Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. has signed an exclusive deal with Leaf Trading Cards.
“I couldn't be more excited about the partnership,” Hawkins Jr. told cllct via text message. “Getting to have your own trading cards is like a dream come true. Grateful for the partnership with Leaf.”
The deal will certainly make Hawkins Jr. one of Leaf’s highest-profile athletes. Leaf, which has become a major player in the name, image and likeness space for high school athletes and signed many prep stars to exclusive deals, only has a handful of college exclusives, company president Josh Pankow told cllct. However, Pankow expects that number will grow significantly in the next few seasons.
Hawkins Jr., who is a true freshman, and enrolled at OU in January, actually already signed a non-exclusive deal with Leaf upon graduating high school. He couldn’t sign in high school because his home state of Texas doesn’t allow for high school athletes to sign NIL deals.
But the true freshman has now added the exclusive tag. Having already previously built a relationship with Leaf though, is what allowed this deal to be easily completed in the middle of the season.
Following Jackson Arnold’s struggles against Tennessee, Hawkins Jr. played much of the second half against the Volunteers and then started last week, leading the Sooners to a victory over Auburn.
Leaf reached out to Hawkins Jr. following the Tennessee game Sept. 21. Additionally, after Hawkins Jr.'s performance against the Vols, Leaf sold out of his “Week 4 Leaf Metal Collegiate Star card.”
“He's going to be a lot more of a household name,” Pankow said.
On Oct. 4, Hawkins Jr. and his family visited the Leaf facility in Texas, located about 15 minutes away from where he grew up, to complete the deal, which was also facilitated by Network Athletics.
"Connecting (Hawkins Jr.) with the top sports card producer, based in his home state of Texas? It just makes sense," said Network Athletics CEO Justin Giangrande.
Hawkins Jr. will have cards that are both signed with sticker autographs and unsigned. Those cards will mostly be featured in upcoming football products such as 2024 Leaf Trinity Football, 2024 Heroes & Prospects Football, the 2024 Pro Set Pure Football and more.
His cards will also be featured in future multi-sport products. This is a big selling point to young athletes, Pankow said.
“You might open a box where you get a Lionel Messi autograph or a Steph Curry autograph, and you get a Michael Hawkins,” Pankow said. “That's really cool for them to be able to be in a product with some of the greatest sports players of our generation. ... They usually get a big kick out of that.”
Hawkins Jr. will then have a few online exclusive cards featuring the biggest moments of his collegiate career.
Additionally, he’s going to do social media collaborations with Leaf, going to the office a few times per year to produce content.
“Typically on guys like that that we sign, usually what we'll do is kind of wait until they become the starter,” Pankow said. “Quite frankly, it typically doesn't happen that fast. Most of these true freshmen do not start right away, especially if they're at the Oklahomas or Ohio States, Georgias, Tennessees.
“We don't want to sit around and wait. We want to react pretty fast with stuff like this. So, we saw he was a starter, and immediately decided, hey, this is a guy that we're willing to really invest in heavily now, because we've been very confident about his future.”
But for Leaf, Hawkins Jr. is the perfect prototype for the exclusive deals the company is targeting. Leaf doesn’t own any NFL rights, so signing seniors such as Carson Beck or Shedeur Sanders wouldn’t make sense, Pankow said, because it would only be a four-month exclusive.
For Hawkins Jr., as he becomes a star on the gridiron, Leaf hopes to make him a star in the trading card space.
“We're really trying to build engagement with a lot of these high school and college kids that we have exclusive deals with, so that the end collector, the end consumer, knows who these guys are,” Pankow said. “We've now made a long-term commitment to him because we believe in him."
Pankow has admittedly become a big Oklahoma fan now, despite Leaf’s headquarters being in Lewisville, Texas. This Saturday, when the Longhorns faced Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl, the animosity will extend beyond the field.
Arch Manning and Quinn Ewers both have exclusive deals with Panini.
“We've got the Oklahoma guy. You've got the Texas guy,” Pankow said. “It's all in good fun. And that's what cards should be, it should be fun. It's just like, you know, when your friend is an Oklahoma fan and you're a Texas fan, you know, you kind of talk trash, but at the end of the day, it's all in good fun.”
Matt Liberman is a reporter and editor for cllct.