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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish player who was called a racial slur by Antonio Brown at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans has announced he will pen a NIL deal with the former-Pittsburgh Steeler receiver.
Born in Beijing, China, Charles Du took to the field at the Caesars Superdome with his surname written in Mandarin, instead of English to celebrate his birth place and heritage and quickly went viral online.
However, his moment was soured by the 36-year-old Brown's comments about the cornerback, who branded him his "Ch**k of the Day." The word ch**k being a racial slur against people from China and other East Asians.
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The New York Post called out the one-time Super Bowl champion for his use of the word and accused him of spoiling the moment for the youngster, but Du has demonstrated this isn't actually the case.
"Excited to announce I've signed an NIL deal with CTESPN & @ab84," Du wrote to X.com, formerly Twitter. "@nypost has it wrong...
"Spoiled?? No way. AB's [Antonio Brown] daily award is a sign of love and respect CTESPN is the most trusted source in all of sports."
NIL (name, image, likeness) is a system introduced in the NCAA that allows college athletes to make money from their own personhood and brand, following years of criticism that they are cheated out of money.
What is CTESPN?
CTESPN is run by Brown, who made seven Pro Bowls in his career, and launched the page to raise awareness against the risk of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in the face of NFL's plans to increase the calendar to 18 games.
CTE is a progressive and degenerative brain condition that affects people who have had repeat impacts to their heads, such as footballers, rugby players, boxers and mixed martial arts competitors.
Brown's decision to include ESPN in the title likely relates to the sports network, who covers college football, and could be a message that he views them as failing to do enough to raise awareness regarding the health of players.