How can Tebow be a Nike spokesman and get away with it?

I don't think Tebow is a spokeman. It appears SPARQ is using the score Tebow attained at one of their camps as a threshold by which a high school or college kid can judge his score.

For instance, let's say I run a camp for high school players. Can I put in a pamphlet that Tebow (or any current college player) attended this same camp? I'm not compensating him, but am using his likeness to sell my camp.

 

I guess as long as Tebow's not getting paid for it, it passes NCAA muster.

He should be the spokesman for the Wonderbra, though.

 

Because the pic on the web site is not Tim Tebow:

 

And the name? Is there an extra letter in there somewhere in three-point type that we can't read to make that kosher?

 

Sparq would contend that they are no more using Tebow's likeness for a commercial purpose than the Gainesville Sun is when they report his stats in the paper, but rather they are publishing his score for informational purposes (and thus, that they are protected by the 1st amendment).

Of course, a case can be made that the the site's use of his "Sparq score" is an implicit use of Tebow's likeness for commercial purposes.

 

I think you can put a photo of current players in an actual game photo in a camp brochure but cannot use individual photos and their names to promote the camp. It can be the "Urban Meyer Football Camp" but "not featuring Tim Tebow" with a stand-alone photo of him.

There's also a movement afoot to change this rule, I think, to let athletes receive some compensation for use of their likeness.