UCLA’s Maya Brady continues to build successful NIL brand

UCLA’s Maya Brady is one of the biggest names in softball on and off the diamond.

On the field, Brady is a two-time All-Pac-12 pick, and she was also named earlier this year to the Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team after leading the Bruins with a .438 batting average, seven RBI and two home runs in Oklahoma City.

Away from the diamond, Brady is quickly becoming one of the biggest forces in NIL.

Yes, her uncles are seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and two-time World Series champion Kevin Youkilis. But Brady has built a strong brand on her own.

We saw another sign of that with her newly executed NIL deal with Sprouts Farmers Market. In a social media post, Brady reviews Sprouts Farmers Market’s bulk food section. Brady was a big fan of the peanut butter-filled pretzels and the trail mix. She called Sprouts her “new obsession.”

This is hardly the first NIL deal that Maya Brady has executed over the past year and a half. For example, she also recently became the UCLA ambassador for Wescom Credit Union. Plus, earlier this year she partnered with American Eagle Outfitters.

In March, Brady was also one of the central figures in Champion’s “Get it Girl” marketing campaign. She was featured in commercials with rapper Saweetie and Texas Longhorns’ outside hitter Logan Eggleston, who was the 2021 volleyball national player of the year.

Brady has also built a massive social media presence with more than 75,700 followers on Instagram alone. Her followers also engage quite a bit with her, as witnessed by her post with Sprouts generating more than 1,700 likes in less than 12 hours.

She has also signed a NIL representation deal with WME Sports, signaling that more deals are coming in the future.

Maya Brady primed for big season

Maya Brady returns for the 2023 season for UCLA with big expectations.

In 2022, Brady became the first Bruin since Rachel Garcia to hit two home runs in a WCWS game when she left the yard twice against No. 1 Oklahoma in game one to force an “if necessary” game later that day.

Brady also hit for a .339 batting average and was second on the team with 15 home runs and 53 RBI. Brady was also a member of Team USA in the 2022 Japan All-Star Series. She also ranks fifth on UCLA’s career slugging percentage list.

The weight of expectation comes with being in her family. She has embraced the extra attention, especially after her “Uncle Tommy” called her “the most dominant athlete in the Brady family … by far!”