ATHENS, Ga. — John Staton had a feeling, partly out of hope, partly out of despondency, and mostly out of ambition. So he first looked up the date on his phone—college football playoff championship games to come—then scrolled down his iPhone calendar, two years ahead, and typed it in:
January 10, 2022: Georgian National Championship.
That was before Staton even knew he was going to be on the Georgia football team, let alone play that game, let alone end up hugging Stetson Bennett, with whom he had so much in common. But had Staton known more, he would have written this six days after that game:
Start working on something that could propel Georgia into the new age of collegiate athletics.
Georgia now officially joins the NIL collectives arms race with the formation of the Classic City Collective (CCC). Two men run it: Matt Hibbs, who worked in Georgia’s athletic department until last year, and Staton, who quietly had one of the most notable stories on Georgia’s national championship team.
Two-time walk-on, first at Samford, then at Georgia, where he worked his way onto the field in his only year at Athens, including the SEC championship and both playoff games. A fourth-generation college football player — John Curtis Staton IV is his full name — whose great-grandfather played at Georgia Tech and father at North Carolina.
