahead of the spring 2021 season, when he split time with senior Eli Brickhandler.
Rashada took over the full-time job for the fall season, his junior year, and battled through a hamstring injury late in the season to help the team reach the NorCal 1-A regional, where the Pirates lost to Liberty-Bakersfield.
“I would say I was probably like 55-60 percent,” Rashada told this news organization after the game. “I wasn’t supposed to play, but I was just wanting to be a soldier for my teammates.”
https://twitter.com/jadenrashada/status/1473342326881742851?s=20
