- 2 days ago
Grant & Danny break down the dispute between Jayden Daniels and LSU after he sent a cease-and-desist to the University. They think this seems out of character for Daniels.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Coming up in one hour at 3 o'clock, we'll give away tickets to Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean.
00:04You've got to be listening to the fan and to Grant and Danny at that time at 3 if you
00:09want those tickets.
00:10By the way, we'll talk to Mark Schlebaugh at that time.
00:13He's with ESPN.
00:14He's the reporter who broke the story and had all the news last night on Jaden Daniels' dispute, we'll call
00:21it, with LSU, which is where we will open the show today.
00:24Yeah, let's start there.
00:25However, last night, late, late, late last night, 11-something, midnight, whenever it was, this story dropped.
00:32And it's one of those where I subscribe to too many things with notifications on my phone in general.
00:38But for whatever reason, the occasional ESPN story about a DC sports team, they know how to push it to
00:43me, I guess.
00:44And so I get this notification that was clearly actually from ESPN and not some kind of a fake thing.
00:52And it, whatever the headline was, Jaden Daniels waging war with LSU or what have you.
00:58And I thought, nah, this isn't real.
01:00And so I clicked it and I start reading it.
01:02And it was one of those, Danny, where you have to do the double take.
01:05Because this is so unlike everything that has happened since they drafted Jaden Daniels,
01:11who seems to be all ball and only really care about playing football and winning and has not really been
01:17involved in any shenanigans or nonsense.
01:19Everything he's done off the field has been the right thing every step of the way.
01:22And I just found it so weird and so unlike the person that we think we know, we've gotten to
01:28know,
01:28that he would be in the middle of this dispute over something so foolish and silly it would feel so
01:33small
01:34as to now possibly destroy your reputation within your fan base at LSU over whether or not your jersey is
01:42going to be handed out.
01:43But as you do a little more digging, you do a little more reading into this story, there's a lot
01:47of layers.
01:47And this is very much a very serious dispute between him and the school.
01:53More details coming out today.
01:54This is still the number two trending story in America 16 hours later or whatever.
01:59We just found out that apparently he's been on the phone at some point with Lane Kiffin.
02:04And that in that conversation, I guess, according to one report,
02:07it sounds like the Jaden Daniels camp does not want LSU to show off his Heisman trophy that they have.
02:16So he's got one, the school gets one, that's how the Heisman trust doles them out.
02:20But this is just getting uglier and uglier as the hours go on here.
02:23Yeah, so each party to this is using whatever means are at their disposal.
02:28So just to try to clean this up, I'm sure you guys have heard the details of the story by
02:32now,
02:33but Jaden Daniels can't really do anything or his group or his attorneys or anybody can't really do anything about
02:39the jersey.
02:40Right? They don't own that. There's nothing you can do.
02:42You don't own number five at LSU.
02:44Right. So because they're disappointed, and that's the center of all this,
02:48that's the first line here of the cease and desist letter, it has to do with that.
02:55At the core of it is this part of it. It's nothing else.
02:58Because of the disappointment, here's what we're doing.
03:02Because we're disappointed, we're now going to take this action,
03:05which really doesn't have that much to do with the number five.
03:08If this was a story about, you know, Jaden Daniels is gone for a few years,
03:12and they're selling Jaden Daniels nachos and Jaden Daniels popcorn and Jaden Daniels novelty sodas
03:17and Jaden Daniels action figure dolls and Jaden Daniels novelty helmets and jerseys
03:21and everything else under the sun, and he wasn't getting a cent from that,
03:24I would have a lot of empathy here and go, yeah, Jaden Daniels business arm, attorneys,
03:28everybody that's responsible for this and upholding your brand, get involved here.
03:33You get one shot at this thing to make your worth and make your nuts, so to speak.
03:38Do that, no problem. That's not what's happening here.
03:41Someone's using the jersey, regardless of how we got here, Brian Kelly promised,
03:44Delaney Kepin's falling through with it, or whoever you want to blame, doesn't matter.
03:46Someone's using the number five jersey. Daniels' camp is mad, so they're going,
03:51just like my eight-year-old did the other day, you won't let me use that,
03:54so you can't use my Nintendo Switch.
03:57One has nothing to do with the other, but this is the Daniel saying,
03:59you can't use my Nintendo Switch. That's what's happening right now.
04:02Pretty much, yeah, that's well said.
04:05Some of the details here, just to refresh everybody on how this is actually working.
04:09So, an attorney representing Daniels informed LSU that it can no longer use the name,
04:15the image, the likeness, as Danny said.
04:17That happened in a letter eight days ago on August 5th that was sent to the athletic director.
04:22The reason we found out about it last night is that somehow that letter was leaked by LSU to ESPN,
04:28and then a story was done on it.
04:29The center of the dispute is this corner named DJ Pickett.
04:32Now, it's important to talk a little bit about Pickett, I think.
04:35DJ Pickett is the number two recruit in the United States of America.
04:38I didn't know much about him.
04:40I'm not a huge SEC or college football guy.
04:42I don't pretend to be.
04:43But I did a little digging, and this is one of the great corners in America,
04:47and over the last few years to come out of high school.
04:50And so, basically, what happened was, according to the reporting that's been done,
04:55and this also speaks to how ridiculous college football is, too.
04:59I think that's a huge part of this that has to be acknowledged.
05:02But I guess when DJ Pickett agreed to go to LSU, part of the agreement he had with the school,
05:08don't know if it was in writing, probably verbal, but at that time, they said,
05:12we promise you'll get to wear number five.
05:15And it sounds like DJ Pickett said, if I can't wear number five, I don't want to play there.
05:21Now, imagine for a second, not that DJ Pickett should be catching shrapnel in any of this,
05:26but you're making the decision on where you're going to college and where you're playing
05:30and who's readying you for the NFL and, frankly, for the rest of your life as a human being,
05:34based on whether or not you can wear the number five.
05:36But that was where we were, okay?
05:38I need number five.
05:39They said, we promise you you'll get number five.
05:40Well, last year, in his first year, Brian Kelly, the head coach at the time,
05:44who made this promise to him, I guess, reaches out to Jaden Daniels, who he coached.
05:48They have a relationship.
05:49And it sounds like Daniels was not really ready or did not want them to give out the number five
05:54at that time,
05:55according to what I've seen.
05:57And so they didn't.
05:58They said, Pickett, you can't wear number five.
06:00But don't worry, we'll kick the can down the road.
06:02Lane Kiffin shows up this year.
06:04He doesn't have direct ties to Jaden Daniels.
06:06He just got to LSU.
06:07And I guess DJ Pickett is floating the idea that I either get number five,
06:11which I was promised, or I'm gone.
06:13And again, this is now one of the better players on the team that they're counting on
06:16to help him win a national championship.
06:18And Lane Kiffin, who doesn't have the ties to Jaden Daniels, says,
06:22we're going to give out the number five.
06:24So if your argument is as simple as,
06:27what they did was disrespectful to Jaden Daniels,
06:29I think that's a reasonable take, by the way.
06:31If you think they should not let this kid wear number five because they should honor Jaden
06:37Daniels, like they've honored, say, Joe Burrow, whose number nine is not in use right now,
06:41I don't have a problem with that take.
06:43I think they probably should honor their recent Heisman Trophy winner for a few years
06:49and keep that number out of circulation.
06:50But that's not the precedent at LSU, really, which I'll get into in a minute,
06:54and certainly around the country, collegiately,
06:57where the numbers of all kinds of recent Heisman Trophy winning greats like Lamar Jackson
07:02were worn the following year at their schools.
07:06But to read from this story, quote,
07:08Accordingly, this was based on Daniels' frustrations,
07:11LSU must immediately cease and desist from any further issue
07:14using displaying, publication, distribution, promotion, commercialization,
07:20or other exploitation of Mr. Daniels' NIL in any manner or medium.
07:24Any use of Mr. Daniels' NIL occurring after LSU's receipt of this notice
07:29will be deemed knowing and willful
07:31and will be pursued vigorously through all available legal and equitable remedies
07:35without further notice.
07:37So this is a litigious attempt.
07:39Now you go after them and go,
07:40You keep using my NIL, we're coming for you.
07:44This just feels to me so unnecessary
07:47and so unforced.
07:49It feels small and petty and lame.
07:52I don't think Jaden Daniels is doing this.
07:55He's not yelling at people to go get a lawyer and pick up the phone.
07:59But at the same time, your name's on this, and he's a grown-up.
08:02He's a grown man. He's 25.
08:04So if you don't want this to be what everyone's talking about
08:07the day after you lit up the Miami Dolphins
08:09in the middle of this incredible training camp that he's having,
08:12when you're on the ascent to becoming one of the better quarterbacks in the league,
08:15you could pretty easily squash this and say,
08:17Hey, I'm not going to wage war over the number five at LSU right now.
08:21And possibly ruin my brand and reputation at that school with that fan base
08:26where I had so many great times.
08:28Let's not do that.
08:29My guess is it's people around him.
08:31It's folks that are his agent or the lawyer.
08:35Whoever thinks there's something to be gained by this, I don't know.
08:39But based on what we know of Jaden Daniels,
08:42doesn't it seem weird that he would care this much about this?
08:44It is odd.
08:45To me, it looks out of character.
08:47And the cease and desist letter itself, legally, again,
08:50there is nothing an attorney whom you hired.
08:52If I hire an attorney tomorrow because someone's using,
08:55this would never sell, but my stupid face to sell burritos,
08:59and I didn't authorize that,
09:01that attorney would have no connection to me
09:03if I was trying to yell at GW about issuing my numbers.
09:05That makes sense.
09:05You can only do the cease and desist for NIL part.
09:08So all the people that are going,
09:09You guys are missing it.
09:10It's just an NIL thing.
09:12Wrong.
09:13Daniels, spokesperson.
09:14A spokesperson from Daniels, okay, says the following.
09:19The Daniels family is deeply disappointed
09:22and feels profoundly disrespected
09:24by LSU's decision to give Jaden's number to another player.
09:28The whole game right there.
09:29That's it.
09:30Anyone that says anything other than that,
09:32you're a homer,
09:33and you're taking the pill,
09:35and you hope that he meets up with you at one loud.
09:38Wrong.
09:38That's the game right there.
09:39So the attorney gets to say what they want to say.
09:42The only grounds they've got are,
09:45Hey, you're violating the NIL agreement.
09:46And if that's all this was,
09:48this would be to me a,
09:50Hey, did you guys see this weird little story
09:51where LSU was still using Jaden Daniels' NIL
09:55three years after he's gone
09:57in a violation of some agreement that they had?
09:59That's weird.
10:00Anyway, let's go to the preseason game tomorrow night.
10:02That would be the beginning and the end of the story.
10:04By the way,
10:04This is the story.
10:05They're disappointed that someone's using number five.
10:07Beginning, middle, end.
10:08Every school uses the NIL of the players that are gone,
10:12that are superstars.
10:13They use it in recruiting, highlight packages,
10:16their pictures are on the wall in the locker room.
10:19It is the most normal thing.
10:21Nowadays, you're paying millions of dollars to these players,
10:24some of them, quarterbacks,
10:25while they're in your program.
10:26So yeah, when they leave,
10:27you're going to continue to absolutely use their NIL.
10:31Now, this could be a new frontier and probably should be.
10:34I think I saw something about 180 days after he left.
10:37Maybe there was some agreement where they couldn't use it.
10:40If that's written and legal and they can win on those grounds, great.
10:44But if it's not a binding contract, there's no winning that, I don't think.
10:48There's no precedent for that.
10:49But maybe that will happen now.
10:51Maybe Daniels can be the face of some player empowerment where after the fact,
10:55the school has to pay you to use your NIL.
10:57That could come out of this.
10:58A la the O'Bannon's at UCLA so many years ago and a couple others that have
11:02kind of really ushered us into this new era.
11:04Whether you like it or not, we're here.
11:05Thanks to kind of some of these trailblazers.
11:07Here's another excerpt from the ESPN story.
11:09And again, we'll have the reporter on at three.
11:12Jaden made it clear that he did not want his number given to another player.
11:15And he believed his wishes would be respected.
11:18It's not a contract, by the way.
11:19That sounds like a conversation.
11:20That sounds like you telling Brian Kelly or whoever, AD,
11:24somebody with the program,
11:25I don't want anyone to wear five.
11:27By the way, we just had Joe Theismann on the other day.
11:29That's what's so interesting about this too.
11:31And I'm asking Joe Theismann, a legend, a Super Bowl champion,
11:34the all-time leading passer in franchise history,
11:36about whether or not Stephon Diggs should wear his number seven
11:39because he wants his number seven.
11:40And Theismann said, that's not up to me.
11:43That jersey belongs to the team.
11:45He basically said it was an honor to wear the jersey.
11:47And here you have a player telling the team he doesn't want anyone to wear
11:50the jersey after he was there for two seasons.
11:52But I digress.
11:54His Heismann Trophy winning season and everything he accomplished
11:56on and off the field cemented his place in LSU history,
11:59which I think is true.
12:00To see his number given to another player is incredibly disappointing
12:03and feels like a failure to honor the significance
12:06of what Jaden accomplished at LSU.
12:11Strange to me.
12:13By the way, I've not heard this talked about enough on the station today
12:16and just throughout the coverage of this everywhere.
12:19There is a item in the bylaws, or however we're going to word this,
12:24but basically in writing at LSU.
12:27I've screen grabbed it here.
12:28But the technicality on jersey retirement is that it's like done as an honor,
12:35but players can still actually wear the uniforms at LSU.
12:38Does that make sense?
12:39So if they were to retire the number five,
12:41they have the ceremony,
12:43they hang your jersey in the rafters,
12:44however they do it,
12:46then players can still actually wear number five.
12:49It's done as almost like this technicality
12:51so that you're in the club, so to speak.
12:53Right.
12:53But this was as of like 07 they passed this.
12:55And I'd imagine the reason is not that they're at risk of this
12:57because they've only retired a couple of uniforms,
13:00but there's 90 guys on a team.
13:02It's a big program.
13:03You've got a lot of kids.
13:03Yeah.
13:04You know, there's 70, 80 dudes on the sideline.
13:05There's 99 numbers.
13:07Like, you can't retire in baseball.
13:09You can do that because there's 99 numbers.
13:11And if you retire, if you're the Yankees
13:12and you retire more than anybody,
13:14there's still plenty of numbers to go around.
13:15So they even state that if your jersey gets retired,
13:19it doesn't mean no one will ever wear it again,
13:21which is being forgotten in all of this.
13:24Like, to me, that is so important to this.
13:26They could both have this kid wear number five
13:28and also still have a ceremony in week four
13:31where they retire as uniform, as silly as that sounds.
13:34But this whole thing to me,
13:36I guess what I'm most disheartened by and frustrated by,
13:40number one, I've got to say,
13:42this does not change anything I think about Daniels.
13:44I was going to bring that up right now.
13:45Because I don't believe this is like his baby.
13:50I don't think this is his priority right now.
13:52I think he's worried about the Dolphins tomorrow night.
13:55He probably isn't because he's not playing, I guess.
13:57But he's worried about next week and getting back to practice or whatever.
14:01But I also think when people say like,
14:03oh, he has no idea what's going on.
14:04He probably hasn't even heard about this.
14:06A, we know he's been on the phone with Lane Kiffin based on reporting,
14:08talking about his number being given away.
14:10So he cares a little bit.
14:11And B, he's not 14.
14:15You know what I'm saying?
14:16Like, he is a grown-up.
14:17You know, he is an adult.
14:19So if he doesn't want all of this happening,
14:21he doesn't want people in his sphere running shop like this.
14:25He could just say, hey, let's chill on that.
14:27I don't really care that much.
14:28Let's not make it the biggest national story in sports
14:31while my team's preparing for the start of the season three weeks before we play the Eagles.
14:35Yeah, so you just stole my thunder a bit on this.
14:38But I wanted to say, no one will hear this part as I'm kind of going through it.
14:42We're already haters.
14:43But it is what it is.
14:45Still glad they have Jayden Daniels.
14:46Still love Jayden Daniels.
14:47Can't wait for the season.
14:48I am beyond excited about him and his prospects here.
14:50And I hope we're talking about retiring his jersey one day here in Washington.
14:53I wanted them to draft him.
14:55I'm still thrilled they did.
14:56Yeah, I hope they have this fight in 15 years.
14:59Yeah, I would love that.
14:59With the commanders.
15:00Send Josh Harris a cease and desist after two Super Bowers.
15:03Exactly.
15:03Some kid wants to wear five.
15:04Well, wear five.
15:05And we have to go through this again.
15:07But to me, I'm just calling balls and strikes here.
15:10Ball, this is, I think you already said it, this is small.
15:13This is small potatoes.
15:15This is petty stuff.
15:16There are a lot of people who had better college careers than Jayden Daniels.
15:21Jayden Daniels had a magical season that was incredible where he was at his second school.
15:26And it was one of the great seasons I've ever seen.
15:27That's why I wanted him drafted.
15:28I loved it.
15:30I watched him and go, oh my God, this is all inspiring.
15:31He didn't have Tim Tebow's career.
15:33You can wear that jersey at Florida.
15:36You show up as a freshman.
15:37You're Willie the walk-on.
15:38You can wear it.
15:39Now, I know different programmers do different things, but just by way of example, here's
15:42how this comes across.
15:44What we did was the most specialist that anyone's ever done and do more for us.
15:53That ain't it as far as I'm concerned.
15:55That is, as you said, whiny, small, and this is taking your ball and going home.
16:00This, again, is what my eight-year-old did the other day when his older brother wouldn't
16:06let him use something or kind of wasn't that thrilled about something.
16:09And then he goes, oh, you know what?
16:11Fine.
16:11You can't use my Nintendo Switch.
16:13I don't want my quarterback involved in anything like that.
16:17I wouldn't want my backup fullback involved in anything like that.
16:20If the 53rd guy that's barely going to make the team as a special teams ace was involved
16:25with this, I'd go, don't do that.
16:26That's petty.
16:27That's tiny.
16:28That's small.
16:29Don't be involved in that.
16:30Again, everybody's going to conflate it and they're going to go, well, it's about the
16:34NIL fight.
16:34It's not.
16:35The statement from the spokesperson tells you what the whole game is.
16:39Yeah.
16:39And Jayden is not the spokesperson.
16:41Right.
16:41We're mad that someone's wearing his jersey.
16:43We don't have a recourse there.
16:45We have no legal ground to stand on.
16:46We are going to pull every legal lever.
16:48If the only part of this fight was an NIL issue, by all means, yep, let's get it done
16:53and let's go get the Dolphins tomorrow.
16:55It's not.
16:55They told you what the whole thing was about in the opening statement.
16:59We're disappointed.
17:00We can't believe it.
17:01This needs to be more reverential.
17:03Do more applaud for us.
17:05Do more applauding for us.
17:08We got bigger fish to fry, bro.
17:09We're three years out of that school with all due respect.
17:12That is back there, man.
17:14There's another coach.
17:15There's a whole other thing.
17:16Wingshield.
17:17Oh my God.
17:17Look, the Eagles are coming.
17:20Yes.
17:20There is so much joy on the line for God's sake.
17:24And I know he's not sitting there writing the letter with the attorney.
17:27I understand he's not sitting down there dictating what he once said.
17:30His name's on it.
17:31As you said, get away from this.
17:33Get away.
17:33This doesn't happen.
17:34Get away from it.
17:35This doesn't happen.
17:35Star players don't do this.
17:38This is such a small thing to care about.
17:41It is so irrelevant.
17:42It doesn't really matter that much.
17:45In time, you'll get it retired or you won't.
17:48But you are bigger than this now.
17:51You are better than this now.
17:52You've been into an NFC Championship game, for God's sakes.
17:55You have a chance to go compete in playoff games this year.
17:59It's just surprising.
18:00I think one of the reasons for the reaction you're seeing from people
18:03and how taken aback Commanders fans are is it is in direct contrast
18:08to how he has operated and kind of publicly what we have seen from him
18:13every step of the way since he was drafted.
18:18But when I first read it, I don't know about you,
18:21but it was kind of like cringeworthy.
18:22And I'm like, this is embarrassing a little bit.
18:24This is such a small-looking, awful optics thing.
18:29I had to reread that statement.
18:32Again, not the attorney's letter.
18:33The attorney doing the cease and desist, that's what attorneys do.
18:35They speak to each other that way.
18:36The statement that the family doesn't like,
18:38that doesn't think he's being honored well enough.
18:40The statement from the family, I had to read it three times
18:43just to make sure that I wasn't missing something,
18:45there wasn't an ampersand in there or like a weird semicolon.
18:48I found it embarrassing.
18:50I found it embarrassing.
18:51I just thought it was so small and petty that it just is antithetical
18:58to every way that he's operated the entire way that he's been here.
19:02And it's not going to become a significant distraction to him,
19:05I don't think, or to the team.
19:07Here's what's going to happen.
19:08He just spoke yesterday, so he doesn't talk again for a week.
19:10So it's going to come up.
19:11Someone will ask one or two questions at the start of the press conference.
19:14He'll either say he's not talking about it.
19:16Or he's got people to handle that.
19:17He'll still be pleasant.
19:19And that's kind of the extent of it in terms of on-site.
19:23But it's one of those things where there's just certain moments
19:27where something will happen and you're like, you're so taken aback.
19:30You have a friend that says something or does something,
19:32and you're like, do I have this right?
19:35Do I have this whole thing right?
19:37Am I calculating correctly what I'm dealing with?
19:41And this is one of those moments where I'm just like, man,
19:44I really wish this wasn't in the news right now
19:46because this is not how he's operated for multiple years going.
19:51I do want to talk about everybody juxtaposing he and Burrow
19:54and why I think that's a little bit different.
19:56We could talk about a litigation pending over his NIL possibly,
20:00and if that were to go to court, what would happen?
20:02I had an agent hit me up today that was like, that's unwinnable.
20:05There's zero chance they can win that.
20:07Those cases have been lost left, right, and center
20:10from players after their career for years.
20:13But we could talk about that too.
20:14Again, the reporter who had this story is going to join us
20:17coming up at 3 o'clock in 40 minutes.
20:19Grant and Danny on the fence.
Comments