Jaden Rashada Files Massive NIL Lawsuit Against Florida's Billy Napier, Mega-Booster, Former Gator Employee

The Jadan Rashada NIL drama with the University of Florida has taken a dramatic turn since the current Georgia quarterback decided he wanted out of his NIL deal with the Gators. Now, the breakup centered around a $13.85 million NIL payment is headed for a courtroom. 

Rashada has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, claiming that members of the Florida staff, including head coach Billy Napier, lied to him on multiple occasions regarding his NIL deal with the Gators. 

Former director of NIL engagement Marcus Castro-Walker is also named in the lawsuit, along with Napier and Gators booster Hugh Hathcock. Also, Hathcock's formerly owned company, Velocity Automotive, is also named in the complaint, which was supposed to be the company that helped pay for the lucrative NIL deal. 

The deal that all sides had agreed to would have paid Rashada $13.85 million during his time at Florida, according to the lawsuit filed. In the complaint, attorney Rusty Hardin says that Rashada's first payment was scheduled for Dec. 5, 2022, in the amount of $500,000. When that payment wasn't made, Rashada and his representatives started reaching out to Florida for assurances that the money would be sent, which came as an additional payment for his signature. 

"Deceiful promises such as these did indeed convince Jaden to flip and sign a $13.85 million NIL deal with the Gator Collective. But once committed to UF, rather than make Jaden "rich" as promised, these people- with Hancock leading the charge- changed their tune and went back on their word. The amount of UF-affiliated NIL money for Jaden decreased drastically," the complaint read. 

Complaint Alleges Involvement From Billy Napier, Staff Member

The complaint alleges that Billy Napier, Hugh Hathcock and Marcus Castro-Walker persuaded Jaden Rashada to attend Florida with the intention of him receiving a significant amount of money. Unfortunately for Rashada, the money never came, and promises were allegedly broken. 

"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. Wach of their individual schemes would not have succeeded without the assistance from one another," the complaint reads. 

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the case, the battle for Jaden's services came down to Hugh Hathcock and John Ruiz getting into a bidding-war for the quarterback's services. Every time one booster made a pledge, the other booster would come back with more money, 

Jaden Rashada is currently suing Billy Napier and Florida staffer Marcus Castro-Walker, along with booster Hugh Hathcock.

According to the lawsuit, at the behest of Billy Napier, Jaden was pressured into signing his National Letter of Intent with Florida, even though a payment had yet to be received. Attorney Rusty Hardin said in court documents that a text conversation between Billy Napier and a representative of Rashada. 

"Coach Napier said (Hathcock's) on a plane and that he will wire 1 mil. He wants the paperwork and i'm sending it if you are good."

Also, Castro-Walker ‘emphasized’ Coach Napier's promises, telling Jaden's agent that Napier would ‘get it done’ and telling the agent of Billy Napier's power as a head coach to get a deal like this done. 

The fact that a sitting head coach, especially one at a program like Florida, is being sued for lying about a deal, along with allegedly orchestrating the payment for a player is going to send shockwaves across the country. It should be noted that the University of Florida is not named in the lawsuit as a dependent. 

READ THE FULL LAWSUIT HERE

Leading the lawsuit for Jaden Rashada is attorney Rusty Hardin, who has represented Deshaun Watson, Roger Clemons and others. He is known as a pitbull, and this lawsuit has been in the works for well over a year, according to sources. 

Rashada Initially Committed To Miami, Then Flipped To Florida

One of the biggest storylines coming out of the Jaden Rashada recruitment when it was transpiring was the battle between Miami and Florida for his services. The lawsuit says that Rashada signed a $9.5 million NIL deal with Miami megabooster John Ruiz. After deciding to take a visit to Florida during this bidding-war, Florida booster Hugh Hathcock promised Rashada he would get whatever he needed to play quarterback for the Gators, according to the lawsuit. 

The battle heated up when Florida allegedly offered Rashada "an approximately $11 million UF-affilitated NIL deal". This would come from the automotive company that Florida booster Hugh Hathcock owned. 

It should also be noted that Hathcock had led Jaden Rashada's father to believe he could make sure he had a job once his son signed to play with the Gators.  

Former director of NIL engagement Marcus Castro-Walker never stopped recruiting Jaden Rashada when he committed to Miami, according to the lawsuit. He started to engage with Jaden's agents during this time period, and folks of the Florida financial side began discussing an NIL contract, while he had already signed with Miami's NIL group. 

Florida head coach Billy Napier has been named in a lawsuit filed by former commit Jaden Rashada(Florida Athletics and UAA Communications)

According to the lawsuit, Hugh Hathcock was set to pay $5.35 million of the contract, which included a $500,000 signing bonus, that would come through the booster's automotive group. But the lawsuit alleges that the group had no intentions of following through. 

"Hathcock, Castro-Walker and Coach Napier all knew something that Jaden did not - no one had any intention of enforcing Hathcock's promise to pay $500,000. Nor did they have any way of enforcing it," the complaint says. 

Court documents state that Jaden Rashada paid Miami booster John Ruiz $150,000 to get out of the agreement he had signed with the NIL group in South Florida. 

On Tuesday morning, John Ruiz released a statement regarding Jaden Rashada and the alleged deal he had with Miami. 

"LifeWallet nor John H. Ruíz ever had any deal with Rashada that amounted to 9.5 million dollars," Ruiz stated. "LifeWallet had a very small deal with Rashada while he was a big school student in California. Rashada and his father are stand-up individuals. 

"To date, I personally have a very good relationship with both. They both know we dealt with them honestly and fairly as we have always done with all NIL players. LifeWallet has a track record of complying with all of its NIL deals. LifeWallet was repaid by those controlling the Gators fundraising efforts. While I have my own view of this matter, at this point the interests of this young man should be the focus."

Hathcock Changed Course, Florida Gets Desperate

According to the complaint, on Nov. 10, 2022, Florida booster Hugh Hathcock backed out of the deal by deciding not to use his automotive company or the formerly known Florida NIL group ‘Gator Guard’ to make the NIL payments to Rashada. 

The Gators booster decided to work with another Florida NIL group called ‘The Gator Collective’, which was going to be the company used to pay Rashada. This is when things started to take a turn for the Gators. 

It was National Signing Day on Dec. 21, 2022, and Jaden Rashada was set to be a Florida Gator, but there was one small problem - the money never came through, and all hell broke loose. 

ORLANDO, FL - JANUARY 03: Team Speed quarterback Jaden Rashada (5) before the Under Armour Next All-America Football Gameon January 03, 2023, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, FL. (Photo by Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Since Rashada had not received his $500K payment he was not going to sign his paperwork tying him to Florida. Then it was alleged actions from Billy Napier and others that made life difficult for the Gators football program, according to the lawsuit. 

"These actions culminated with Coach Napier himself vouching that UF alumni were good on their promise that Jaden would receive $1 million if he signed with UF on National Signing Day. Defendent Castro-Walker leveraged the coach's promise that Napier would "get it done" and threatened that if Jaden did not sign a national letter of intent with UF, Coach Napier might walk away from Jaden entirely. 

Despite the threats and promises, neither Coach Napier nor wealthy boosters like Hathcock ever "got it done’ for Jaden."

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, most of this stemmed from the fact that Florida's booster, Hugh Hathcock, decided the return on investment wasn't enough to make that type of financial transaction, which led to the Gators trying to find different ways to renegotiate with Rashada. 

The quarterback ended up getting out of Florida and signing with Arizona State. 

OutKick has an open Freedom Of Information Act request pertaining to this case with the University of Florida that has been processing for more than three months.

As for Billy Napier and the Gators, they find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest NIL lawsuits we have seen since its inception.