Hendon Hooker, from Dudley High School, should be a Heisman Hopeful, as he enters the 2022 college football season, as the top QB, at the University of Tennessee/UT…He is always putting the work in, and he was up at 5am this morning, and going right to work, as is his usual game plan…..
Hendon Hooker, the son of Alan and Wendy Hooker, and the brother of Alston Hooker, and lest we forget his sister Nile, she is a big family influence too(see more below)…
#Vols QB Hendon Hooker (@henhook2) said he was up at 5 AM this morning, worked out at the facility, showered at 5:30 AM, then hopped on a plane to the SEC Media Days.
His work ethic had been instilled in him at a young age. pic.twitter.com/39ZuDtOjtS
— Kellyanne Stitts (@KellyanneStitts) July 21, 2022
More on Hendon Hooker, at www.247sports.com:
For Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker, NIL is a family affair
from Chris Hummer
Hendon Hooker needed a bit of help. To understand why, here’s what a typical morning can look like for Tennessee’s starting quarterback: A 5 a.m. wakeup followed by a throwing session, film breakdown, a meeting with coaches, lifting with his teammates, an appearance and then often 30 minutes to sign things. By the time all that is complete, it’s 11 a.m. and he has a full day of classes ahead of him.
With all of that and more occurring in the name, image and likeness era, Hooker turned to a natural source to ease his workload – family.
His older sister, Nile, always assisted Hendon growing up. With dreams of being an on-camera reporter, she used to do media training with Hendon to ready him for the demands of being a high-profile recruit. As a social media assistant for the Atlanta Hawks, Nile tried to boost Hendon’s social media presence when he was the starting quarterback at Virginia Tech.
So, when it became official college players could benefit from name, image and likeness last July, Nile stepped in once again to assist her brother.
“I said, ‘OK Hendon, I’ll fill in the gap as your liaison,” Nile told 247Sports. “After I talked to a couple of guys for him, he said, ‘OK, I need you to do this all the time.’”
Flash forward a year and Hendon and Nile are in rather different positions. Hendon, 24, is a super senior drawing preseason All-American hype. Nile, for her part, took a job as a client service manager at the marketing agency The Famillie, which represents those in sports and entertainment.
This made theirs a natural partnership. Hendon needed help managing NIL and social media, and Nile had the requisite skills to do so.
“She’s setting up all my bookings and engagements,” Hendon said. “I couldn’t appreciate her more.”
The arrangement did take some adjusting, especially on the social media side of things. Nile said Hendon is a private person. Not only was he hesitant to have Nile take over his social media – “Don’t look at my DMs,” he told Nile – but Hendon also rarely posted. Hendon deleted his apps ahead of football season, something Nile had to convince him to avoid.
Eventually they settled in a place where Hendon would keep his apps while Nile would help Hendon create content and come up with captions. Hendon would keep the power of the post button.
Last January, Hendon had just over 12,000 followers on Instagram. He currently sits at 33,741, nearly 200% growth in 18 months. His Twitter account has seen a similar spike.
“Whenever I’m talking to brands, they want to know analytics, engagement, how many followers does he have, how many likes is he getting on this type of post,” Nile said. “And I had to stress that to him because he’s so private. He was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.’ And I said, ‘You have to. This is the new way.’”
That’s the other aspect of Nile’s role working with Hendon: Helping him acquire deals.
Part of Nile’s job with The Famillie involves travel and consulting with several brands who work with the company’s clients. And while she’s holding those meetings, she’ll often mention that her brother is a quarterback at Tennessee.
In the last year Nile has secured Hendon deals with Municipal (Mark Wahlberg’s clothing brand), Krystal Restaurants and speaking engagements at larger churches in the state, among other things.
Ask Hendon if NIL made it easier for him to return to school instead of testing the NFL waters, and he’ll quickly admit that it does. But his sister’s presence also made it much easier to deal with the football, school and NIL responsibility triumvirate, which in July will see Hendon travel to Times Square for a photo shoot, campus for classes and likely Atlanta for SEC Media Days.
To Nile, who helps her brother but does not serve as his agent, this family assistance is a must for high-profile athletes who hope to have success in the NIL world. Without the help, athletes would basically have to work three full-time jobs.
“It’d be such a trying task to do both (football) and (NIL),” Nile said.
