June 12, 2025 • 11 mins
Joe Knight, Executive Director of Dawgs Unleashed, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the new world of college athletics and paying athletes, the agency that can connect players with businesses for NIL, his background, and the recruiting impact.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Brood casting live from the R and R Foundation specialist
broadcast studio. Now back to Saftie and Digg powered by
Emerald Queen Casino, the betty and capital of the Northwest
on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
All right, boys that girls back here in a busy Thursday.
Bill Kruger will join at for courtesy of the Queen
Anne Beer Hall of the brand new Occidental Hall by
the way, opening up very very soon. I believe within
the next week to ten days that Puppy is going
to be public outside Luominfield, so check that out. We'll
talk to Bill at for Stanley Cup Hockey at five,
but joining us right now in the radio show. You know,
(00:37):
they say, Dick that Jed Fish is the man that's
most responsible for the future of Husky football, and that
is just not true at all. All the pressure in
the world is on this man's shoulders to make sure
that Washington football is getting what it needs commercial endorsement wise,
TV radio, social media. If and when U dub finds
(00:58):
themselves again playing for the National Chiefchampionship anytime soon, it's
this man that you'll be thinking. The new executive director
for Dogs Unleashed. Our friend Joe Night joining us on
the show.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Joe, how are you man? Softy dit I'm excellent, excited
to be chatting with you both, and what an intro
thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, listen, it's a heavy burden and there's only a
few men that can handle the pressure, and we know
that you are one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Joe, I think he said the same thing to my
He said the same thing to mine ear about two
years ago or too.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And then he quit. By the way, he couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Hack it, Bunny. If it goes well, blame it on me.
If it goes poorly, blame it on someone else.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Exactly, exactly. Well, let's let's first of all, talk about
what Dogs Unleashed is. I mean, I think by now
some people understand that the nil thing is getting moved
indoors inside UW's campus. You got a team responsible for
finding endorsements for players. But tell us more, tell people
what Dogs Unleashed is going to be all about.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, so this date's bad to August of twenty twenty four. Really,
when Pat Chun came to me and said, this landscape
is shifting, We're gonna need an in house unit to
represent our student athletes and third party nil. Do you
want to head that up? And I said, of course, obviously,
but what does that mean? And we spent the last
few months really shaping what this thing will So House
(02:20):
was finally passed, meaning that we'll finally and officially share
revenues with student athletes. But coming with that is stark
regulation to third party nil, which which how we know
it now is pay for play and philanthropic dollars going
to student athletes that will be outlawed come July one.
It is corporate sponsorship that will persist. And we've created
(02:43):
dogs unleash, this sort of internal, full service agency for
our student athletes to represent them in their pursuit of
third party NIL. And again that's getting with businesses big
and small, local, national, to find opportunities for compensation and
promotion and growth with our student athletes to go find
(03:04):
that third party NIL.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Joe, tell us about your background. Why did Pat Chun
go to Joe Knight to head this up? So?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I'm a Husky, I'm a lifer. I grew up in
the area. I went to you Dub and then after graduating,
I found a job at Seattle U and worked in
their athletics department and ran their corporate sponsorship portfolio, and
then four years ago, let's say, jumped on a fundraising
job at you dubb came over. But I've always just
kind of wanted to find opportunities to continue to grow
(03:34):
within the department. And I feel lucky that Pat tapped
me for this one. And I think it's probably a
little bit of my proximity to Husky Nation, my background
and corporate sponsorship, and my ability to work with our donors,
so a little bit of everything. But again, I feel
pretty darn lucky to be tapped to leave the summer Well, I.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Mean, look, we've got a sales team here at iHeart
Right that goes out and finds endorsements for guys like
me and Dick and Jackson, you know, Beury and Toyota,
the Ram, Taco Time, Lexus, you know whatever, higher Construction,
which are our clients. So hands off, by the way,
But is that basically what we're talking about is going
to be going on that You're going to have a
(04:13):
sales team and you can tell us how many people
who's going to be a part of it that will
be reaching out to the community making cold calls, going
after commercial endorsements for your players.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Exactly. And I think dating back to Montlake Futures where
they've been a bit hamstrung, is Hey, they're primarily they've
primarily been a philanthropic entity. They've gone out and fundraised
for nil We've all seen it through the memberships, through
major giving. They also aren't technically a part of the university,
and I think that's messy and so us being able
(04:47):
to bring this internally and say this is direct representation
of our student athletes. Hey, we want to take X
number of football players and go get them car deals.
We want to partner all of our student athletes with
the local hotel so they can put their parents, family
friends up when they're in town for games or matches.
This is our representative effort to go ensure that our
(05:07):
student athletes are a able to land lucrative and opportunistic partnerships,
be that they're safe in doing so. And see what's
probably the most exciting is they're leveraging the UB brand
and reach in doing so.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Joe tell us about the transfer of resources both from
Montlake Futures to now Dogs Unleased, and then also will
Dogs Unleash act purely as a marketing broker for the
athletic department for the students or will they be a
bank as well holding funds.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
No, so we will not hold fund So any monies
that the university and we're part of the university shares
with student athletes, that constitutes revenue sharing and that goes
into that twenty and a half million dollar tap. We're
talking about anything Dogs Unleashed does. We will broker deals,
We can help draft contracts and help execute those contracts
(05:59):
and get them through NIL go the clearing out, but
we cannot accept nor distribute fun. So this is all
agreements between entities and our student athletes. We're just here
as a safeguard and to represent and procure these opportunities
for them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Joe Knight, the new director of Doug's Unleash the in
house NIL program over at you dub is get in
formed to find commercial endorsements for players and not just football,
but everybody, right, I mean we're talking basketball, baseball, softball, golf, soccer,
the whole spiel. You guys will be representing everybody. But
tell us, Joe and I don't know what's allowed and
what's not allowed. If you're gonna if it's not allowed,
(06:38):
but you'll do it anyway. Just wink twice, okay, pal,
but just we'll keep it off for you. Are you
guys allowed to get involved in the recruiting process? For example,
if Jed's got a running back from Texas, that all right.
He's got his revenue sharing deal already in place with Jed,
he knows what the school is gonna pay him. But
you know, Billy Ray Jackson from down there and Houston area,
(07:01):
he's gonna he lit something something. He's gonna want a
couple of net Jet passes for his mom and dad,
or a hotel, or he's gonna want a new car.
He's gonna want, you know, a big old TV for
his condominium on Lake Union. Are you guys allowed to
be a part of the recruiting process and pursue endorsement
deals while kids are in high school?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes and no, we are allowed to be part of
the recruiting process. Dogs unleashed is certainly a talking point
throughout the recruiting process. We cannot recruit or promise third
party nil. Sorry I should say we can't promise third
party nil to recruit. What we can do and what
coach fish? What any of our coaches can do is
sit down with recruits in their families and say this
(07:42):
is what Dogs Unleashed has done. This is where the
corporate interests lie with Husky Athletics. We think that you,
as a student athlete profile well with brands X, Y,
and Z, and we can even say what we've been
able to put together with those brands in past. But no,
until a student athlete is enrolled as they student athlete
here we Dogs Unleashed cannot represent them in their pursuit
(08:04):
of third party nil. But you know my goal is
not for these corporate sponsorships we procure to die with
the when the student athletes graduate. We want renewable opportunities
because that is where this thing is going to be
dynamite for the Huskies. Is you think about Seattle our backyard.
I think these companies want to work with Huskies, and
we just want to be able to kind of recycle,
(08:27):
rinse and repeat and bring them just a new crop
of awesome, awesome promoters of their businesses year in and
year out.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Finally, Joe Soft, you mentioned cold call. Will you cold
call business and ask whether they're interested in participating with
any athlete or will you be more targeted. Will you
find an athlete that needs something and then go match
that corporate sponsor with that athlete.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We'll do both. There are broader strokes where hey, can
you help fifty one hundred all six hundred student athletes
in some capacity? There will also be we got to
take care of student athletes X, Y and Z and
find them opportunities to really engage with this community. I
will say, though, Dick, I don't think I'm ever cold
calling because we've got the Tie Club, We've got our
(09:11):
multimedia rights holder, Learfield, the Husky Sports Properties team, and
all those connections married where so much of our donor
base owns businesses, so much of the Husky Sports Properties
partnership base wants to get into nil and wants to
work with our student athletes. So for me, it's identifying
how do we leverage our student athletes, names, images, and
(09:33):
likenesses as a greater growth opportunity for the university at large.
So I think they marry pretty darn well.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So just quickly, if anybody has a business, they should
call you, they should email you. What's the best way
to get ahold of dogs unleashed? If they want to
be a part of this.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Absolutely. We've got a website, dogs Daft Unleashed dot com.
You can go to go Huskies dot com and you'll
find plenty of information about us. My info's on there.
Are team's info is on there. We're a team of
five and we're out hitting pavement, like you said, and
going to any businesses, any entities in Seattle that want
to partner with student athletes and that can be tast deals,
(10:09):
that can be deals in kind. You know, I mentioned
car dealerships, hotels, restaurants. Those are going to be some
of the categories there we have and we'll continue to
go after heavily.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All right, man, go get him great stuff and good luck.
We'll talk soon, buddy.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Appreciate it, man, absolutely, Dick Softy, thank you, Thank you
guys so much for you got.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Joe Knight from Dogs Unleashed. You got to look at
his Twitter profile picture. By the way, I didn't realize
he was only twelve years old. He's a young kid man,
but hey, he's aggressive. Right, that's great. So he said,
they got five people over there. They'll be working hard
to find deals and endorsements for players and not while
they're being recruited. Link wink. We'll see if that actually
doesn't happen around the country. But with the transfer portal,
(10:50):
the recruiting process is constance and they're gonna need to
be doing this just to get kids to stay on
campus from year to year. We'll get a break bill Krueger,
What the hell is going one? I want to man knows,
we'll find out. For courtesy of the Queen Anne Beer
Hall on ninety three three k j A r FL
Brood casting live from the R and R Foundation specialist
broadcast studio. Now back to Saftie and Digg powered by
Emerald Queen Casino, the betty and capital of the Northwest
on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
All right, boys that girls back here in a busy Thursday.
Bill Kruger will join at for courtesy of the Queen
Anne Beer Hall of the brand new Occidental Hall by
the way, opening up very very soon. I believe within
the next week to ten days that Puppy is going
to be public outside Luominfield, so check that out. We'll
talk to Bill at for Stanley Cup Hockey at five,
but joining us right now in the radio show. You know,
(00:37):
they say, Dick that Jed Fish is the man that's
most responsible for the future of Husky football, and that
is just not true at all. All the pressure in
the world is on this man's shoulders to make sure
that Washington football is getting what it needs commercial endorsement wise,
TV radio, social media. If and when U dub finds
(00:58):
themselves again playing for the National Chiefchampionship anytime soon, it's
this man that you'll be thinking. The new executive director
for Dogs Unleashed. Our friend Joe Night joining us on
the show.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Joe, how are you man? Softy dit I'm excellent, excited
to be chatting with you both, and what an intro
thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, listen, it's a heavy burden and there's only a
few men that can handle the pressure, and we know
that you are one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Joe, I think he said the same thing to my
He said the same thing to mine ear about two
years ago or too.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And then he quit. By the way, he couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Hack it, Bunny. If it goes well, blame it on me.
If it goes poorly, blame it on someone else.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Exactly, exactly. Well, let's let's first of all, talk about
what Dogs Unleashed is. I mean, I think by now
some people understand that the nil thing is getting moved
indoors inside UW's campus. You got a team responsible for
finding endorsements for players. But tell us more, tell people
what Dogs Unleashed is going to be all about.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, so this date's bad to August of twenty twenty four. Really,
when Pat Chun came to me and said, this landscape
is shifting, We're gonna need an in house unit to
represent our student athletes and third party nil. Do you
want to head that up? And I said, of course, obviously,
but what does that mean? And we spent the last
few months really shaping what this thing will So House
(02:20):
was finally passed, meaning that we'll finally and officially share
revenues with student athletes. But coming with that is stark
regulation to third party nil, which which how we know
it now is pay for play and philanthropic dollars going
to student athletes that will be outlawed come July one.
It is corporate sponsorship that will persist. And we've created
(02:43):
dogs unleash, this sort of internal, full service agency for
our student athletes to represent them in their pursuit of
third party NIL. And again that's getting with businesses big
and small, local, national, to find opportunities for compensation and
promotion and growth with our student athletes to go find
(03:04):
that third party NIL.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Joe, tell us about your background. Why did Pat Chun
go to Joe Knight to head this up? So?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I'm a Husky, I'm a lifer. I grew up in
the area. I went to you Dub and then after graduating,
I found a job at Seattle U and worked in
their athletics department and ran their corporate sponsorship portfolio, and
then four years ago, let's say, jumped on a fundraising
job at you dubb came over. But I've always just
kind of wanted to find opportunities to continue to grow
(03:34):
within the department. And I feel lucky that Pat tapped
me for this one. And I think it's probably a
little bit of my proximity to Husky Nation, my background
and corporate sponsorship, and my ability to work with our donors,
so a little bit of everything. But again, I feel
pretty darn lucky to be tapped to leave the summer Well, I.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Mean, look, we've got a sales team here at iHeart
Right that goes out and finds endorsements for guys like
me and Dick and Jackson, you know, Beury and Toyota,
the Ram, Taco Time, Lexus, you know whatever, higher Construction,
which are our clients. So hands off, by the way,
But is that basically what we're talking about is going
to be going on that You're going to have a
(04:13):
sales team and you can tell us how many people
who's going to be a part of it that will
be reaching out to the community making cold calls, going
after commercial endorsements for your players.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Exactly. And I think dating back to Montlake Futures where
they've been a bit hamstrung, is Hey, they're primarily they've
primarily been a philanthropic entity. They've gone out and fundraised
for nil We've all seen it through the memberships, through
major giving. They also aren't technically a part of the university,
and I think that's messy and so us being able
(04:47):
to bring this internally and say this is direct representation
of our student athletes. Hey, we want to take X
number of football players and go get them car deals.
We want to partner all of our student athletes with
the local hotel so they can put their parents, family
friends up when they're in town for games or matches.
This is our representative effort to go ensure that our
(05:07):
student athletes are a able to land lucrative and opportunistic partnerships,
be that they're safe in doing so. And see what's
probably the most exciting is they're leveraging the UB brand
and reach in doing so.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Joe tell us about the transfer of resources both from
Montlake Futures to now Dogs Unleased, and then also will
Dogs Unleash act purely as a marketing broker for the
athletic department for the students or will they be a
bank as well holding funds.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
No, so we will not hold fund So any monies
that the university and we're part of the university shares
with student athletes, that constitutes revenue sharing and that goes
into that twenty and a half million dollar tap. We're
talking about anything Dogs Unleashed does. We will broker deals,
We can help draft contracts and help execute those contracts
(05:59):
and get them through NIL go the clearing out, but
we cannot accept nor distribute fun. So this is all
agreements between entities and our student athletes. We're just here
as a safeguard and to represent and procure these opportunities
for them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Joe Knight, the new director of Doug's Unleash the in
house NIL program over at you dub is get in
formed to find commercial endorsements for players and not just football,
but everybody, right, I mean we're talking basketball, baseball, softball, golf, soccer,
the whole spiel. You guys will be representing everybody. But
tell us, Joe and I don't know what's allowed and
what's not allowed. If you're gonna if it's not allowed,
(06:38):
but you'll do it anyway. Just wink twice, okay, pal,
but just we'll keep it off for you. Are you
guys allowed to get involved in the recruiting process? For example,
if Jed's got a running back from Texas, that all right.
He's got his revenue sharing deal already in place with Jed,
he knows what the school is gonna pay him. But
you know, Billy Ray Jackson from down there and Houston area,
(07:01):
he's gonna he lit something something. He's gonna want a
couple of net Jet passes for his mom and dad,
or a hotel, or he's gonna want a new car.
He's gonna want, you know, a big old TV for
his condominium on Lake Union. Are you guys allowed to
be a part of the recruiting process and pursue endorsement
deals while kids are in high school?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes and no, we are allowed to be part of
the recruiting process. Dogs unleashed is certainly a talking point
throughout the recruiting process. We cannot recruit or promise third
party nil. Sorry I should say we can't promise third
party nil to recruit. What we can do and what
coach fish? What any of our coaches can do is
sit down with recruits in their families and say this
(07:42):
is what Dogs Unleashed has done. This is where the
corporate interests lie with Husky Athletics. We think that you,
as a student athlete profile well with brands X, Y,
and Z, and we can even say what we've been
able to put together with those brands in past. But no,
until a student athlete is enrolled as they student athlete
here we Dogs Unleashed cannot represent them in their pursuit
(08:04):
of third party nil. But you know my goal is
not for these corporate sponsorships we procure to die with
the when the student athletes graduate. We want renewable opportunities
because that is where this thing is going to be
dynamite for the Huskies. Is you think about Seattle our backyard.
I think these companies want to work with Huskies, and
we just want to be able to kind of recycle,
(08:27):
rinse and repeat and bring them just a new crop
of awesome, awesome promoters of their businesses year in and
year out.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Finally, Joe Soft, you mentioned cold call. Will you cold
call business and ask whether they're interested in participating with
any athlete or will you be more targeted. Will you
find an athlete that needs something and then go match
that corporate sponsor with that athlete.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We'll do both. There are broader strokes where hey, can
you help fifty one hundred all six hundred student athletes
in some capacity? There will also be we got to
take care of student athletes X, Y and Z and
find them opportunities to really engage with this community. I
will say, though, Dick, I don't think I'm ever cold
calling because we've got the Tie Club, We've got our
(09:11):
multimedia rights holder, Learfield, the Husky Sports Properties team, and
all those connections married where so much of our donor
base owns businesses, so much of the Husky Sports Properties
partnership base wants to get into nil and wants to
work with our student athletes. So for me, it's identifying
how do we leverage our student athletes, names, images, and
(09:33):
likenesses as a greater growth opportunity for the university at large.
So I think they marry pretty darn well.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So just quickly, if anybody has a business, they should
call you, they should email you. What's the best way
to get ahold of dogs unleashed? If they want to
be a part of this.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Absolutely. We've got a website, dogs Daft Unleashed dot com.
You can go to go Huskies dot com and you'll
find plenty of information about us. My info's on there.
Are team's info is on there. We're a team of
five and we're out hitting pavement, like you said, and
going to any businesses, any entities in Seattle that want
to partner with student athletes and that can be tast deals,
(10:09):
that can be deals in kind. You know, I mentioned
car dealerships, hotels, restaurants. Those are going to be some
of the categories there we have and we'll continue to
go after heavily.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
All right, man, go get him great stuff and good luck.
We'll talk soon, buddy.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Appreciate it, man, absolutely, Dick Softy, thank you, Thank you
guys so much for you got.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Joe Knight from Dogs Unleashed. You got to look at
his Twitter profile picture. By the way, I didn't realize
he was only twelve years old. He's a young kid man,
but hey, he's aggressive. Right, that's great. So he said,
they got five people over there. They'll be working hard
to find deals and endorsements for players and not while
they're being recruited. Link wink. We'll see if that actually
doesn't happen around the country. But with the transfer portal,
(10:50):
the recruiting process is constance and they're gonna need to
be doing this just to get kids to stay on
campus from year to year. We'll get a break bill Krueger,
What the hell is going one? I want to man knows,
we'll find out. For courtesy of the Queen Anne Beer
Hall on ninety three three k j A r FL
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