How Syracuse players spent their first big paycheck: ‘It made me feel like I did something right’

Syracuse, N.Y. — When Da’Metrius Weatherspoon got his first sizable paycheck as a football player, he doesn’t remember getting anything for himself. Not right away.
Syracuse’s starting right tackle chose to pay the monthly mortgage and a few credit card bills — his mother’s.
He decided to take care of monthly car bills, moving expenses and tuition payments for his three sisters.
They could have taken care of those bills on their own, Weatherspoon said, but it was a chance to make life easier for the most important people in his life.
“It was the opportunity to say, ‘Yo, I got you,’ ” Weatherspoon said. “All the bread that you put to the side each month for rent, spend it on yourself. I got you this time.”
Weatherspoon said he called his mom, Kim Hollis, and initially joked that something bad had happened. Then he told her he was sending her something, creating some anticipation, and quickly hung up the phone.
Hollis said she nearly had a panic attack when she tried calling back and her son wouldn’t answer. He finally did after he’d transferred about $4,000 to her, an amount large enough that it also temporarily locked his bank account.
Weatherspoon grew up in an apartment. His mother bought her first home when he was a freshman in college, fulfilling a promise she’d made to her children to buy a home.
It was important to help his mother, Weatherspoon said, because he saw how much effort she made to provide for him and his sisters.
Hollis worked two — and occasionally three — jobs in order to pay the family’s bills.
She cleaned homes, worked in day care and took retail jobs in stores like Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret. There were occasions, she said, when the combination led to her working around the clock.
That meant she wasn’t around as often as Weatherspoon might have liked. It was only as he got older that he understood why.
“He’d always say, ‘You work a lot,’ ” said Hollis, who often bought board games at Christmas because she could make a single gift feel like a treat for the entire family.
Weatherspoon doesn’t remember hearing his mother complain about her workload. He doesn’t remember her ever showing weariness.
“When she got back, it’s never like she was distant or she got tired,” Weatherspoon said. “She’d come back and it was, ‘Hey how are ya’ll doing? You hungry?’ Still cooking, always making ends meet. You wouldn’t know things were hard until you got to a specific age.
“The one thing I’ll say about mothers is they know how to mask it. They know how to mask a struggle. You would not even know.”
With the extra wiggle room in her budget, Hollis treated herself to her first Coach purse.
“I have it with me every day,” she said. “I have it with me right now. … It made me feel like I did something right as a single parent.”
Eventually, Weatherspoon said, he did splurge on a few things for himself. He bought a video game console. He bought himself about eight pairs of sneakers. He wears a necklace with a glittering spoon on it, a reference to his nickname.
Nothing, though, has felt quite as rewarding as that first purchase.
“It felt great,” Weatherspoon said. “It was like, oh, this is how it feels to be a provider?”
It’s a feeling that is only recently possible for college athletes thanks to rule changes that have been forced on schools.
The changes began with schools allowing outside organizations to pay athletes under the rationale (often false) that it was in exchange for the use of their name, image and likeness.
This year, for the first time, colleges are paying athletes directly. Syracuse is paying the maximum allowed, close to $20.5 million, to members of its football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and lacrosse programs.
Weatherspoon declined to say exactly how much he’s making this season. So did the other players on the team who were asked by Syracuse.com.
But the money has created new freedoms and opportunities, chances to take care of needs and wants, for athletes themselves and those they care about.
Family first
Running back Yasin Willis also said he used his first payment as a chance to pay back his family.
After wrapping up a shift at work in May 2024, Harold Willis made a typical call to his son.
He noticed Yasin had a different tone in his voice. The running back asked his father if he needed any help paying the mortgage.
“I’m like, ‘Well, what kind of question is that?’ ” Harold said. “Nah, I don’t need no help paying the mortgage.”
Willis wanted to help anyway. He paid off the rest of the $90,000 mortgage owed on the house that his father had bought in South Jersey three years earlier.
It would’ve taken Harold about 10 years to pay that off.
“I almost shed a tear, I’m not gonna lie,” Harold said. “You don’t expect that from your kids. You don’t expect anything from them besides trying to be great. That’s all I want for him, is to try to be a better man than I am. And this guy is showing up.”
After buying the house in October 2021, Harold remembers Yasin running routes in the backyard grass.
It was a big difference from what Yasin was accustomed to for most of his childhood, which was spent in an apartment building in Newark, New Jersey, Harold’s hometown.
Yasin moved in with an uncle in Palisades Park in eighth grade because his father’s job keeps him on the road for eight months of the year.
“Newark is dangerous, without a doubt, and it sucks the soul out of every positive thing that it possibly can,” Harold said. “And if you don’t watch your children, they tend to fall victim out there. And that wasn’t gonna be (Yasin’s) story.”
“I didn’t really want to be there,” Yasin said of Newark. “Growing up, your community and your environment, seeing the same thing every day and seeing people not really living right. I had my own motivation. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here, and I definitely didn’t want my parents to spend the rest of their life there.”
Yasin didn’t get to live in the home in South Jersey as a child, but it’s a source of pride that his father worked hard enough to make it happen.
The family has upgraded from an apartment to a 3,000-square foot, three-story house with 4.5 bathrooms, four bedrooms, a backyard, a finished basement and a complete attic.
“Kudos to my Pops,” Yasin said. “He’s a hard-working man. It’s all we ever wanted. Upstairs, downstairs, backyard. It was amazing to me.”
Willis also splurged on three pairs of shoes — Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton and Nike — but said the most memorable money he spent was on his family.
“It felt good to actually be able to help with your own money,” Yasin said. “It’s kind of like I’m grown up now. It’s a little scary. But I’m glad I’m here and I’m able to help.”
Cars and trucks
Syracuse starting center Austin Collins got his first car in high school. His dad made a deal with him in middle school, pledging a Jeep Wrangler — his dream car — if he earned a college scholarship and a free college education.
Collins earned a handful of offers from midwestern schools including one from Louisville, where he started his college career.
Collins was 260 pounds when he signed with Louisville. He is 305 pounds now. The Jeep had grown a little tight. With his first major paycheck, he upgraded to a black Dodge Ram 1500, which he drove to Syracuse from his home in Ohio.
“I don’t really get taller,” Collins said. “I get wider in this sport at this point. So, I needed a little more room in the cabin.”
Despite the personal upgrade, Collins said making the trade was surprisingly difficult because of the effort he put in to secure the Jeep.
“It’s funny,” Collins said about making the trade. “There’s a lot of sentimental value to cars.”
Cars have always meant something in Collins’ family. His dad grew up working for Jeep and now works for Ford.
“There’s times he’d come home with the fastest things they make,” Collins said. “Now he tells me never to get in the automotive industry working because that can be tough. But I just love cars and motors.”
Collins was one of a number of Syracuse players who prioritized transportation with their first paychecks.
Others opted for flashier rides.
TJ Ferguson, a starting guard who transferred to Syracuse from Florida State, bought himself a BMW, and gave his old car to his sister.
Linebacker Gary Bryant III bought a Mercedes-Benz AMG.
His choice, he said, was complicated by the fact that he arrived at the dealership with almost no credit history, limiting his choices. That won’t be the case for him moving forward.
“It’s a nice car,” said Bryant, who said he saved the bulk of his money. “And it was one of the only ones they’d let me finance.”
Starting defensive tackle Dion “Tank” Wilson opted to lease a Nissan Pathfinder, saying he wanted to remain conservative with his spending. He paid the first few months of the lease immediately.
Getting ahead of his payment was important, he said.
He likes to see money in his bank account. He likes to know that if there’s another purchase he wants to make in any given month, the car payment won’t get in the way.
The purchase allowed him to give his previous car, a 2016 Chrysler 200, to his mother. He is also helping his sister pay tuition to attend nursing school.
“I pay two car notes,” Wilson said. “That’s my mom. My mom is my everything. Football isn’t going to be there forever, so for me this is an opportunity to get ahead on things. Car notes, bills, stuff like that. Take care of my mom, my sister, my lady. It’s really just me being financially literate with my money.”
Savings and investments
Syracuse head coach Fran Brown has said publicly that he requires his players to listen to lectures about financial literacy and save a substantial portion of their paychecks.
Most of the players that Syracuse.com spoke with indicated they are saving or investing the majority of their money.
Running back Will Nixon said he invested most of his money in stocks. He called himself a passive investor but directed his money to a few spots.
“I’m a business guy,” Nixon said. “I put a little bit in the S&P 500, NVIDIA, Palantir. I’m a stock guy. I can’t spend $10,000 — no offense to anyone that does — on a chain knowing I can put it in the stock market and get like 10 percent back.”
Tight end Dan Villari said he invested the bulk of his money in the stock market.
Unlike Nixon he does not follow it closely.
Villari said he has a long-time friend who works in finance whom he trusts with his investments.
“He keeps track of that stuff and I just focus on ball,” Villari said. “It’s a great deal, and I trust him.”
Like Villari, Syracuse freshman Byron Washington said he is saving the majority of his money and has worked to ensure he’s getting advice from people he trusts.
Bryant said that given the time commitment required to play college football, his money is sitting in a savings account waiting for the offseason when he plans to sit down with a financial adviser.
“Right now, all my focus is on football,” Bryant said.
Chains, golf clubs, vacations and purses
Safety Devin Grant arrives at every Syracuse game in a blazer with headphones over his ears and a diamond-filled chain around his neck.
The chain says “Showtime,” a nod to his Instagram username turned nickname at Buffalo.
A chunk of Grant’s first paycheck went toward purchasing his trademark accessory. After buying the chain, he said, he bought some clothes and gave some money to his parents.
Grant’s parents took the six-hour drive from New York City to Buffalo for each of his home games when he played for the Bulls, and they now make the four-hour drive each Syracuse home game.
The only thing they don’t do for their son, Grant said, is fly.
“She’s scared of flights,” Grant said of his mother. “My dad just got over his fear of flights traveling to games, so we’re trying to get my mom there.”
Villari said he’s a big fan of watches and bought items from Swiss manufacturers Audemars Piguet and Tissot.
“A nice gold one,” Villari said. “A nice Tissot.”
Someday, Villari said, he’d like to add a really high-priced item to his collection.
“When I get that real big money I’m going to get a Rolex,” Villari said. “I’m waiting on that.”
Syracuse offensive lineman Joe Cruz grew up on Long Island and his father is a big golf fan.
Cruz enjoys golfing in his free time, too, often with Villari, Steve Angeli or other members of his position group.
Cruz said Villari is generally the best of the group but now that he has a set of clubs fitted just for him, he’s hoping to give the tight end a run for his money.
Wide receiver Darrell Gill Jr. said that he saved the bulk of his money but did buy some unique clothing. He said he prefers to avoid big brands and instead made purchases from designers he found on Instagram.
Johntay Cook went shopping, too, although he took his mother with him to a little mall in Austin, Texas. The transfer wide receiver from Texas bought her a new purse but also prioritized spending time together.
“I just remember her excitement she had on her face that I was able to, willingly, buy my mom something nice,” Cook said.
Freshman linebacker Antoine Deslauriers also prioritized an important woman in his life. He said he used his first paycheck to go see a different part of the world with his girlfriend and enjoy a rare break from football.
Deslauriers and his girlfriend of nearly two years took a trip to Portugal over the July 4 holiday. It was important to spend time with her, Deslauriers said, because she lives in Quebec while he is in Syracuse.
Neither had been to Portugal before. Deslauriers said one of their shared passions is traveling.
Given the intensity and pressure of football, Deslauriers said the money allowed him a break that was critical for his mental health.
“We don’t get much break here,” Deslauriers said. “I think it just gives your body and mind a break, more of a mental break. I think it’s important to take some time and think about something else. You’re around the game so much that when you get back you’re really into it.”
Reporters Javon Edmonds, Justin Girshon and Brent Axe contributed to this report.