Alabama
Alabama Football Star Shares Valuable Advice On Flourishing NIL Deals
College sports are dominated by NIL in a way that has gotten away from focus on name, image, and likeness as it was intended by the initial NCAA ruling that allowed players that right of publicity.
Wide receiver Ryan Williams, a college football star for the Alabama Crimson Tide, has refocused attention with his recent advice to fellow athletes.
Brand deals are all but lost in the shuffle of NIL collectives and impending revenue-sharing, but Williams has secured prominent partnerships with Uber Eats and Hollister.
Speaking with On3 Sports, Williams indicated that he sought out brands that aligned with his interests in his sage guidance to other players.
“If I was giving someone else advice, or just what I have learned, it is that if you have interest in something, go attack those interests because you never know what you can get out of it,” Williams said. “If you don’t try, nothing’s going to happen. I would say if you have an interest in anything, go try to obtain those interests.”
Williams has a fondness for clothing, referencing a well-known Deion Sanders quote that emphasizes the importance of looking good, feeling good, playing well, and receiving good compensation. That all fits under his partnership with Hollister, as he modeled for their new athletic line that launched last week.
He said his mentality to seek out and “attack his interests” came from former teammate Jalen Milroe, who encouraged Williams to follow his trajectory.
“That’s kind of where I learned, if you really have an interest in something, take advantage of it and go attack it because he [Milroe] has a lot of interests,” Williams said. “Whatever he has an interest in, he’s going to go conquer. That’s the main thing I learned from him, but also not just taking—because the NIL space can sometimes be confused with just money, money, money, money.”
Importantly, Williams emphasized relationship-building as a critical aspect of navigating the NIL landscape as another lesson gleaned from Milroe.
“It’s about building not just a short-term relationship, but a relationship that you want to carry,” Williams said. Kind of like the loyalty thing and how he [Milroe] stayed for four years at Alabama and how Malachi Moore stayed for five years at Alabama. It’s more so like, if I want to do something with this brand, I don’t want to just do it for three weeks and just be done. I really want to build a relationship and focus on it long-term.”
Brand deals of this nature aren’t necessarily attainable for every college football player, but Williams’ advice should ring true in college football that keeps inching closer to a professional model. It’s treated like a business, and Williams is attacking his name, image, and likeness with that notion in mind.
Alabama
Quilts of Valor brings comfort to Alabama veterans
Alabama
Alabama Trending Towards Securing Commitment from Elite Recruit
Nothing is set in stone just yet, but it’s looking like Alabama is going to build on its trenches.
According to On3 / Rivals’ National Recruiting Reporter Sam Spiegelman, the Crimson Tide are trending toward receiving a commitment from four-star 2027 interior offensive lineman Ismael Camara.
Should Alabama nab the talented recruit out of Gilmer, TX, it would be the second high-ranked interior lineman of the 2027 class.
Earlier this season, the Crimson Tide had secured a commitment from Jatori Williams, the four-star lineman out of Phenix City, AL, and one who is the fifth ranked player at his position in the country.
Camara spoke with Spiegelman and revealed that he, along with 20 other recruits will be in Tuscaloosa for the LSU game – a game that holds such importance.
Not only that, he spoke on the relationship that he holds with offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, and how that relationship resonates with him.
“Coach Kap told me two things when we first talked — he has the best job in the world and that all the things he wants from his players are passion, a good attitude, maximum effort, being a good teammate, being prepared and available, and being coachable. That requires zero talent.”
He then went on to say how much the persistence in maintaining that relationship is something that he will always hold onto.
“I appreciate him investing in me like that, and I am trying to get better to live up to the standard at ‘Bama.”
The “Standard” is a real thing, and it’s not something that the brass take lightly. Nick Saban spent 17 seasons implementing a culture of greatness and players that have the dog in them to be great.
So Kalen DeBoer and his staff don’t want to lose sight of it. It may have been in question for a little, but for the time being, what you’re seeing is what you’re getting.
But the “Standard” is something that means a lot to Camara too, and it’s what has set apart Alabama from other schools.
“When we got into the facility and saw all the nattys, the SEC championships and Heisman Trophies, I really had the butterflies,” Camara said. “The way they treated each other and the way they treated me — it was not just an honor for me to be there, it was an honor for them to be there. They practiced like that. They operated like that. They hung together like that. That was when I really started to understand what makes Alabama ‘Bama,’”
Aside from it being a big game on the schedule, it’s a big game for the coaches take make sure the people they’re bringing in for the future know that the staff’s future is just the beginning for these young men.
Alabama
Alabama man charged with threatening synagogues, mosques
A Needham, Alabama man has been charged by federal prosecutors with making threats to rabbis and imams across the South.
Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker faces a charge of an interstate communications threat after investigators say he made multiple threatening calls and messages to Jewish and Muslim religious leaders.
The threats were made to rabbis in Alabama and Louisiana, an imam in Georgia, a church in North Carolina and more.
According to court documents, agents discovered multiple firearms in Shoemaker’s home as well as a suitcase containing ammunition and papers listing the names, addresses and phone numbers of religious leaders and other prominent figures.
Shoemaker told agents he did not intend to carry out an attack, but engage in “psychological warfare.”
An FBI agent attested that Shoemaker came to the department’s attention after making a series of threats including to a Mountain Brook rabbi earlier this month.
“I want you to die because you want the death of us,” Shoemaker said during one call. “You want the West to die off.”
The FBI agent also noted a 2024 threat from Shoemaker to an Islamic center in Louisiana, and a threatening message to a Georgia imam earlier this year.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama — and frontrunner for Alabama’s next governor — has recently drawn attention to the Muslim community, calling “radical Islam and Sharia Law … the greatest national security threat facing the United States.”
He also called Islam “fundamentally incompatible with our Western values.”
“So, wake up America. The Quran instructs Islamists to fight Jews and Christians, along with anyone else who doesn’t believe in Allah,” Tuberville said. “Simply put, Radical Islam teaches that it is righteous to kill Christians—[that] it’s righteous. There is no peaceful coexistence with this type of people. None.”
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