Sauce Gardner, Buffalo Wild Wings ink NIL deals with All-Sauce Team

Sauce Gardner is bringing the heat once again, but this time it’s coming to the world of NIL.

Gardner, whose real first name is Ahmad, picked up the iconic “Sauce” nickname when he was six years old from a youth sports coach. He was the talk of the NFL draft with his diamond “sauce bottle” necklace, and he backed up the drip off the field with a first season with the New York Jets that earned him a  spot on the NFL Defensive All-Rookie Team.

Now Gardner has teamed up with Buffalo Wild Wings to create the “first ever All-Sauce team.” As part of the partnership, Buffalo Wild Wings has signed NIL deals with eight college football players that have the “sauciest names in college football.”

The players involved in the NIL deal:

• Michigan State long-snapper Hank Pepper
• Arizona receiver Boobie Curry
• Edward Waters running back Gregory Mango
• Southwest Minnesota State receiver Albert Lemon
• South Carolina EDGE Hot Rod Fitten
• Iowa State offensive lineman Dodge Sauser
• LSU defensive back Major Burns
• Florida receiver Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman

“Congratulations to the all-star team,” Gardner says in the commercial released Tuesday by Buffalo Wild Wings. “And remember, everything is better with sauce.”

I teamed up with @bwwings to create the first ever All-Sauce Team, signing 8 NIL deals with the Sauciest names in college football. Check it out #sponsor @Mr_Mike_Jones pic.twitter.com/dFn4O6V9fT

— SAUCE (@iamSauceGardner) January 24, 2023

NIL deal highlights Buffalo Wild Wings’ sauces

To make the NIL deals even more flavorful, each one of the players represents one of Buffalo Wild Wings’ 26 signature sauces and seasonings.

Pepper is obviously team lemon pepper sauce. And the others are just as fitting: Curry and Bowman represent Thai curry sauce, Mango is Mango Habanero sauce, Lemon is lemon pepper sauce, Fitten is Buffalo sauce, Saucer is parmesan garlic sauce and Burn is perfectly cast as the leader for blazing Carolina reaper sauce.

Creative NIL deals like this are becoming more and more the norm in college sports. For example, this past October, Reese’s signed 12 football players across the country with the last name of “Reese” as part of the sweetest deal in NIL history.

Additionally, NIL experts say deals like this are win-win situations. Brands get exposure for coming up with creative ad campaigns. Plus, college student-athletes get rewarded for using their name, image and likeness to generate revenue in ways that might not be normally available.

“NIL deals that play off athlete names are fun, but they also make a lot of sense from both a brand perspective and an athlete perspective,” Mit Winter, a sports attorney and NIL expert at Kennyhertz Perry LLC, told On3. “They always generate a lot of good PR and media attention, which can lead to more business for the brand and potentially more deals for the athlete. These deals also often feature lesser-known athletes, so it’s good to see some different athletes getting involved in NIL.

“This deal is also a little unique since it’s a big brand getting involved in a deal that plays off athlete names. So far we’ve mostly seen local businesses do these types of deals.”