Florida's Trinity Thomas, Talitha Diggs use NIL profits to give back

Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas and track athlete Talitha Diggs used profits from their NIL deals to buy presents last week for children at UF Health Shands Hospital around the holidays. The initiative started in 2021 with Florida men’s basketball player Colin Castleton, who purchased gifts and signed banners for children.

“NIL is great and I very much appreciate the different opportunities that come with that but it’s also really important to remember these things, too,” Diggs said in a Zoom interview.

Michael Raymond, the founder of the sports and talent agency Raymond Representation, represents all three athletes. Raymond Representation agent Andres Rocha helped facilitate the latest opportunity with Thomas and Diggs.

“Part of NIL, I know it’s fun to make money. It’s fun to work with brands,” Raymond said in a phone interview. “Everybody wants to do those things but one of the undervalued aspects of it is the opportunity to be able to build in your community and be able to work with charities and do those kind of things and spend money on gifts and giving back to kids.

“When I brought up the idea to Trinity and Talitha, it kind of speaks to exactly who they are, which is just amazing, genuine people and they were all for it.”

Trinity Thomas, Talitha Diggs buy from ‘super cute’ wish list

Thomas said she and Diggs had a night when they were both free so they went shopping with a “super cute” wish list in hand.

“We were having so much fun,” Thomas said, laughing, in a Zoom interview. “We were like, ‘OK, how about Uno? And how about this? How about this?’ Just like kinda our inner child, you know? It was a lot of fun.”

Items were organized into categories for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, grade school children and adolescents. The preschoolers wanted baby dolls and Hot Wheels cards. The children who are in grade school asked for Lego sets and action figures.

Thomas and Diggs did their best to make sure the children got gifts that matched the wish list.

“‘OK, I want to make sure I have the right gift,'” Diggs recalled thinking. “But then we were like, ‘You know what, they’re going to love whatever we give them… It was really fun also because it’s the holiday season so everybody is in there.

“It was kind of cool to see everyone getting gifts and the joy all around so to be a part of that and to be doing it for a good cause was really cool.”

Trinity Thomas: Giving back through NIL ‘means the world to me’

Then came the best part. After putting on masks and washing their hands, Thomas and Diggs visited with the children.

“My personal favorite part was being able to go into the rooms with some of the kids and being able to talk to them and to just see them smile or make them smile,” Thomas said. “Some of them were doing arts and crafts actually so we got to go and see what they were making and working on.”

Diggs said one young girl at the hospital was in a crib eating her food and she wanted her visitors to try it, too.

So that’s what Thomas, a 27-time All-American who won the 2022 NCAA champion in all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise, and Diggs, the 2022 NCAA indoor and outdoor champion in the 400 meters, did. Or at least that’s what they pretended to do in order to put a smile on the girl’s face.

“She wanted all of us to eat it so we had to pass it [around],” Diggs said. “We were like fake eating her food and it was just cute because she was really excited.”

One boy at the hospital isn’t fluent in English but there was a translator present to help bridge the gap. Diggs said the boy wanted to race her and he told Thomas that he used to be able to do the splits, as he tried to relate to the two Florida athletes and their respective sports.

“It’s definitely so important just to remember that there are people that aren’t as fortunate as us to be athletes,” Diggs said. “Just to give back and use our platform that we’ve been blessed with to bless others is really, really important. You know, my mom always says, ‘To whom much is given much is required.'”

The fall semester at Florida just ended. Thomas laughed when asked about finals. But both athletes said it’s important to find opportunities to give back.

“It’s super special and super important because the holidays are a special time but also a hard time for a lot of people,” Thomas said. “For those kids to be in the situation that they’re in, unfortunately, it means the world to me, and I know to Talitha too, to be able to bring some happiness and to a spot that’s such a tough time for them.”