Clemson football: 5 perfect NIL opportunities that were missed

3. Thunder & Lightning with Accuweather

One of the most-recognized dynamic duos of the late 2000s was the pairing of James Davis and C.J. Spiller in the Clemson backfield. The two were known as ‘Thunder & Lightning.’

Even though NIL wasn’t around at that time, there were t-shirts being sold in Clemson with the phrase: “If the Thunder doesn’t get you, the Lightning will.”

Even though the Clemson football program was far from a national powerhouse at the time, the ‘Thunder & Lightning’ pairing was well-recognized and gained plenty of exposure nationally.

What if Accuweather wanted to sponsor?

On its CFB game day report, we could’ve seen the ‘Thunder & Lightning’ segment.

Even outside of the national weather companies, there  were still a lot of opportunities for ‘Thunder & Lightning’ to have gotten some decent NIL deals- especially locally- just as the ‘Power Rangers’ would have.