One of the co-defendants in Jaden Rashada’s name, image and likeness lawsuit against Florida Gators coach Billy Napier accused the blue-chip quarterback’s legal team of promoting “cunning conspiracy theories” in a multimillion-dollar federal complaint.
That line came Tuesday as former Gators staffer Marcus Castro-Walker moved to dismiss the suit against him in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Florida.
It’s a response to the seven-count complaint Rashada filed in May against Napier, Castro-Walker, big-time Gators booster Hugh Hathcock and Hathcock’s car company alleging fraud, negligence and interfering with business deals. The suit said Rashada had a $9.5 million offer as a recruit if he played at Miami. Rashada committed to the Hurricanes, then flipped to the Gators after receiving a name, image and likeness offer of $13.85 million over four years.
Castro-Walker disputed fraud complaints, because the suit never accused him of personally agreeing to pay or do anything.
“The simple truth is that overly optimistic ‘promises’ are made every day in college football recruiting …” his response said. “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.”
Castro-Walker’s attorneys argued that sovereign immunity shields his actions from such lawsuits, because his good-faith recruiting was part of his job for a state-related entity (the Gators). His filing also said that he repeatedly told Rashada’s representatives that he would not be involved in “prospect dealing.” NCAA rules prohibited school employees from using name, image and likeness as a recruiting inducement.
The terms, according to Rashada’s suit, included a $500,000 signing bonus from Hathcock or his business ventures. The complaint also said Napier personally vouched for a $1 million payment from Hathcock. It never arrived.
Rashada’s attorneys previously called the case “emblematic of the abuses running rampant in the world of big-time college football” and an illustration of what happens when “wealthy, win-at-all-cost alumni insert themselves into college football’s recruiting process.”
Napier has said little publicly about the case, other than that he’s “comfortable” with his actions.
Neither the university nor its athletic department are defendants, though the NCAA opened an investigation into the program.
Rashada spent his first season at Arizona State and transferred to one of Florida’s biggest rivals, Georgia, this offseason.
This story may be updated.
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Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.
