By Lisa Zimmerman, Player Engagement Insider
In all aspects of life, Jeb Terry and Ryan Nece preach a balance of short-term focus and long-term planning. They believe in giving 100% to the responsibilities at hand, while keeping an eye on, and preparing for, the future. And the two former Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates have seen their belief in those tenets pay off.
Terry, a former offensive lineman, and Nece, a former linebacker, became friends during the three years they played together in Tampa. Terry was drafted by the Buccaneers in 2004 while Nece was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2002. They both left the team after the 2007 season and officially retired following the 2008 season. Terry already had the seed of an idea and the two went to work on it along with their partners, brothers Brice and Joel Cave.
In 2010, they launched Straight Cast Media and the mobile app, Gridiron Grunts, that would – and has – revolutionized the way players communicate with fans. After steadily building the company, in July 2015, it was acquired by FOX Sports with Terry joining the media giant as vice president, program management, FOX Sports Digital to help oversee the original app as well as be a part of other FOX digital-focused projects.
The Gridiron Grunts app (which will now be re-branded) allows players from every team in the NFL to create original content themselves, on their own devices, which they can share with fans via the app. The content offers a first-hand glimpse into places that traditional media normally doesn’t have access to, like the pre-game locker room, the team bus, the weight room – wherever players choose to communicate from.
“We created something for players, by players to give them a voice,” Nece said. “We’ve revolutionized the way players can create and share content.”
During their years in the NFL, both men gave football their full attention while acknowledging the reality that being a professional athlete wouldn’t last forever and they had to be prepared for that. It was important to both Terry and Nece to gain the knowledge for life after the NFL by taking advantage of the many opportunities that came their way throughout their football careers. They were acutely aware that whenever the time came to leave the NFL, they would be playing catch up with those who had already spent those same years in the business world. Both attended NFL boot camps and programs and absorbed everything they could.
“Listening to successful entrepreneurs and learning how you build a business, leveraging the opportunities that the NFL provides; just the qualitative stuff and just that intangible value you bring to business,” Terry said. “Those programs helped me understand the opportunities that were in front of me and how to leverage them.”
Terry also made a concerted effort to cultivate many of the contacts he made to build a foundation of mentors and advisors. “I still reach out to the people I met then,” he said. “You get exposure to people like that professors, real estate moguls, financiers, all sorts of business leaders. That was incredibly helpful.”
In addition to the NFL programs Nece also took an accounting class at a local college to further expand his knowledge base as he prepared to enter the business world. As a result, upon retiring from the NFL, Terry and Nece were well-positioned to take the steps in developing their business. And Gridiron Grunts has become the go-to app for NFL players to create their own original content to share with fans.
Prior to the FOX acquisition, Straight Cast Media had several partnerships with major media outlets, but had an eye toward an eventual sale.
“It’s all part of the natural progression,” Nece said of growing a business and positioning it for purchase. “Every owner, their thought is, ‘What’s the exit?’ At some point you’re going to need to move and grow. We’re still in control (of the product) in so many ways and we know [FOX] will offer the resources to get it to the next level. It’s like sending your kid off to college. Now the company has the ability to blossom and become a game changer.”
Terry is now an employee of FOX and while he and Nece still consult daily about the direction of their original product, which continues to grow, Nece has moved on to a new venture of his own as the managing director of Next Play Capital, which is also focused on offering opportunities to athletes, by offering them a way to invest in and take part in the world of sports and entertainment technology.
Both Terry and Nece agree that players need to focus first on the task at hand, which is their football career because if they aren’t able to put 100% into their day-to-day responsibilities their chances of current and future success will be diminished. However, they are also in agreement that players need to balance that and create a name and a brand for themselves that encompasses who they are as people so that they are not perceived as one-dimensional when their NFL careers are over and also have an easier time with the transition out of the league, which can be difficult for everyone.
“The biggest advice I can give players is, you want people to know who you are as a man not who you are as a number,” Nece said. “Knowing who you are as a number is good, but there’s lot of life after ball where people need to know you as a man.”
Both think it’s important to pay it forward and be available to those who want to now seek their counsel.
“I’m happy to be a resource whether they want to learn more about what I do and also if they need help with the transition,” Terry said. “It’s important to be able to handle that transition and take opportunities and position yourself to have that work ethic, be coachable, handle adversity. There are people that value that.”