We are starting to see more name, image and likeness deals with college athletes come up, including from the University of Arizona. Most recently Janelle Meoño, Christian Young and Ma’jon Wright all landed a deal with former Wildcat football player Chris Gronkowski and his Ice Shaker business, while Dalen Terry received his own ice cream flavor with local Arizona ice cream business, The Screamery.
Gronkowski reminisced back to his time down in Tucson and what it could have been like for him and his brothers if these NIL deals were available back then.
“That would have been kind of crazy,” Gronkowski said. “Back then, I think Rob [Gronkowski] had $50 in his bank account per month that we had to spend on food or fun or whatever it was. All the money I had was saved up from jobs I had and worked in high school or even before that as an umpire or with the newspaper.”
Despite all of that, Gronkowski said he also believes that his and his brothers’ situation during their time at Arizona also helped them learn how to get by.
“We learned how to scrap and get by,” Gronkowski said. “We brought home meals every day from the complex, took protein shakes from the weight room and really did whatever we could to just get by and it [taught] you a lot of lessons. I know I was still doing that while I was in the NFL.”
“If NIL deals were around when we were playing, it definitely would have helped,” Gronkowski said. “We probably could have ate a little healthier them, not [going] to Wendy’s and [getting] the Frosties just to get calories in, but overall I don’t think it would have changed too much of our attitudes.”
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Gronkowski alluded to how some of these big NIL deals today can potentially change and help a lot of college athletes’ attitudes.
With Terry’s deal at The Screamery, his manager reached out to them about the potential NIL deal. Ken Sarnoski, the owner of the business, reached back immediately and they got the talk going.
“He emailed prior to Thanksgiving and asked questions and gave kind of an introduction of who he is and who he represents,” Sarnoski said. “He was trying to see if there was anything we could possibly do with [Terry]. We went back and forth and decided on setting up a custom flavor with whatever he chose as the name.”
As part of these deals, Terry will receive 10% of each scoop his flavor sells throughout the season, while Meoño, Young and Wright are all on a signing bonus and will receive a portion of each bottle that they sell through their discount code. They will also each have their own bottle on the website and will receive a portion of those that are sold.
If you are a college athlete looking to also land one of these two NIL deals, you can head over to Ice Shaker and click on the “NIL Sponsorship” tab in the top right. If you’re looking to work with The Screamery, you can email them at Corporate@thescreamery.com to reach out to Sarnoski.
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