By Troy Vincent
National Football League
Troy Vincent recently transitioned from his role as Senior Vice President of NFL Player Engagement to Executive Vice President of NFL Football Operations. Player Engagement congratulates Troy and wishes him the best of luck in his new role.
Our first Player Engagement Boot Camp of the season opened in Baltimore last month featuring a new topic -- Consumer Products – and was wildly popular with both our current and former players, as well as some spouses and others, who participated.
There were a half-dozen or so current players who took the time out of their busy schedules to attend, and Cincinnati Bengals Punter Zoltan Mesko put in perfect perspective why our programs are perfect for your offseason:
“This is the first year for Consumer Products and it has been unbelievable how much content they provide you with as far as knowledge, networking opportunities, a mentor if you like, and all the right channels that will facilitate you in becoming a successful business owner, partner, or employee. This is very good for the transition phase of players and this industry is quite realistic since it has a bigger market for entrepreneurs, consumer product developers, and innovators. My hat goes off to the NFL for setting us up and the quality in how they put on the programs.”
The beauty of our Boot Camps overall and this one in particular is the way it brought together a wide variety of teaching tools into one cohesive program, which we believe created a template that will make applying for our future NFLPE offerings even more appealing to you.
What made this four-day event unique was that the diverse faculty was comprised of our NFL Consumer Products personnel, academic instructors from the University of Maryland, business operators and entrepreneurs, and even a former player who is now a League licensee.
Additionally, the participants visited licensee booths at the Consumer Products Summit at the Baltimore Convention Center, and then wrapped up the program with a tour of Under Armour’s corporate headquarters in Baltimore.
It turned out to be the perfect in-class and out-of-class schedule, complemented by a competitive Group Pitch Project that began on day one and culminated with a winner named on day four to close the proceedings.
In between was a crash course in consumer products from our impressive group instructors.
We started with our NFL and University faculty focusing on turning an idea into a business plan, and backing it up with the all-important budgetary and financial data. From there, our educators enlightened attendees in the areas of branding, logos, legal, and intellectual property.
The next day began with a bang when legendary linebacker Carl Banks shared his unique story about transitioning from 13-year NFL player to entrepreneur to becoming an NFL licensee.
Then it was onto the Summit, followed by a return to the classroom to immerse the group in marketing -- including fundamentals, research, and campaigns – that will ultimately bring together all the lessons learned to create a cohesive business.
For the final day, we started with our Under Armour campus tour, and then held our Group Pitch Contest, where each group had 10 minutes to present and 10 minutes of Q&A with the judges.
When the winner was named, the camp was concluded, and another set of players suddenly had a potential new career path to pursue.