A couple of weeks ago, Luther Burden III signed a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deal, just like many other college athletes have since its adoption in July 2021. In fact, this wasn’t even Burden’s first NIL endeavor. He already signed deals with Mercedes-Benz of Columbia and even started his own clothing line, “LB3”. So what makes this next deal so interesting?

Burden is the first college athlete to not only get a bag for an NIL deal, but will also give everyone that buys his product a bag…of potato chips. 

On August 21, Burden took to Twitter to announce his new deal with Old Vienna of St. Louis, a popular Midwest snack company that’s famous for its “Red Hot Riplet” potato chips. The most unique part of Burden’s deal with Old Vienna is that he’s not just endorsing the company; he’s getting his own product. Burden and Old Vienna collaborated to create a Honey BBQ flavor of the well-known chips, with Burden as the master taste-tester before the special edition riplets hit local stores, including over 200 local Schnucks’ establishments. Burden joins Texas running back Bijan Robinson as the only two college athletes with their own product (Robinson released his own brand of dijon mustard on August 18). 

But out of all of the companies Burden could’ve possibly picked, why did he land on Old Vienna? And are the chips actually good? Let’s take a deeper dive into this unprecedented NIL deal. 

But first, who is Burden, and how did he end up at Mizzou?

When getting to know Burden off the field, it’s easy to see why he went back to his roots and chose to collaborate with a local potato chip brand. 

Burden has always had a profound love for his home city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri. He has immensely close ties with his family, including nine sisters and his father, Luther Burden Jr., who Burden III calls his “best friend.” Burden’s circle also includes former Missouri defensive back Demetrious Johnson, who was a key mentor during Burden’s recruiting process.

“I look at Luther like he’s my son,” Johnson told CBS in April. “I’m going to protect him as much as I can.”

The endearing love he has for his home state showed during one of the most important decisions of Burden’s life. When it was time for him to make his college decision, Burden chose Missouri over (deep breath) Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Miami (FL), Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M and USC (exhale). When explaining why he chose the Tigers over a laundry list of big-time powerhouses, Burden cited a desire to pioneer the top football talent in St. Louis – which in past years has included future Pro Bowlers in Terron Armstead, Ezekiel Elliott, Sheldon Richardson and even Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow – to represent their home state in Columbia. 

“Usually (the best players here) go to places like Georgia and Alabama,” Burden told The Columbia Tribune after his commitment to Missouri.  “I just want to start a trend here in St. Louis for the younger people with talent in front of me to start carrying St. Louis and stay home and take our talents to Missouri.” 

Burden not only wants future St. Louis football stars to follow his path to Columbia, he also wants to turn around a Missouri football program that has struggled mightily in the SEC since the Tigers made back-to-back conference championship game appearances in 2013 and 2014. 

“I wanted to change the environment here and turn everything around and make us a powerhouse,” Burden told CBS

Now, let’s review these chips to see if they live up to the hype, just like Burden has in his short time in a Tiger uniform.

Official review of Luther Burden’s Special Edition Honey BBQ Red Hot Riplets: 

I’ll preface this review by saying that I’ve never eaten any Old Vienna products until I tried Burden’s chips. I’m from the East Coast, and we don’t have any Old Vienna products over there. Nevertheless, I was excited to try it. 

I decided to make a rating system based on a certain criteria in order to produce the most thorough review of the chips as possible. The three components of the riplets I’m going to rate are packaging, texture and taste, all three of which I will rate out of ten. Let’s get to it!

Packaging:

When I walked into my local convenience store to hopefully find a bag of the special edition riplets, it didn’t take me long to find them. Donning a white Missouri football jersey, Burden’s Game 6 LeBron-esque facial expression with a bright yellow Tiger-stripe background made the chips easy to spot. The yellow background is where I have to give Old Vienna kudos, because they clearly did their research on the most visible colors to the human eye (yellow is right up there). 

As for the rest of the design, the regular Old Vienna logo – properly colored black and gold – is nicely placed beneath Burden. The two main ingredients featured in the special edition riplets – Honey BBQ flavoring and St. Louis style hot sauce – are bolded in red, which is easy to see on top of the bright yellow background. The “special edition” marking at the bottom of the bag is a wicked smart marketing tactic – you have to let customers know that these aren’t the same ol’ red hot riplets! A bio on who Burden is and his love for red hot riplets on the back of the bag adds a nice human element to the chips. Finally, Burden’s “LB3” signature makes this bag of chips one of the best packaged ones that I’ve ever seen. 

Rating: 9.7/10

Texture: 

Before I even took a bite, I had to take a good look at the chip to analyze it visually. The ridges were the most rigid I’d seen on any chip I’ve ever had, and it was enveloped in seasoning. There wasn’t one part of the chip that wasn’t coated like a Wisconsinite in January. I was impressed.  

After intense examination, I finally took a bite. The crunch was palpable; it wasn’t quite on the level of kettle-cooked potato chips such as Cape Cod or Kettle Brand. The chips were a tier below that, which is still really good. It’s like saying Johnny Manziel wasn’t as good of a college quarterback as Joe Burrow and Tim Tebow. 

Overall, the texture was top-tier. The ridges add a unique element to the chip that not many other chips have. We’re off to a great start. 

Rating: 9.1/10

Taste:

Within about a second of me taking a bite of the chip, I think to myself “Huh, this tastes exactly like Kettle Brand’s BBQ chips. This is pretty good.” I sat there for a few moments enjoying the rich taste of Missouri BBQ seasoning when all of the sudden…BAM! A wave of heat erupts in my mouth like a Hawaiin volcano. I wasn’t expecting this, even though I should’ve based on a) the package explicitly saying that it was “St. Louis Style Hot Sauce” flavored and b) the chip literally being called a “red hot” riplet. 

Naivete aside, the spice level wasn’t scorching, but hot enough to where you can taste the kick. Since my spice tolerance is lower than most, my nose started running a bit, and I needed some cold water to quell the sudden spice party that was taking place on my taste buds. 

A couple of minutes after my first bite, I finished the bag and licked my fingers, which is always a sign of a satisfactory snack. While I wasn’t expecting that level of spice, the chips tasted great. 

Rating: 8.9/10

Overall:

Luther Burden made some exceptional potato chips. His Honey BBQ riplets have easily entered my personal upper echelon of potato chips. I likely won’t snack on Burden’s riplets like I do with Kettle Brand chips, but that’s just because of the spice. While I may have to be in a certain mood to nosh on the sweet heat riplets, they were still excellent. 

These chips are very similar to Luther Burden on the football field. Burden’s riplets received immense praise online – the hype was substantial, just as Burden was coming out of high school. Similarly to Burden’s first game, the chips lived up to the hype. I highly recommend taking a trip to your local Schnucks and grabbing a bag of Burden’s chips to try these tasty infernos for yourself. 

Overall rating: 9.2/10