By Troy Vincent
NFL Player Engagement
With football in full swing again this Fall, I am reminded daily of how highly coachable you former players are, and how you can become Workplace MVPs.
Not only do you offer potential employers and clients your experience of playing in the NFL, you also bring to the table the rare attribute of having reached the highest level of your previous profession.
Now is the time to take that powerful achievement into your NEXT career by taking advantage of your NFL affiliation.
One former player who recognized the power of our Shield and maximized it to the fullest is Jack Brewer, who was featured recently on our NFL Player Engagement (NFLPE) website for his role as CEO of The Brewer Group and founder of The Jack Brewer Foundation.
“I want to inspire other former players to understand the magnitude of what you have access to with the Shield, even to me as a special teams player who was not a superstar,” said Brewer, who was elected Captain of three NFL teams. “Thanks to the NFL, I can walk in a lot of doors that may not be as open to others since people want to be around NFL players.”
The University of Minnesota Masters degree graduate learned early what the NFL offered him, and attended the inaugural Business Management & Entrepreneurial Program (BM&E) offered at Harvard, and later followed that by attending the sister program offered at Wharton, as well as taking advantage of other NFLPE programs.
“Taking these courses opened up a whole new world for me,” stated Brewer, “and taught me not to ask what the League is doing for me, but rather to ask what I am doing for myself. There is no other industry in America that gives you a head-start on your next career like the NFL.”
So what does Jack recommend for those of you now deciding what you want to do next?
“Former players like me should make an accurate assessment of exactly where they are today in their lives, and the more realistic they are in not lying to themselves, the easier it will make the transition from football,” Brewer advocated.
Some former football players, noted Brewer, are educated mainly in football, and now need to do the same amount of work they put in to make the NFL into achieving success in their next career.
“I run my own company today as CEO thanks in large part to taking the NFLPE courses available to me,” Brewer remarked. “I wanted a brighter future for myself after football.”