By Charles Way
Vice President, NFL Player Engagement
Welcome to your first professional job, where all your education, hard work and training have resulted in you beginning your full-time career.
But it is more than just a career – it is the opportunity of a lifetime for the select few of you that have made it to the top of your profession as a player in the National Football League.
This past month, you have already had the first contact with the clubs that brought you into their fold, and as you already know there is a lot more to learn than just the playbook.
You are also asking yourself, “What are the expectations?”
Which leads to the next – and perhaps most important – question of “How do I manage those expectations?”
And not just the expectations from your new coaches and executives, but from family and friends.
At the Draft, families were introduced to the concept of “Holding Your Ask,” where they were told not to ask too much of you as you begin your first job.
With good reason, since in addition to everything else you are ingesting, you are learning how to look at your lifelong passion for football as a job, and to treat it as such you are learning how to be a professional and how to identify what being a professional looks like.
Easier said than done, since you may not know exactly what a professional is supposed to look like.
I believe one of the best ways is to identify veteran players at your club who have been in the League for a long time and have done their job well.
To achieve longevity in this League, they have exemplified the culture and values that it takes to be a professional both on and off the field.
So I suggest you model what they do and figure out how and why they have stayed so long when the average career lasts about four years and the League is getting younger rather than older.
A good way to do this as you head into your first mandatory minicamps this month is to identify the true professionals in the locker room, and then study them as diligently as you are studying your playbook.
It is also important that on day one you begin preparing for life after football so you can maximize the opportunity of being part of one of the most high-profile brands in the world.
As a player in the NFL, you will find that more than ever, people want to be around you, so you need to capitalize on this opportunity by knowing what you want to be after your gridiron career ends.
People will be interested in you, and it is important to let them know now your career aspirations beyond the field.
As I and thousands of my NFL brethren know, we all leave the game one day, so the sooner you begin preparing for that inevitable conclusion, the better your transition will be to the NEXT career.