For the second time in a few days, Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman hooked up his teammates with some swag from one of his NIL deals. This time, it was gold custom Beats by Dre headphones.
On3’s Pete Nakos reported the NIL deal before the video of Hartman passing out the headphones started to circulate. For Hartman, the gifts to his teammates extenuate how fast he’s fit in with his teammates, as evidenced by them voting him a team captain. It’s rare for a transfer to be voted a captain basically immediately, like Hartman has.
Hartman Inked NIL Deal with Under Armour Too
This isn’t the first NIL deal we’ve learned about for Hartman over the last week. On Friday, we learned that Hartman inked a deal with Under Armour, Notre Dame’s official apparel sponsor for the next decade-plus, that allowed him to give his teammates some free UA shoes. That was the first time we’ve seen a major Notre Dame-related NIL deal result in some swag for the players and positive press for Notre Dame in terms of NIL.
Hartman was active in NIL last year already at Wake Forest but has elevated those deals since arriving at Notre Dame. Now Notre Dame is hoping that Hartman is able to elevate the Irish on the field starting this Saturday when the Irish travel to Dublin to take on Navy.
Most of the Notre Dame-related NIL news we’ve heard is about how Notre Dame was losing recruits because of NIL. This kind of publicity is great to see from that perspective. Recruits take notice of deals like this, and seeing the starting quarterback of Notre Dame with two high-profile NIL deals from brands like Under Armour and Apple (owners of Beats) will get the attention of recruits – quarterbacks specifically.
Whatever your thoughts on NIL and its place in college athletics, it is here to stay. For a while, it looked like Notre Dame was far behind the other powerhouse programs it fights on the recruiting trail. The last week has changed that narrative a bit.
