PorkRinds.com Showcases Exceptional Football Plays Through Weekly NIL Deals
In the world of savory snacks, Rudolph Foods stands tall as one of the globe's premier producers of pork rinds, boasting a lineup of popular sub-brands, including Southern Recipe Small Batch, Lee's Pig Skins and Pepe's El Original.
This year, Rudolph Foods has taken its love for pig skins to the college football field with a new NIL campaign that shines a spotlight on the unsung heroes of the gridiron.
Each week of the regular season, Rudolph Foods' PorkRinds.com selected a "Pig Skin Hero of the Week" winner - an offensive or defensive lineman. Each weekly winner is chosen for having made an extraordinary play on the field, particularly one that goes beyond what is expected from their position. In addition to deals with the athletes on a weekly basis, PorkRinds.com partnered with Mike Golic Jr. to support the campaign and weekly winners via his own social media pages.
Each winner secures a one-off NIL deal with PorkRinds.com and is shipped a custom trophy, several bags of pork rind snacks and financial compensation in return for a social media post celebrating their win.
So far, twelve winners have been chosen:
- Week 1: Amarie Jones, Bethune–Cookman University
- Week 2: Kobe Hilton, Miami University
- Week 3: Tyleik Williams, Ohio State University
- Week 4: DeWayne Carter, Duke University
- Week 5: Jelani Stafford, University of Connecticut
- Week 6: Chris Hardie, Jacksonville State University
- Week 7: Sedrick Van Pran, University of Georgia
- Week 8: Nolan Rucci, University of Wisconsin
- Week 9: Dani Dennis-Sutton, Penn State University
- Week 10: Nazir Stackhouse, University of Georgia
- Week 11: Kenneth Grant, University of Michigan
- Week 12: Derrick Moore, University of Michigan
Each regular season winner is also eligible to win the "Pig Skin Hero of the Year," which will be determined by a fan vote on the PorkRinds.com website next week. The year-end winner will receive an extra special trophy, pork rinds products for themselves and their position group, and more prizing.
"Pork rinds are the unsung hero of the snack food aisle, just like the linemen on the football field. We see the 'Pig Skin Hero of the Week' program as an opportunity to celebrate hardworking players who get the job done," commented Mark Singleton, Vice President of Marketing at PorkRinds.com.
Bespoke Sports & Entertainment worked with NIL platform Icon Source to facilitate the campaign.
"The PorkRinds.com campaign is special because of the quick turnarounds needed to facilitate each deal within a week," said Mick Hamilton, Vice President of Operations at Icon Source. "Capitalizing on exciting moments of sport is what moves us as fans, and this campaign has allowed us to relive these moments. A big thank you to our former teammate Lindsay Weisbord and intern Braydn Szczepaniak at Icon Source – we couldn’t have gotten this done without them."
PorkRinds.com will announce the Pig Skin Hero of the Year and the winning athlete's social media pages once the fan vote is complete.
"This program has been a great way to show some love to the players who don't always get the attention they deserve," said John Aceti of Bespoke Sports & Entertainment. "The PorkRinds.com team had a vision for this, and it's been amazing to see it come to life like this. Pork rinds and pig skin heroes, who doesn't love that?"
