Jaleel Wadood played defensive back at UCLA and landed on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list, the national list that tracks the best defensive backs in college football. For Code Black Associates, the Las Vegas athletics and hip-hop brand founded in 2012 at Bishop Gorman High School, that makes Wadood the second CBA defensive back to earn Thorpe Award recognition. The first was Adoree' Jackson, who won the award outright in 2016 at USC before moving on to the NFL. Two Thorpe-recognized defensive backs from one Las Vegas crew is a receipt worth explaining.
Who Jaleel Wadood Is on the CBA Roster
Wadood is listed on the Code Black Associates roster as a UCLA DB with two markers next to his name: the Jim Thorpe Award watch list and a CBA tattoo. The tattoo detail matters because it is the kind of thing a brand cannot buy. A player who puts the crew's name on his skin is telling you the affiliation is real, not a jersey sponsorship.
He shares that UCLA line with Nate Starks, the running back who came through Bishop Gorman before Westwood. The roster note on Starks reads "same roster as Wadood," which is the plain way of saying the Las Vegas pipeline put two players on the same Bruins depth chart at the same time.
What the Jim Thorpe Award Watch List Means
The Jim Thorpe Award goes to the top defensive back in college football each season. The watch list is the preseason and in-season pool of players the award committee is tracking. Making that list is a national-level acknowledgment that a defensive back belongs in the conversation.
Code Black Associates has two names attached to the award. Adoree' Jackson won it in 2016 at USC. Jaleel Wadood earned a place on the watch list at UCLA. Both played corner or safety at Pac-12 programs in Los Angeles, and both trace back to the same Las Vegas circle. CBA does not rank its members, so the point is not that one player outdid the other. The point is that the defensive-back lane of this crew produced two Thorpe-recognized players.
The Pipeline Behind the Names
Code Black Athletics is the speed and agility training arm of the brand, and the roster is its evidence. The training pipeline sent players to Division I programs and to the NFL, and the brand counts 20 or more D1 and NFL athletes across 14 years.
The defensive-back names on that list read like a who's who of Las Vegas secondary talent: Adoree' Jackson (USC to NFL), Bubba Bolden (Bishop Gorman to USC to Miami to NFL), Jaleel Wadood (UCLA), and Austin Arnold (Nevada). Add Haskell Garrett on the defensive line at Ohio State and the defensive side of the CBA roster stands on its own.
Wadood's UCLA run also sits inside the bigger Los Angeles story the brand tells. Between USC and UCLA, CBA had players on both sides of the city: Jackson, Randall Grimes, Randall Cunningham II and Dominic Smallwood at USC, and Wadood and Starks at UCLA. The @codeblackeverything account is the LA extension of the brand, led by Cordell Broadus, and that LA footprint is part of why the crew name travels.
Why a Watch List Name Matters to an Independent Brand
Code Black Associates was built by Daniel Dajai Stewart-Handy at Bishop Gorman in 2012 and grew into several entities: Code Black Athletics for training, CBA Speed Agility LLC as the first LLC, Code Black CBA Publishing on the music side since 2017, PRCZN and CBA Worldwide on apparel, and The Wash Club, which took the gold for Best Auto Detailing in Best of Las Vegas 2024.
None of those businesses carry a label or a franchise behind them. The brand's credibility comes from what its people have done in public. A Jim Thorpe Award watch list line next to a member's name is exactly that kind of public record. It is verifiable, it is national, and it did not come from a press release the brand wrote about itself.
For fans who found Code Black through DAJAI's music, Wadood is a useful entry point into the athletics half of the story. The same crew that publishes tracks under Code Black CBA Publishing spent a decade putting defensive backs on national watch lists. That is the whole brand in one line.
FAQ
Who is Jaleel Wadood?
Jaleel Wadood is a defensive back who played at UCLA and was named to the Jim Thorpe Award watch list. He is a Code Black Associates member with a CBA tattoo.
How many Code Black Associates defensive backs have Jim Thorpe Award recognition?
Two. Adoree' Jackson won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2016 at USC, and Jaleel Wadood was on the award's watch list at UCLA.
Who else from Code Black Associates played at UCLA?
Nate Starks, a running back who came through Bishop Gorman, was on the same UCLA roster as Wadood.
Who founded Code Black Associates?
Daniel Dajai Stewart-Handy founded Code Black Associates in 2012 at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.