Bryce Young Partners With BodyArmor Ahead of NFL Draft
Former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young grew up in Southern California as a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. So his new partnership with BodyArmor, which will be announced Tuesday, carried some extra meaning because of the role Kobe Bryant played in building the brand. In 2014, Bryant lent his name, connections, expertise and capital to BodyArmor when he invested roughly $6 million for a 10% stake in the brand founded by Mike Repole and Lance Collins three years earlier.
“I will always be a Lakers fan and definitely a huge Kobe fan,” Young said in a phone interview. “To have that connection with BodyArmor which he was so involved in means the world to me.”
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Young will be featured by BodyArmor in national ad campaigns, local retail events, and digital and social media activations under a multi-year agreement. He joins the NFL’s Christian McCaffrey and CeeDee Lamb, the NBA’s Donovan Mitchell and Trae Young, MLB’s Ronald Acuna Jr., the USWNT’s Alex Morgan, the WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu and others in the brand’s endorsement portfolio.
In 2021, Coca-Cola bought BodyArmor at an $8 billion valuation, bringing it under the same corporate umbrella as Powerade. Gatorade controlled 69% of the U.S. sports drink market in 2022, according to Euromonitor, but Coca-Cola thinks it can be the market leader within five years. BodyArmor’s and Powerade’s combined market share was 29% last year.
The 2023 NFL draft kicks off Thursday night and will likely unfold differently than the hundreds of mock drafts that have been written leading up to it. But one near-certainty is the Carolina Panthers picking Young first overall; the current betting odds are 1/20, according to DraftKings. The first pick carries a contract slot value of $41 million over four years, including a $27 million signing bonus.
Young is taking the hype in stride. “Whenever my name is called, I’m focused on being the best version of myself and ready to give my all to the franchise that takes a chance on me,” he said.
Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner and the quarterback for a perennial national champion contender, was a hot commodity for NIL deals, partnering with Beats, Celsius, Dr Pepper, Fanatics, Dollar Shave Club and NOBULL. Also, he was the first college athlete to work with Nissan through an NIL agreement, as part of the auto brand’s Nissan Heisman House campaign in 2022.
The 21-year-old has leaned on Patriots QB Mac Jones, the quarterback he succeeded at Alabama, for advice on and off the field. “Mac preached having a good balance and making sure you keep the main thing the main thing,” Young said. “It’s important for me to make sure things on the business side do not take away from football.”
Young has hired CAA to represent him for his playing contract, while Athletes First handles his marketing deals.
Young is not the only former Alabama quarterback making his mark this month. Jalen Hurts, who spent three years in Tuscaloosa before transferring to Oklahoma for his senior year, recently signed a five-year, $255 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles that gives him the highest average salary in the history of the NFL. Hurts was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft. “I watched a lot of his tapes when I first got to college,” Young said, “and seeing the success he has had in the NFL has been super inspiring for me.”
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