Exclusive: The Tom Brady NIL deal Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall wouldn’t do

Grayson McCall’s success on the gridiron has been near total in his time at Coastal Carolina.

The super senior quarterback has thrown 78 touchdowns during his three years starting under center, his passes netting more than 8,000 yards through the air. McCall’s exploits have also garnered him numerous awards for his play.

His success on the field and persona, his announcement he was returning to CCU in 2022 became a media sensation, has led to opportunities off the field too.

Specifically, name, image and likeness deals that allow student-athletes like McCall to profit off of their athletic excellence.

The CCU gunslinger has taken full advantage of the opportunity, but one deal offered by one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time proved to not be up McCall’s alley.

In 2021, McCall partnered with Tom Brady’s apparel company, who flew him to Brooklyn for a photo shoot.

“Everything went really good,” McCall remembered. “It was really smooth.”

A few weeks later, McCall says representatives for the brand called him with a different deal in mind.

“They reached back out to me and said, ‘Hey, we are officially releasing the Brady brand underwear ‘ and (they) asked me if I would potentially come back up to Brooklyn and do a underwear photo shoot with them,” McCall recalled.

While he enjoyed the initial promotion, modeling Tom Brady’s briefs was a bridge too far for the Chanticleer quarterback.

“When the shoe fits, you wear it. But in this case, I don’t know if the shoe’s fitting,” he said in an interview with The Sun News. “I don’t know if I’m exactly an underwear model.”

Despite turning that opportunity down, there is one brand that McCall would like to sign a NIL deal with in the future.

“So, I’m kind of a big energy drink guy,” McCall said. “I think that would be really cool to maybe have my own collaboration with Red Bull.”

McCall added that a different brand, the company behind the popular pre-workout supplement C4, had reached out about sending him and his teammates a package for training camp.

“Might be working on something there,” McCall said. “We’ll see.”

Maximizing his value with NIL

McCall jumped at the chance to sign NIL deals when they were first allowed in 2021.

“(I wanted) to jump into it as fast as you can and kind of beat these other guys to the deals, so to speak,” McCall said. “And, I was kind of quick to pull the trigger.”

But he quickly realized that not every opportunity was best for him.

“As soon as we got the ball rolling, and not that it was a bad thing, but maybe (I) jumped into some deals that I shouldn’t have,” McCall said. “Not saying they were bad just, I wasn’t maximizing my opportunities.”

McCall added working with Everett Sports Management, whose athletes also include former college stars Stetson Bennett and the Cavinder twins, helped him better navigate the inner workings of NIL.

“They’ve done a great job for me so far,” he said. “I can’t say enough good things about them.”

In his career, McCall has inked NIL deals with brands like Darlington Speedway, local clothing brand Native Sons, Conway Chrysler and law firm Morgan & Morgan.

Those and many more have made McCall one of the most prolific college football players when it comes to NIL. On3 Elite is a news organization that covers NIL, and the outlet ranks McCall as the 240-ranked college football player in terms of NIL value. McCall’s annual value from NIL is a projected $208 thousand by On3 Elite.

McCall laughed when asked if he had made that much in one year during his time in CCU.

“That is not accurate,” he said. “Too high.”

McCall did not say how much he has made in NIL deals.