Adam Weitsman announces NIL plans

[Trueblue25]

Is AW our biggest supporter?

He may have been on the way towards doing so. But to the extent he has, no not at this time.

 

[Trueblue25]

Absolutely not. Several hundreds of people give more to SU than he does. And he's far from the biggest supporter of SU athletics. For starters, take a look at the John Lally Athletic Center. Not just Lally himself, but all the additional donors who have given 100s of thousands to fund specific parts of it. Same with the Melo Center.

I think he meant NIL wise, but the answers still no from what I understand

 

[CuseCPT]

He may have been on the way towards doing so. But to the extent he has, no not at this time.

I may be on the way towards it myself. I just have to check few lottery tickets.

 

[Trueblue25]

Neil - I appreciate your posts, your blog and the information you share. Thank you. Full disclosure, I knew Adam very casually back in the 90s when he owned the building I worked in and would visit us regularly. Always enjoyed talking with him then and think he is a better man today as that was prior to his legal issues and becoming a father. I have been one of the biggest supports of Adam on this forum from the beginning refuting claims of others who denigrated his motives and character.

I am also a proud alum, class of, well a few years before 2000, and appreciated his support of the University and its programs.

On the other hand I am very critical of the NCAA and it's failure to put any kind of reasonable guard rails around the whole NIL fiasco. I am the founder of the SyraCRUZ Tailgate NIL initiative (we are open for 2023 donations, btw. Jump on board!) We have seen the positive side of what NIL can do for our student athletes. We supported Enrique Cruz, Chris Elmore, Benny Williams, Joe Girard, Olivia Owens, Dyaisha Fair and Riley Figueiras last year and that project has only heightened our passion. However, the darker side more than counteracts all of those positives.

Here's what I know. Boosters CANNOT be involved in recruiting. NIL deals CANNOT be tied to a requirement that a student athlete attend a specific school. Public outrage is growing daily from the House Commerce committee hearings to the new head of the NCAA to the Charles Barkley interview on 60 Minutes. Something is coming to police the abuses of these givens and while Adam's deals complied with the letter of the law if you squint enough, he was obviously recruiting star high school players to come to Syracuse. I would like to be able to rationalize that everyone else is doing it, so we should too, but that's not me. I understand that Adam feels he cannot do things low key and I respect that and his decision to step away from using NIL as a recruiting tool.

What bothers me, though, is that he apparently will not be participating in any NIL opportunities for current and enrolled student athlets, either through the known collectives or on his own. This lower key level of support doesn't get the publicity of the six and seven figure offers to recruits but is argualbly more important to a broader number of student athletes and fosters a culture and perception that the Syracuse Orange community takes care of their players. Hopefully he can find a way through this.

And next time you talk to him, tell him his old Endicott Johnson buddy says hello and thank you for everything you do for the community,

This is well put.

I can see why both sides are discontented with the other, and certainly why they’re splitting. Where I get turned off is Adam’s race to control the narrative on it. Maybe its just his PR team, I don’t know. But it’s not a good look. If you’re a fan of Syracuse athletics, be a fan of Syracuse athletics.

 

[Consigliere]

This is well put.

I can see why both sides are discontented with the other, and certainly why they’re splitting. Where I get turned off is Adam’s race to control the narrative on it. Maybe its just his PR team, I don’t know. But it’s not a good look. If you’re a fan of Syracuse athletics, be a fan of Syracuse athletics.

I can understand that Syracuse won't comment on this. At best it's a "he said, he said" argument where they have to throw at least a little shade at Adam. It also closes the book on any reconciliation efforts. Similar to Jesse leaving. Can;t say he left for a bigger bag because that admits we were outbid for his services.

I will say I find the timing of the two more than a little interesting, Adam announced a month ago that he was out of the NIL business. Did the Jesse situation push it back into the news cycle organically or was it more orchestrated?

 

[Day2]

I don’t understand the agenda here on the part of Weitsman. He retweeted this garbage this morning. The divorce is final why not just shake hands and walk away? And I don’t understand the agenda of Adler other than to suck up to Weitsman. He is a SU alum and you would think he would not want to make University look bad any more than he already has by being Weitsman’s puppet. Quoting the attorney saying that Syracuse will have trouble competing without Weitsman does just that.

But make no mistake despite this bizarre war on Cuse, there are a lot of good people who love the program, are donating to SU and working hard on NIL to help Syracuse get back to where we need to be.

“Still loyal to SU.”

 

[Day2]

This is how competitive and powerful people react when acting magnanimously for years and years going above and beyond to support a cause/university they didn’t even go to, developing relationships and a love for the people and institution along the way only to be rudely (emphasis on rudely without ANY respect), rudely be thrown to the curb and disrespected only because you don’t fit the institutional profile and “look” of whom you want supporting you.

And then after a lifetime of trying to do the opposite and being successful doing it the right way, giving back etc., have so many say well they must know he’s still dirty or something suggesting dark nefarious ill begotten gain as the excuse when they know full well that’s bs but still do nothing to counter the narrative, in fact continuing to say nothing at all.

Don’t blame the guy, I hope he goes scorched earth and it results in new leadership that gets it that guys like this don’t grow on trees and they should be coddled and supported.

I certainly would do this if I were in his position and treated this way. Now that I know with CERTAINTY that the guys above board in his dealing and they don’t like his style of flying too close to the sun as he brings attention to his own causes too, it’s unconscionable what syracuse is doing to this guy.

Not that they’ve chosen to push him aside but no the manner af how they’ve done it (not returning his calls emails to have a meeting of the minds, not letting him bid on dome naming rights, etc - all of which I know with CERTAINTY to be true), not giving a modicum of respect in the process to allow people like you - not you specifically - but his critics to say he’s dirty or must be dirty.

Very nice school. I didn’t go to syracuse but have been a 50+ townie fan fanatically devoted my whole life. I went to a different school in part for the purity of the place re sports (could’ve played at SU), avoiding this type thing, so I look at them and the level of sport transactionally as a business.

The business of sport at the high level they inhabit, what they’ve done to this guy is simply bad business (again the manner of which, not the decision), and simply wrong ethically and morally.

I get it his reaction, syracuse is reaping what they sow, expect more for a while until, like me and others like me certainly I’m sure, the slow ugly mess of a separation occurs and mellows with time.

TL;DR: It’s OK to act like a child if you’re rich.

 

[jgeorge322]

You can spew misinformation and nonsense, Scott. I really could care less. But get your facts straight, please. I don't have an agenda. I am not Adam's puppet. I don't hate SU. I went to SU. I'm a proud alum, class of 2000. Today's article is based on comments from a NIL expert. I asked SU for comment. They declined. Also, in the almost seven years I've written for the site I run, I've written thousands of articles. 95 percent of them are positive about my alma mater.

You do have to admit though the NIL guy has an agenda. He clearly is a self-promotional guy, which is a good thing. But he’s trying to brand himself as a NIL lawyer. NIL is fairly new and he’s a 38 year old lawyer. He really isn’t that all credible. Not much of a take saying cuse could not compete because they are losing a guy willing to donate. Fact is he doesn’t know what resources Syracuse has. He just knows Syracuse lost a resource which is a Captain Obvious take. So, I have no problem with you running your article and you are ultra respectful on here and seem like a good dude but just wanted to let you know that the source you ran is just another dude with a not fully informed opinion who is seeking attention.

 

[Trueblue25]

I can understand that Syracuse won't comment on this. At best it's a "he said, he said" argument where they have to throw at least a little shade at Adam. It also closes the book on any reconciliation efforts. Similar to Jesse leaving. Can;t say he left for a bigger bag because that admits we were outbid for his services.

I will say I find the timing of the two more than a little interesting, Adam announced a month ago that he was out of the NIL business. Did the Jesse situation push it back into the news cycle organically or was it more orchestrated?

the average person would look at Jesse’s leaving, and the circumstances surrounding it, as an opportune time for Weitsman to make sure he secures the victim card. It’s an easy opening. Everyone’s angry now, so of course they’ll believe the entirety to Adam’s side. Fans just want to be angry because the program’s downtrodden, they dont actually want to hear from Kent or ADJW. Who could reasonably expect them to speak out on this? Impossible, ill-conceived situation.

The University left itself open for this too, so no real excuses.

Just seems like a predictable ending for this arrangement.

Can’t imagine a fan of Autry and Syracuse basketball/athletes using this to their benefit though.

The real, and only real losers here is Red Autry and Jesse’s past teammates.

 

[cuseallday]

You do have to admit though the NIL guy has an agenda. He clearly is a self-promotional guy, which is a good thing. But he’s trying to brand himself as a NIL lawyer. NIL is fairly new and he’s a 38 year old lawyer. He really isn’t that all credible. Not much of a take saying cuse could not compete because they are losing a guy willing to donate. Fact is he doesn’t know what resources Syracuse has. He just knows Syracuse lost a resource which is a Captain Obvious take. So, I have no problem with you running your article and you are ultra respectful on here and seem like a good dude but just wanted to let you know that the source you ran is just another dude with a not fully informed opinion who is seeking attention.

Hey, I respect your take. All good! We can agree to disagree!!

 

[CuseCPT]

You do have to admit though the NIL guy has an agenda. He clearly is a self-promotional guy, which is a good thing. But he’s trying to brand himself as a NIL lawyer. NIL is fairly new and he’s a 38 year old lawyer. He really isn’t that all credible. Not much of a take saying cuse could not compete because they are losing a guy willing to donate. Fact is he doesn’t know what resources Syracuse has. He just knows Syracuse lost a resource which is a Captain Obvious take. So, I have no problem with you running your article and you are ultra respectful on here and seem like a good dude but just wanted to let you know that the source you ran is just another dude with a not fully informed opinion who is seeking attention.

I know of an attorney that very aggressively used this strategy to grow their firm. Whenever anything law related was in the news, they would call the local media outlets and offer to give their take, free of charge, of course. More often than not the media would take them up on it and he got free exposure and got to appear to be an expert to the general public.

 

[jgeorge322]

I know of an attorney that very aggressively used this strategy to grow their firm. Whenever anything law related was in the news, they would call the local media outlets and offer to give their take, free of charge, of course. More often than not the media would take them up on it and he got free exposure and got to appear to be an expert to the general public.

Yes, at end of day, good lawyers know how to look stuff up and the strategy is to never admit youre wrong and to act like you know what your talki g anout. It goes a long way in life.

Not hating on the guy. He could be a smart dude. But in reality, he sees NIL as an opportunity to make money for himself by branding himself an expert.

The NIL regs prob arent that long. I bet I could get up to speed in a day.

 

[Sherman20]

I don't know. I have heard from a very good source that we had the money for Jesse. That is the good news. Very good news. Now the bad news. We really didn't get our act together in a way that instilled confidence in the Edwards that they could get past the foreign part of the situation.

This is where I have to question the Edwards side. Wouldn’t you be more likely to trust the program you’ve been at for four years than an unknown program where you don’t really know any of the key stakeholders and program leaders.

 

[CuseCPT]

Yes, at end of day, good lawyers know how to look stuff up and the strategy is to never admit youre wrong and to act like you know what your talki g anout. It goes a long way in life.

Not hating on the guy. He could be a smart dude. But in reality, he sees NIL as an opportunity to make money for himself by branding himself an expert.

The NIL regs prob arent that long. I bet I could get up to speed in a day.

Yeah, if you can manage to be the first attorney to really get associated with a specialty area it can be incredibly lucrative.

Hopefully he turns out to be more ethical than "The Lottery Lawyer."
Jury convicts 'lottery lawyer' on wire fraud, money laundering charges

 

[kidorange]

Small note but the other day, Laura Lally "liked" a post of mine that expressed displeasure of Weitsman's handling of the split.

Hes certainly not doing himself any good with the people that really matter on the hill. In my eyes he's justifying SU's decision the more he talks.

 

[jordville]

 

[pattycuse]

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Adam, you passed the “high road” a LONG ways back…unbelievable.

 

[shandeezy7]

“I don’t really care about me at all” is such a laughable statement.

 

[Day2]

Yeah, I can see why the administration should have bent over backwards for this guy.

 

[007]

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Umm...what would this stuff look like if AW did "really care about" AW?

 

[Cuse1055]

Tired of hearing about this TBH. Our worst stretch of success as a program has come with him as the “super fan”. Yeah there’s probably no correlation and it’s merely coincidental but it’s still true. First time I heard his name was when he drove in a blizzard only to see Isaiah Stewart choose Hop and Washington lol that should’ve been a sign right there.

 

[samspann1]

“I don’t really care about me at all” is such a laughable statement.

I can’t stop laughing. What a cringy, phony clown he is.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It’s almost like he reads the board.

 

[AZOrange]

It’s almost like he reads the board.

Oh for sure. He’s townie72

 

[rrlbees]

Doesn’t bother me at all that he posted a couple pics of our recruit from that tourney.