To say that Taylor Martinez has had an eventful first year at Nebraska would be putting it lightly. Oh, sure, Martinez racked up some impressive numbers and ripped off some mind-boggling touchdown runs, but he was also the center of some late-season controversy that lingered through Nebraska’s Holiday Bowl loss to Washington.
In an effort to fend off any additional distraction, Martinez’s father, Casey Martinez, and Nebraska’s athletic department have decided to end their licensing agreement with Martinez’s company, Corn Fed Apparel, Inc.
Nebraska was the first school to enter into a partnership with Corn Fed in June of 2007, one year before Taylor committed to play at Nebraska. Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa eventually joined into licensing agreements as well. Martinez will maintain his relationship with those three schools.
“Both parties agreed that it would be prudent to no longer have a licensing relationship between the University of Nebraska and Corn Fed,” said AD Tom Osborne. “Both the Martinez family and the University of Nebraska feel this decision is best for all parties, and specifically in helping limit distractions for Taylor and the football program.”
Interestingly, Osborne also said that his staff recently learned that Taylor Martinez is registered as owner of the Corn Fed trademark and the CornFed.com website domain name, but has no ownership in the company and, therefore, no NCAA rules have been broken.
If that makes any sense.
Either way, this is a pretty easy decision. No, Martinez technically isn’t doing anything wrong (that we know of), but he’s also not doing his son any favors by associating with the university -- even if he signed the agreement before Taylor committed.
After all, we’ve seen what can happen when family does get involved in a player’s college career, whether directly or indirectly.
