Amedeo’s gets in on the NIL game, sponsors a bunch of NC State athletes

The new freedom of name-image-likeness, the ability of athletes to make a few local endorsement bucks, mainly, was bound to end here: Amedeo’s restaurant is sponsoring seven NC State athletes.

Those seven: Bam Knight, Elissa Cunane, Hayden Hidlay, Cam Hayes, Kai Crutchfield, Sam Highfill, and Levi Jones.

That’s a fine roster, and I wonder how we’ll see this implemented as the next school year gets started. Will there be some low-rent local advertisements either in the paper or on the Carter-Finley jumbotron? I like the idea that every commercial break in-stadium involves either Amedeo’s or Bojangles (Cam Hayes is officially an endorser of both) and just goes from there.

Give me some wooden acting. Give me some bizarre commercials. Who cares, the important thing is that the athletes are finally getting paid for their efforts. College athletes are already forced into dumb commercials for the athletics department, so they might as well finally get to shoot some dumb commercials for some brands actually willing to pay.