The sports world is a stage where the light shines brightest, but these 9 NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs know that not every athlete stays in the spotlight for the rest of his life. There comes a point when you have to take your final sprint, tackle, and catch.
The National Football League (NFL) is America’s professional football association composed of 32 teams. It was founded 95 years ago back in 1920. Football is one of the sports deeply ingrained in America’s culture and undeniably, the most loved. It has produced some of the greatest football players of all time such as Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, John Elway, Dick Butkus, and more.
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But football is a high-risk sport. If you watched the movie Concussion starring Will Smith, it exposed the recurring football-related head trauma in NFL athletes. While not everyone ends up with a concussion, preparation for life after football is a must. The league is aware of this, too, which is why they established the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program in 2005. It helps athletes own, build, and manage businesses.
The NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs we’ll be featuring today are much like the 9 celebrities turned successful entrepreneurs. They have decided that when their short-lived, money-making career is over, there should be something else they can look forward to. And these former NFL stars are now conquering the business world.
We curated this roster from CNBC, Entrepreneur, Inc.com, and USA Today. The athletes are ranked according to their current net worth. Let’s check out these NFL players who channeled their athleticism in running their own businesses!
9. Alex Bernstein (Estimated net worth: $2 million)
We are starting our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs with Alex Bernstein who is a former NFL offensive lineman who played for four teams throughout his football career. He had brief stints with Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, and Atlanta Falcons. In 2000, he suffered an injury that ended his career. This setback turned out to be an opportunity as his early retirement allowed him to pursue entrepreneurship.
He shifted to software and technology industry in 2001. In 2005, he founded North Venture Partners, a software and technology incubator located in Oakland, California. They have since invested or launched 11 companies. The biggest of which is North Social, a Facebook design service that was sold for $25 million. Bernstein started the project InOak and bought three buildings in distressed areas in Oakland and turned them into incubator spaces.
8. Eddie George (Estimated net worth: $3 million)
Former running back Eddie George who ranks 8th on our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs played for the Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers for most of his NFL career and retired with the Dallas Cowboys. He played for Ohio State University in college and won the Heisman Trophy in 1995. The following year, he won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He retired in 2005 but that didn’t stop him from pursuing success. In 2012, George earned his MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
He established the company EDGE Group, a planning and landscape architecture firm with offices in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. George is a licensed landscape architect. This firm is part of the umbrella company George Enterprises, which also runs EGX Lifestyle, a company that provides products and tools for healthy living. He also founded the Visions With Infinite Possibilities, a nonprofit that supports victims of domestic violence.
7. Dhani Jones (Estimated net worth: $4 million)
We are continuing our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs with Dhani Jones who is a former NFL linebacker who played for four teams namely the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, and Cincinnati Bengals. He was a National Champion in college with the University of Michigan and a 3-time All-Big Ten honoree. The NFL didn’t serve as Jones’s long-term career but as a springboard to his current venture as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Jones founded the VMG Creative agency in New York. He is also a partner in another ad agency named PROCLAMATION in Cincinnati. In 2010, he built the restaurant Bow Tie Café in the same city. Jones founded The Bow Tie Cause, an organization supporting charities such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. He started this in honor of his cancer survivor friend Kunta Littlejohn, who believed “If you wanna be somebody, you gotta rock a bow tie.”
6. Ryan Diem (Estimated net worth: $13 million)
A former offensive tackle for the Indianapolis Colts, Ryan Diem was part of the team that gave the franchise the Super Bowl XLI title. He played for the same franchise from 2001 to 2011. Diem was one of the participants in the NFL business program where he was part of the program at the Kellogg School of Management, specializing in brand development and selling including evaluating franchise opportunities.
In 2007, Diem founded the Modern Muscle, a car shop known for restorations and building performance engines. Aside from being a hot-rod enthusiast, he is also a tech geek. Diem is part of the board of directors of CloudOne, a tech-firm in Indianapolis specializing in bringing software apps to the cloud.
5. Drew Brees (Estimated net worth: $55 million)
Drew Christopher Brees is a quarterback for New Orleans Saints. He was a decorated college football player from Purdue University with two NCAA titles. He is the Big Ten record holder, leading all categories in completions, yards, and touchdowns. Brees led the Saints to their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XLIV where he also won MVP. He won Comeback Player of the Year in 2004, NFL Man of the Year in 2006, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2010, and more. He currently leads all the quarterbacks in the league in passing yards, touchdowns, and 300-yard games.
Off the field, Brees is a busy entrepreneur. He has franchised three Jimmy John’s restaurants and has committed to open 20 more in New Orleans. He currently inked a deal with Walk-On’s sports bar and Happy’s Irish Pub. Although he’s on his last contract with the Saints this 2016, Brees told ESPN that he can still play at a high level into his 40s. The quarterback is already 37 years old. Regardless if his contract gets renewed or not, Brees has a multiple restaurant chains to keep him busy. He is one of the 9 NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs who keeps pushing his boundaries in every venture he takes.
4. Gayle Sayers (Estimated net worth: $50 million)
Also known as “The Kansas Comet,” Gayle Eugene Sayers ranks 4th on our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs. He was a former running back for the Chicago Bears. He played with the University of Kansas and was a first round pick in the 1965 NFL Draft. Sayers is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame. Life after retirement was even brighter for Sayers. He first served as athletic director of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He then ventured in information technology in 1984.
Sayers founded the Crest Computer Supply Company in Chicago, which was later renamed to Sayers 40, Inc. He is currently the chairman of the technology company, providing services to Fortune 1000 companies. The company has four offices located in Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, and Georgia. Sayers and his wife are active philanthropists, too. They support the Cradle Foundation, an adoption group and established the Gale Sayers Center, an after-school program in Chicago for kids ages 8 to 12.
3. John Elway (Estimated net worth: $145 million)
Up next on our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs we have John Elway, who started out as a quarterback for the Denver Broncos. The Hall of Famer led his team to their first ever NFL Championship and in back-to-back victories (1998, 1999). Super Bowl fans know him as the man who made “The Drive” for his 15-play, 98-yard offensive spectacle. Despite being the General Manager and Executive Vice President of the Denver Broncos, Elway also made a career outside of football by being a restaurant owner and car dealer.
The legendary quarterback owns a couple of steakhouses named Elway’s. He used to own five car dealerships called John Elway Autos but sold them in 1997 to AutoNation Inc. for $82.5 million. In 2007, he bought Manhattan Beach Toyota and became the co-owner of Crown Toyota in Ontario, California. Elway still owns a couple of dealerships in Colorado. One for Chevrolet in Englewood and one for Chrysler in Greeley.
2. Roger Staubach (Estimated net worth: $600 million)
Roger Staubach, the next one on our list of NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs is a former NFL quarterback who played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1969 to 1979. He is a 2-time Super Bowl champion (1972, 1978) and a Super Bowl MVP (1972). He is known by many nicknames such as “Roger the Dodger,” “Captain America” for representing the US Team, and “Captain Comeback.” Compared to other athletes on our list, Staubach started his entrepreneurial ventures during offseasons.
In an interview with Forbes, he said that he worked as a real estate broker to sustain his family. At 27, he already had three children and Staubach said that the NFL was not as lucrative back then. He established his real estate firm, the Staubach Company in 1977 and it grew exponentially in the 1990s and 2000s. With 50 offices and growing, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) bought the company for a multi-year payout totaling to $640 million. The generous Hall of Famer shared his equity to his employees over the years leaving him with only 12% ownership of the company. He is still the Executive Chairman of JLL and part of the Board.
1. Jerry Richardson (Estimated net worth: $1.1 billion)
Jerry Richardson is a former NFL halfback turned team owner. He played for the Baltimore Colts in 1959 for one year and was part of the team that won the NFL Championship with quarterback legend Johnny Unitas. Using the championship bonus he received, Richardson opened a Hardee’s franchise in Spartanburg. Hardee’s is a long-standing fast food chain in America. He then founded Spartan Foods, a grocery chain and became the CEO of Flagstar, a banking company.
In 1993, Richardson acquired the franchise for the NFL team Carolina Panthers. His team has won two NFC championships and six NFL championship appearances. The football stadium of the University of North Carolina was named after him. In 2015 year, he was named to the South Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. His accumulated wealth has come from these multiple business ventures over the years.
These 9 NFL players turned successful entrepreneurs prove that life after NFL is bigger and brighter. Success is not limited to the field. There are many business opportunities waiting for them. These players show that when you put your mind and soul into something, the same way you do in sports, there’s no stopping to what you can achieve.
