A 9-year-old Los Angeles football player from Snoop Dogg’s Youth Football League has inked a six-figure name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with a sports agency, becoming the youth league’s first to do so at such a young age, according to KTLA.
Ghalee Wadood Jr. joined with Family 4 Life, a sports agency that represents players from NFL clubs such as the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers, and New York Giants, according to the news outlet.
“It’s kinda surreal,” Ghalee Wadood Jr.’s father Ghalee Wadood Sr. said to KTLA. “It’s humbling and exciting for [the agency] to see his potential and want to manage him.”
While in his first year playing tackle football, Ghalee Wadood Jr. was named Snoop’s MVP, an honor that often goes to older players. “For him to win that, in his first year, it just speaks volumes. No first-year kid has ever won such a prestigious award in a really competitive league,” said Ghalee Wadood Sr., who works with the Los Angeles Rams organization.
Musician Snoop Dogg founded the Snoop Youth Football League in 2005 to provide the opportunity for inner-city children to participate in youth football and cheer, its website says. The non-profit organization “serves children between the ages of five and thirteen, teaching them the values of teamwork, good sportsmanship, discipline, and self-respect, while also stressing the importance of academics,” the website adds.
NFL players like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Daiyan Henley came up through Snoop Dogg’s Youth Football League. After KTLA revealed Ghalee Wadood Jr.’s NIL agreement, Snoop Dogg tweeted about it. Ghalee Wadood Jr. will take professional headshots and prepare ahead of the forthcoming football season as part of his NIL contract.