By Samantha Kleinman
Coordinator of Player Engagement
On February 16th – 18th, NFL Player Engagement and the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Affairs (SAA) department hosted the second annual NFL-NCAA Life Skills Education and Professional Development Summit in Dallas, TX. The NCAA SAA mission closely mirrors the objective of NFLPE’s Prep division in that both organizations focus on the off-field, personal and professional development of student-athletes, which makes the partnership between the two groups a natural fit. The objective of the Summit, which was launched in 2011, is to provide additional training and a forum for sharing best practices between NFL Directors of Player Engagement and NCAA Athletics Professionals who work directly with student-athletes on personal development matters. The Summit has generated successful collaborations between the NFL and the NCAA and between NCAA institutions and their local NFL teams, but NFLPE and NCAA SAA wanted to go a step further and hear directly from the student-athletes. So began the NFL-NCAA Life Skills Roundtable for Student-Athletes, the inaugural event that took place immediately before the 2012 Summit.
The Roundtable brought together 12 male and female student-athletes of varying sports who attend NCAA institutions within 300 miles of Dallas. The student-athletes engaged in small group discussions with NFL and NCAA staff about academic advising, financial literacy, and athlete wellness with the objective of developing action plans for how they can help implement resources related to these topics on their campuses.
To open the Roundtable, the student-athletes heard from Jacques McClendon, a second-year player with the Detroit Lions who has taken full advantage of the resources available to him in college and the NFL. As a student-athlete at the University of Tennessee, Jacques worked with his academic advisor to set monthly academic goals that would eventually enable him to earn both his Bachelors and Masters degree before he entered the NFL. Jacques saw the importance of having a “plan B,” so he worked with the support system of advisors at Tennessee to identify skills and traits that could be seen as transferrable from his collegiate football career to a career in business, such as mental toughness, teamwork, focus, and time management. Jacques also emphasized the importance of not making the NFL or another professional sport your ultimate career goal, but rather using professional or collegiate sports as a platform to position yourself for a future career. Since entering the NFL, Jacques has lived by this mantra by taking advantage of Player Engagement opportunities, including completing a six-week internship at the NCAA National Office and participating in the NFL-NCAA Coaches Academy. Inspired by Jacques’ experiences, one of the Roundtable participants shared that it is important for all student-athletes to remember to “think about your future, not just your next game.”
When it came time for the student-athletes to develop action plans for resources that could be implemented on campus, the ideas flowed freely. 11 out of 12 of the student-athletes had not received any form of financial education at their institutions, which sparked the idea for a program called “Baking on a Bright Future” that would position student-athletes to achieve financial success both during and after college. This program would feature interactive workshops that allow student-athletes to learn about a variety of financial literacy topics, from simple budgeting to investment and retirement planning. These workshops would be customized for student-athletes based on year in school, so freshmen would start out learning about budgeting, while seniors who are preparing to graduate would learn about employment benefits and investing in retirement plans.
The student-athletes also shared that they would like to have the opportunity to develop more personal relationships with their academic advisors. They want to work with their institutions to ensure that student-athletes have the same academic advisor throughout their college careers and that these advisors understand the schedule demands that student-athletes face and have access to coaches and Athletic Directors in order to coordinate class schedules and practice schedules.
Finally, the Roundtable participants felt there is a need for every NCAA institution to have an on-campus Athlete Wellness Center. This would be a one-stop-shop for all athlete wellness needs, whether it is counseling, nutrition information, or other forms of advising.
The student-athletes who attended the Roundtable have been encouraged to share their action plans with other student-athletes and the athletics professionals at their institutions in an effort to find ways to implement the plans on campus. The NFL and the NCAA thank the 12 student-athletes who attended the first Roundtable, congratulate them on the work they put into developing their plans, and look forward to seeing the changes that they are able to make on campus. We look forward to hosting another inspiring group of student-athletes next year!