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NFL players prepare for life after football

Published  February 27, 2018 5:41pm EST
Business
FOX 5 New York

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Several NFL players were working at the NBA store in Manhattan on Tuesday.  They were participating in an externship program that was organized by the NFL Players Association.  The idea is to help them prepare for life after football.

"It's a 3-week off season internship program to provide players with an experience outside of football, in hopes that something peaks their interest as they prepare for second careers,"  Dior Ginyard of the NFL Players Association says.

"It's unique because we get to have the guys experience more than sitting in a cubical, we get them in the field and learning what it's like to have  a day in the life of people who work in our company," Fanatic HR Business Partner Rebecca Kulick says. 

Pittsburgh Steelers back-up quarterback Josh Dobbs is just coming off of his rookie season.  While his NFL career is just starting, he someday wants to use his degrees in aerospace engineering and business.

"My goal is to be the top of a company, or own my company some day, so I looked a Fanatics which started off as an entrepreneurship," Dobbs says. "I wanted to be around that and learn how the company has grown so fast."

Detroit Lions linebacker Brandon Chubb is realistic about the length of an NFL career so he's preparing for a business management job now.

"We play in the most violent sport in the world. It's going to come to an end some day," Chubb says.  "At the end of the day it's  5-10 years, you still have 40 more years of life to live. I'm trying to take advantage of my time. You can't buy time."

All six players in the program started their shift at the store at 10 a.m. and rotated to different areas, whether it was welcoming customers on the floor, working the cash register, or folding clothes in the stock room.  One place they really got hands on was in the basement, where they got to customize NBA jerseys.

"Whether it's marking, sports merchandising, sales communication... while they're here we hope they find something they're passionate about, so when it's over they can take the experience steps and education they need," Ginyard says.