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Georgia football and Florida football are rivals on the field, and now they are facing each other in court in a way. Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada recently filed a lawsuit against Florida and Gators head coach Billy Napier after he claimed that he was lied to about NIL while he was being recruited. Rashada just finished up his freshman season at Arizona State, and he is now with the Bulldogs.
Jaden Rashada is now a member of the Georgia football team after coming in via the transfer portal, and he now has a lawsuit that he is dealing with. He asked Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart about the situation before he filed the lawsuit, and Smart said that he supported his decision. However, Smart is mostly concerned with what is happening at Georgia. He isn't very involved in this issue.
“A sign of the times, possibly,” Kirby Smart said, according to an article from On3. “I don’t really get caught up in that. I worry about what’s in my little bubble at Georgia, and that’s outside the bubble.”
Smart is happy that Rashada is now with Georgia, but he wanted Rashada to understand that he doesn't have any involvement. This issue happened before Rashada was with Georgia.
“He told me the day before they decided to do the lawsuit,” Smart said. “I told him that’d be between his family and his attorneys. I’m not involved in it, Georgia’s not involved in it in any way. But Jaden is a good football player. We knew Jaden when he was coming out. He’s got a good body of work. He’s had the ability to play which is really critical at the quarterback position. He’s actually played and is very talented. We're happy he’s joining us and looking forward to working with him.”
Billy Napier commented on the lawsuit as well
Florida football head coach Billy Napier recently commented on the situation as well. He couldn't say a lot because of legal rules, but he did say that he was comfortable with his actions.
“I’m comfortable with my actions,” Billy Napier said. “I’m thankful for the university’s support and we’re going to keep it at that and let the process take its course.”
Jaden Rashada was committed to Florida out of high school, but after payments that he was supposed to get didn't come through, he delayed his signing. He was originally supposed to get an initial payment of $500,000, but that never came. Shortly after that, the Gator Collective terminated his contract.
“These actions culminated with Coach Napier himself vouching that UF alumni were good on their promise that Jaden would receive $1 million if he signed with UF on National Signing Day,” The complaint says. “Defendant Castro-Walker leveraged the coach’s promise that Napier would ‘get it done,’ and threatened – on National Signing Day – that, if Jaden did not sign a national letter of intent with UF, Coach Napier might walk away from Jaden entirely.”
Rashada ended up spending his freshman season at Arizona State, and he will be playing for Georgia football next year as the backup for the Carson Beck. The Bulldogs will take on the Gators on November 2nd.
