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UCLA Football Quarterback Chase Griffin Wins NIL Male Athlete of the Year

After spending the past year racking up endorsements and community service partnerships, the Bruins' backup signal-caller took home some hardware.

Benjamin Royer

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An influential Bruin quarterback is being honored for his efforts and ventures off of the field.

The Name Image and Likeness awards, hosted by the NIL Summit, crowned its first-ever Male and Female Athletes of the Year on Monday evening. UCLA Football quarterback Chase Griffin became the first to win the men’s version of the award, with his advertisement campaigns alongside Degree, Shell, Discord and Boost Mobile being listed as major reasons for his victory.

Griffin rose above former Minessota wrestler Gable Stevenson, former LSU and UCLA forward Shareef O’Neal, Jackson State quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Norfolk State running back Rayquan Smith and former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young to win the award.

The qualifications for Male Athlete of the Year were described as follows: “This award recognizes the male student-athletes that have exhibited the best use of their Name, Image, and Likeness. Judges will consider student-athletes that have best leveraged their NIL across multiple activations, platforms and campaigns to create maximum impact for their partners.”

Oregon women’s basketball forward and another Pac-12 representative Sedona Prince took home the women’s counterpart to Griffin’s award.

Griffin has been a large advocate for student-athletes since stepping foot on campus in 2019 and has been a vocal supporter of NIL causes on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms since that revenue stream opened up to student-athletes in July 2021.

Many of Griffin's NIL deals have doubled as charity fundraisers or have helped boost awareness for social justice issues in Los Angeles and beyond. While exact figures on each of his deals are unavailable, the sheer number of national corporations Griffin has worked with in the past 12 months makes him one of the most active NIL participants in the nation.

After securing his award, the College Football Hall of Fame shared a video of Griffin posing with a case holding his No. 11 UCLA uniform and helmet in Atlanta. The Texas native uses his jersey number as a part of his signature hashtag and brand, “BE11EVE.”

The awards were handed out on day one of the event, with the NIL Summit lasting until Wednesday. On Tuesday, Griffin and other college athletes are set to meet with top brands from across the nation, with companies such as Wasserman, Meta and World Wrestling Entertainment presenting throughout the schedule.

Griffin arrived in the college ranks having already won Gatorade Texas state Player of the Year in 2018, and he scored 134 total touchdowns with nearly 12,000 yards during his three years as a captain at Hutto High School (TX).

Despite being a second-string quarterback in 2020 and a third-string quarterback in 2021, Griffin has embraced his time in Westwood. He already graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs in 2021 and is now working towards a Master’s Degree in the Transformative Coaching and Leadership graduate program at UCLA's School of Education.

The 5-foot-10 signal-caller was also named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every quarter from 2019 to 2021 whilst an undergraduate student at UCLA. Griffin was honored as an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar in both 2020 and 2022.

Griffin was able to see his first game action on the gridiron in 2020 when then-junior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson was held out due to COVID-19 protocols. He started two games during the campaign and came off the bench against Stanford to toss four passing touchdowns – the most in a game for his collegiate career.

Entering his redshirt junior season with the Bruins, Griffin has as many as three years of eligibility left should he decide to continue his journey at UCLA beyond his Master’s and further make an impact on and off the field in Westwood.

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Benjamin Royer
BENJAMIN ROYER

Benjamin Royer is a contributing writer at All Bruins, in association with the FanNation and Sports Illustrated networks. Royer is a third-year student at UCLA, where he is a Sports contributor for the school's award-winning student-run newspaper, The Daily Bruin. Royer was previously the Sports Editor at The Valley Star, Los Angeles Valley College's independent newspaper, and he helped develop the Twinger Talk YouTube channel and The Double Play podcast. He is also a professional actor, previously appearing in programs on Showtime, ABC, Disney Channel, FOX and CBS.

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