Former Florida football staffer Marcus Castro-Walker filed a motion to dismiss a $10 million lawsuit filed against him by former UF signee and current Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada.
The motion for dismissal, filed in U.S. District Court in Pensacola by Castro-Walker’s attorney, Hal Davis, contended that the complaint failed to show Castro-Walker acted with actual malice in a verbal agreement on a botched, $13.8 million Name, Image and Likeness deal with the now defunct Gator Collective.
“The simple truth is that overly optimistic promises are made every day in collegiate football recruiting … ” the motion read. “Opening the doors of the federal courthouse to every college football player seeking injunctive relief or specific performance of an ‘oral contract’ when their dream doesn’t materialize would only lead to a class of plaintiffs larger than any mass tort action on record.”
Rashada is seeking $10 million in damages and has filed suit against Castro-Walker, Florida Gators football coach Billy Napier and prominent Florida athletic booster Hugh Hathcock, who owns Velocity Motorsports in Destin. Napier and Hatchcock are expected to file similar motions to dismiss the suit in the coming days.
A former five-star standout Pittsburg, Calif., Rashada signed with UF for the 2023 class, but was granted release from his National Letter of Intent a month later after the NIL deal failed to materialize. Rashada then signed with Arizona State, where he played in three games, passing for 485 yards with 4 TDs and 3 interceptions. He transferred to Georgia this past offseason.
Catro-Walker resigned from Florida last January after the NCAA launched an investigation into the botched Rashada NIL deal. That investigation is now on pause due to a court injunction involving another NCAA investigation into an NIL deal for Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
At the SEC spring meetings last month, Napier would not comment on the specifics of the case but said he was “comfortable with his actions.”
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Former Florida football staffer Marcus Castro-Walker filed motion to dismiss Jaden Rashada lawsuit
The Gainesville Sun
