The John Ruiz family announces name, image, and likeness deals with UM football players
By DAVID LAKE Jan 17, 2022
Miami Hurricanes football players are going to be well compensated in 2022 through name, image, and likeness.
The John Ruiz family announced early Monday morning they are ready to announce their name, image, and likeness deals for UM athletes to promote his company, ‘LifeWallet’
Ruiz took to his twitter account to announce the amount of the deals:
– QB Tyler Van Dyke: $50k
– DT Leonard Taylor: $50k
– Striker Gilbert Frierson: $50k
– DB Kamren Kinchens: $42k
– DB James Williams: $42k
– TE Will Mallory: $42k
– OL Zion Nelson: $42k
– DE Jahfari Harvey: $36k
– WR Jacolby George: $36k
– TE Elijah Arroyo: $36k
– WR Romello Brinson: $36k
– RB Don Chaney Jr.: $30k
Local agencies run by Drew Rosenhaus and Malki Kawa, who represent some of the different players listed above, tweeted in support of these deals.
More deals are likely to come for Miami players as well. The Ruiz family has set aside $10 million for name, image, and likeness deals.
The Ruiz family has also pledged to give $2 million to the UM baseball program and to sponsor the Miami Immortals 7-on-7 team this spring and summer, helping them with hotel and travel expenses and more.
Ruiz is a lawyer who recently filed a lawsuit against the FHSAA for taking the position that high school athletes cannot be compensated via name, image, and likeness.
LifeWallet is powered by a proprietary algorithm developed by the Ruiz family called MSP Recovery, which according to Forbes is set to be worth more than $20 billion when the company becomes publicly traded.
Ruiz’s business model is primarily based on an algorithm that identifies medical claims that are paid by government-funded healthcare programs where it believes another insurer like an auto policy or worker’s compensation is actually responsible.
MSP then seeks to collect the full billed amount—there’s usually a huge difference between what the government paid and what the healthcare system asked for.
According to Forbes, MSP is operating under the assumption that 11%—or around $177 billion—of the $1.6 trillion spent on Medicare and Medicaid each year is actually related to accidents, fraud and misconduct, which means that somebody else should have paid the bill.
The Ruiz family has also vowed to build a new football stadium for UM that is closer to campus than Hard Rock Stadium. The family envisions a stadium that can set 50,000 seat facility that requires about 13 acres of land. The family reportedly plans to fund the entire project, which is expected to cost $350-$400 million.
The family is now hoping to build the facility at Tropical Park, which is three miles from the Hecht Athletic Center at UM and is off the Palmetto and Don Shula expressways.
The Ruiz family has a deep appreciation for the UM athletic department. John Ruiz is a UM alum while sons Johnny and Alex were past members of UM’s baseball team and daughter Cristy is a former Sunsation.