Engagement Insider
HOUSTON, TX March 24, 2014 – When you are a high school player participating in the PREP 100 Series Presented by Under Armour and the National Guard, you walk away with much more than improved football skills.
You leave with a life plan -- and only one plan -- which is to obtain a degree from college, and then have a successful future that may or may not include the NFL. Either way you will be a winner, and if you do graduate and go to the NFL, you will play longer and earn more money. If not, you will have a life skill other than football.
This sage advice comes from Prep 100 Instructor Chris Draft, a Stanford graduate who played for 12 years in the NFL. He has already walked this path, so he can tell the truth to student-athletes, as he did for 100 or so players during the fourth 2014 Series stop on Saturday in Houston.
“The numbers are clear! Only 300 players from college will have a chance to play in the NFL each year,” said the NFL Ambassador. “Obviously, the NFL is a very long shot, but the players that obtain their college degree, are more likely to succeed.”
Draft reiterates that the numbers favor those with degrees since they will play longer and earn more money. But if not, he says that with a degree there will be a natural transition no matter when football ends instead of an OMG moment of “what do I do now?”
Speaking in a classroom setting during the morning of the full-day Series schedule, Draft spoke in Houston to three sets of players and parents, since they play the biggest part in helping the kids develop their singular plan, emphasizing that the NFL is the only major sport where you have to go to college first.
“It is our hope that the parents absorb all of the information,” exclaimed Draft. “So the parents can preach that there is only one plan to pursue – academics, football and high character– and be confident that what's best for their sons in football is also what's best for their sons' in the rest of their lives.”
This means going full out on both the football field and in the classroom.
“You may not see your competition, but they are out there, so you have to give your all in both areas to put yourself in the best position, since colleges look not only at football, but at grades and character,” stated the founder of the Chris Draft Family Foundation, adding, “so it is best practice to maximize your skills on the field and off the field."
A habit with which the Stanford alumnus was already familiar.
“My institution is proof that you do not have to compromise academics to win on and off the field.”
That is a welcome message for the “Total Athlete of Tomorrow” that the NFL is building through the Series, which continues in Miami, Dallas, and Oakland, before closing in Cleveland on June 21.