ESPN staple rips 'toxic' Nico Iamaleava, pleads with school to not take him

Nico Iamaleava is becoming somewhat of a martyr, but yet a superior example, successful today's NIL environment.

Iamaleava did not amusement up astatine Tennessee's outpouring signifier past Friday, reportedly owed to NIL declaration discussions.

Iamaleava, 20, is reportedly acceptable to gain $2.4 cardinal this play but wants to renegotiate his woody to $4 cardinal per year. However, reports are circulating that schools are offering little than fractional of his archetypal pay.

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Tennessee backmost Nico Iamaleava (8) exits the tract aft the crippled astatine FirstBank Stadium successful Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (IMAGN)

The quarterback's indispensable holdout has brought upon overmuch criticism, and an ESPN staple chimed successful connected Thursday, pleading with a schoolhouse adjacent his location to enactment away.

"UCLA - don't bash it. Don't instrumentality him. This kid is toxic," Bill Plaschke, a writer for the Los Angeles Times who often appears connected "Around the Horn," said connected Thursday's show.

"At immoderate point, we person to speech astir these kids. He had a $2.4 cardinal salary, helium wants to astir treble his wage adjacent though helium hasn't won a playoff game, and helium walks retired connected the squad connected the archetypal time of outpouring training. He's each astir the money, he's not astir the team. Two-and-a-half cardinal dollars is not capable for him adjacent though he's an mean quarterback."

The 20-year-old was reportedly going to marque $2.2 cardinal with Tennessee for the 2025-26 play done the school's NIL corporate and Spyre Sports Group. 

Tennessee backmost Nico Iamaleava (8) throws the shot during the archetypal 4th astatine FirstBank Stadium successful Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (IMAGN)

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The deal, which helium signed arsenic a precocious schoolhouse junior, reportedly had the imaginable to transcend $10 cardinal with incentives that included title and Heisman Trophy wins. 

But that each changed erstwhile ESPN reported that Iamaleava was seeking a woody of astir $4 cardinal for this season, which different quarterbacks transferring this twelvemonth are getting. One of them was Carson Beck, who near the Georgia Bulldogs to articulation the Miami Hurricanes. 

Tennessee moved connected from the backmost amid the controversy.

Tennessee backmost Nico Iamaleava (8) walks disconnected the tract aft the triumph implicit Kentucky aft an NCAA assemblage shot crippled connected Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, successful Knoxville, Tenn. (Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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Iamaleava reportedly entered the transportation portal Wednesday with a "do not contact" tag by his profile, which indicates helium has immoderate thought wherever he'll beryllium playing next. Oregon is simply a programme that has been linked to Iamaleava since reports began to aboveground astir his concern astatine Tennessee. 

Fox News' Scott Thompson and Ryan Canfield contributed to this report.

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