Rutgers' Paul Mulcahy used NIL deal to buy meals for 260 supporters

Rutgers men’s basketball guard Paul Mulcahy partnered with the New Brunswick City Center through a name, image and likeness agreement and he used the partnership to provide restaurant gift cards to 260 supporters of the program. The recipients of the gift cards include the program’s student managers, members of the Rutgers band and security staff at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

After Rutgers’ senior day last Sunday, Mulcahy met with the managers, band members and security staffers to thank them for their support and distribute the gift cards

In a video produced by the Rutgers-focused NIL collective Knights Of The Raritan, Mulcahy told operations staff members, “I appreciate all you guys. Like for four years, I mean, you guys have been incredible. I wanted to say thank you to all you guys personally … As individuals, what you guys do for us is more than appreciated and for four years, I’ve got to know, I mean, all you guys and I’m super thankful for who you guys are and what you guys do so I was able to partner with New Brunswick City Center to give you guys gift cards.

“Hopefully you guys go out for a nice dinner after this.”

As a senior, Mulcahy is averaging 8.2 points, 4.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Through the end of the 2022-23 regular season, he has appeared in 118 games for Rutgers.

“Paul Mulcahy is known as New Jersey’s point guard, and when we heard that he wanted to buy dinner for everyone that he appreciates so much over at the Jersey Mike’s Arena, we were thrilled that he was interested in buying them dinner in downtown New Brunswick,” New Brunswick City Center chairman of the board of directors Doug Schneider said in a phone interview. “We’re the downtown area right here next to Rutgers and we’re so proud to have a city full of people that support the Rutgers basketball team. Paul is such a terrific representative of the school and when he had this thought, we thought what better way to partner with him than this.”

Mulcahy agreed to promote restaurants and businesses in New Brunswick as a brand ambassador for the New Brunswick City Center.

NIL is ‘all about that real-world experience’

Mulcahy graduated from Gill St. Bernard’s in Gladstone, New Jersey, before attending Rutgers.

His junior and senior years of eligibility have been during the NCAA’s NIL era, when the player Schneider described as “New Jersey’s point guard” has been able to take advantage of professional connections in the state.

“I think it’s all about that real-world experience, right?” Schneider said. “And the idea that they’re able to — any athlete, for that matter, is able to utilize their networks. I’ve had businesses in New Brunswick for a couple of decades now and through that, you always find people to build relationships with but you never were able to cross the line to actually work with them [athletes] until now. It’s so cool to be able to make it not only official but do it in a way that is very professional and we’re doing it in a way that everyone feels comfortable with.”