CHAMPAIGN (WSIL) -- Name, Image and Likeness will change the landscape of college athletics.
We caught up with Carterville native and university of Illinois tight end Luke Ford on what opportunities he may have when it comes to endorsements.
"This past week I've got quite a few companies hitting me up and right now in the process of setting it all up," Ford said.
Luke Ford is creating his brand. Being selective.
"A lot of my sponsors will build up with things that I like, stuff that I believe in, stuff the fans like."
"I've got to be smart, I can't put anything out there, but it's awesome, I want to develop it the right way. I want to take the right steps to make sure I have the brand that I want and it's still me. I'm not losing that from sponsorships, not changing my personality. I want to keep it me and I feel there's a lot of different directions I can go with this."
Before TV I worked in marketing, and I can tell you first-hand Luke's personality is certainly marketable. And it's that personality that catches all of our attention.
"100 percent, 100 percent because people love that. Media loves that and that's me. It's easy for me to do that so people think it's an act but I do that all the time."
"I'm going to keep the shades on, looks good." Does it? Up to the people I guess."
"I forget, a year ago I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and some shades and the cowboy hat and everybody thought that was a hit but I only wore that two seconds so I wear the cowboy hat out all the time. It's me."
Luke wants his endorsements to be different, so he talks with other athletes.
"Pick ideas from other teammates, other teams here at U of I and everyone is trying to figure it out. We are paving the way. Kids four years from now, they are going to have the road paved and already know what to do from the guys that started it, us."
Ford sees a link between endorsements and social media.
"I feel like a lot of sponsorships are going to want social media posts and tie it into my brand. Try to make it appeal to my viewers so if I want to joke around and post something funny I feel that will be more my spin on it."
And according to Ford, Coach Bielema gets and approves Luke's sense of humor.
"I tweeted out and commented 'Are you not entertained?' and I put Maximus Aurelius from the movie Gladiator. Coach obviously got the reference, I don't know, it was really cool. He knows me, he knows my personality and it's good to see accepts me for me."
With endorsement deals comes great responsibility.
"We can get sued, got to pay your taxes, you don't want the IRS kicking down someone's door, pulling them off the field during a game for not paying their taxes."
This process may get complicated but it is exciting.
"The hardest thing right now is developing a contract and you have to put it through a certain site and it has to be legitimate and their company has to go through ours so its new for them its new for so there's a lot of talk back and forth to try and get everything sorted out to maybe promote a kids camp back home. There's a lot that goes into it but also exciting. I'd like to talk to some of the high school kids that are trying to play division one football and motivate and show them what I did to get to where I am right now."
