First Idaho athlete signs an NIL deal. He will endorse this new Boise restaurant.
A former Centennial High and North Idaho College basketball star became the first Idaho athlete to take advantage of the NCAA’s new loosened restrictions for name, image and likeness (NIL) last week.
Delveion Jackson, who will play Division I basketball next season at Canisius College in Buffalo, will endorse Amina’s African Sambusas, a new restaurant on the Boise Bench at 6555 W. Overland Road.
Jackson tapped a childhood friendship to make the state’s first foray into a new market that allows college athletes to make, and profit from, endorsements for the first time.
He’s known Chubangu Mnongerwa, the restaurant’s owner, since junior high school, and the two have remained close friends ever since. They saw a natural partnership when Mnongerwa decided to open a restaurant and the NCAA loosened its amateurism rules July 1.
“It just comes down to the friendship that Chubangu and I have had, and just looking out for each other,” Jackson said. “He’s been there for me through some of the adversities that I’ve faced, and vice versa, the same for me to him.”
“... That’s why I chose them. The closeness and connectivity was already there. I didn’t have to make a huge statement type of letter, ‘Let me speak to the manager.’ We already had those ties.”
Jackson and Mnongerwa both declined to reveal the terms of the endorsement.
Amina’s first started serving sambusas in 2012, making a name for itself at the Boise Public Market and the 34th Street Market. It stays “true to recipes passed down from generation to generation,” its website says, while featuring Kenyan, Somalian, Ethiopian and Tanzanian options.
Mnongerwa took over the business from his mother, Amina, three years ago and opened the restaurant with an expanded menu July 3.
“At the market, we usually just sold sambusas. Now it’s a variety,” Mnongerwa said. “We sell four different types of sambusas instead of just the two. We sell rice, we sell pasta, we sell fufu.”
Jackson said he will promote the restaurant on his social media accounts, where he has nearly 1,000 followers each on both Twitter and Instagram. He also will serve as a part of Amina’s promotions on the restaurant’s own social media accounts.
Mnongerwa plays football at Southern Oregon University, so he stayed up to date with the NCAA rule changes and decided to experiment with a new way to market his restaurant.
“In America, people are used to Mexican food and everything,” Mnongerwa said. “This whole, entire, brand-new African food is coming in, especially in a community like Boise where we don’t have too many out there. It helps us spread the word that we’re here and bring people by.”
Jackson has yet to publish any posts, but he said he participated in a photo shoot with the restaurant and those posts will come soon. He departed for Buffalo on Wednesday and will remain in contact with the restaurant for any promotion it needs.
“It’s not going to be something where I have to miss school to do a promotion or anything like that,” Jackson said. “I can definitely just post to my social media things that are going on.
“I have a shirt from them, as well. So every now and then with a post I can say, ‘There are new items on the menu,’ things of that sort.”
Jackson graduated from Centennial in 2017 after leading the Patriots to a second-place finish at the 5A state tournament and earning first-team All-Idaho honors. He originally signed with UC Davis, playing in 18 games as a freshman. He later returned to Idaho, playing in five games with North Idaho College last spring during a coronavirus-shortened season before signing with Canisius of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in June.
Jackson said the NCAA’s name, image and likeness rules grant athletes a new level of freedom. He added he’s working on a couple other deals in addition to his endorsement of Amina’s.
“Obviously, the athletes at those bigger Power 5 schools, there is an advantage there,” Jackson said. “However, now everybody has a chance. We have that opportunity now to take action if we want to.”
EAGLE GRAD, BYU FOOTBALL PLAYER GETS DEAL
BYU long snapper Austin Riggs joined Jackson in signing an NIL deal this week, endorsing Balmshot, a company in Eagle that makes all-natural lip balm and sells it in recycled shotgun shells.
Riggs and BYU’s Tyler Batty both signed with the company, making them the first BYU athletes to take advantage of new NIL opportunities, Utah television station KSL reported.
Riggs told KSL the company’s mission to hire employees with special needs appealed to him.
“It’s definitely a match made in heaven,” Riggs said. “It’s not just about making a couple of bucks. Balmshot has this awesome mission, and we have the same mission. We’re already on board with them, and it flows so smoothly.”
Riggs, a 2018 Eagle grad, played in eight games last season with BYU. He started as the Cougars’ long snapper on the punt team in their sixth game and held that role the rest of the season.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 4:48 PM.
