More than 50 Tennessee Vols football players enter into exclusive NIL agreement

The University of Tennessee football program, with Josh Heupel taking a very forward-thinking approach, continues to push for increasing opportunities for its student-athletes as it pertains to Name, Image & Likeness opportunities.

Sunday night, the Volunteers and Knoxville-based companies The DW Designs and Spyre Sports Group announced an exclusive partnership on an exclusive T-shirt.

The “Attack” shirt, a play off of Heupel's aggressive, uptempo approach to the game, is contracted to financially benefit all Tennessee football players who opt-in to the agreement.

“Some of the outside experiences that players have a chance to take advantage of are really important,” Heupel said at Southeastern Conference Media Days. “I go back to my playing days and the opportunities that I would have had, that I did have, as soon as my playing career was done. Those are unique opportunities that have an opportunity to help you grow as a player, too.

Each player who signs the agreement with DW and Spyre – at present, per sources more than 50 members of the Volunteers' football team have signed the deal – gets a guaranteed percentage from sale of the shirt.

Sources confirmed to FootballScoop that among the Vols' players already to agree to terms are quarterback Joe Milton and siblings along the offensive line, Cade and Cooper Mays.

Per a portion of the statement that announced the first-of-its-kind deal, “The DW Designs and Spyre Sports Group are partnering with Tennessee Football athletes for this historic release in a team-wide endorsement featuring our original Tennessee Attack design. Inspired by the team's pursuit to always play fearless and "Attack" whether on offense or defense.”

The “Attack” design also is applicable to any The DW Designs merchandise, which could include hats, Koozies and stickers, with revenues also again providing a percentage to Volunteers players opted into the agreement.