College football always delivers some of the weirdest drama. With the season right around the corner, one inane offseason story was able to get in right under the wire. On Thursday morning, ESPN reported that an attorney for Heisman winner and former LSU star quarterback Jayden Daniels sent a cease-and-desist letter to the school, informing LSU that it is no longer authorized to use Daniels' name, image and likeness.
The move stems from the fact that LSU has granted sophomore standout defensive back DJ Pickett the jersey No. 5, which Daniels also wore. Daniels is almost certainly a victim of bad advice here and is picking a fight not worth the time or trouble. It's well known that his mother, Regina Jackson, who is active in his business affairs, including being lead agent for Daniels in his pro career, is likely leading the push behind the scenes.But Daniels' own damage-control Instagram statement on Thursday hints at some embarrassment about how this situation has clearly been blown out of proportion.
"I have been locked in on training camp and that's been my number one focus," Daniels wrote. "I have a lot of gratitude for my time at LSU and I'm proud of what my teammates and I accomplished there. Obviously there are issues to be worked out between my team and LSU and my hope is that it will get done privately.
My sole personal focus is on Commanders' football. I realize the business of football is unique and I trust this can all be resolved."Daniels' statement reads as a not-so-thinly-veiled public message to his own team to cut it out. The mere idea that Daniels would be focusing on this while prepping for an NFL season and returning from an elbow injury is ridiculous.
It's not out of the realm of possibility that the cease-and-desist letter may have been happening without Daniels' knowledge, or at least he was under the assumption that this was going to be kept quiet. Instead, it leaked, and sloppy lawyering and a misunderstanding of how to use leverage have been exposed.Inside this situation is also broader discourse about how players interface with their former schools now that a school has contractual obligations about how to use a player's likeness. Like it or not, this is the ancillary price of the NIL era.
Daniels has few, if any, true allegiances to LSU. He's not from Louisiana, and played the first three years of his career at Arizona State. He was brought into Baton Rouge to do a job, and he excelled in that role and brought the school a Heisman Trophy.
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