By Mark Eckel | Engagement Insider
Darryl Pounds original 10-year plan lasted just six years. Stage two has gone longer than that and continues to grow stronger and stronger.
Pounds, a 5-10, 190-pound cornerback and third-round draft pick out of Nichols State played six years in the NFL, the first five with the Washington Redskins, and his final one with the Denver Broncos in 2000.
“I planned to play 10 years, I fell four years short,’’ Pounds said. “But that’s the NFL. I always tell people that NFL stands for not for long. You just never know what’s going to happen. I wasn’t ready to retire. I thought I could still play. But the Denver Broncos released me, and I didn’t get picked up.’’
It wasn’t easy for Pounds. He had just turned 30 years old and wasn’t quite ready to start a new life outside of football.
“That first year was really tough,’’ he said. “I was still upset, mad. I felt the league had turned its back on me. You go from the top of the world, a celebrity so to speak to what I am going to do now?
“Really playing in the NFL is like a fantasy land. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. You’re held in such high esteem. It’s not real life in a sense. I was fortunate. I played in two great cities with two great fan bases. But then just like that, it was over.’’
Pounds came back to Washington and went to work. He had always liked the world of real estate and had made some good investments while he was playing. Now, “retired’’ at age 30, he got his real estate license and began what was first called Pound Properties in 2002.
“You have to understand as professional football players we have a hunger, we search for knowledge,’’ Pounds said. “You can use that outside of football as well.’’
Pounds began as a real estate agent and would go back and visit some of his former teammates at Redskins Park.
“It was kind of funny,’’ he said. “They would see me and say, ‘You’re doing what? You have a job?’ A lot of times when you’re playing guys don’t have a plan for what they’re going to do. I stuck with it and now it’s my life.’’
Pound Properties has become POUNDS and has developed and revitalized economically challenged areas within Washington D.C. for a number of years. Headquartered in the heart of the nation’s capital, POUNDS prides itself as real estate firm that delivers superior results in the residential and commercial markets.
According to their website, the POUNDS team is dedicated to investing in the local community, stimulating change, and providing hope to neighborhoods with less than adequate opportunities. The mission is to provide unparalleled service and opportunities to their clients, community partners and neighborhoods.
“I have a passion for what I do,’’ Pounds said. “I really enjoy it and that’s the beautiful thing about it. As a football player, or any professional athlete, we have advantages. We come out of college debt free. Then we make good money. When I hear some of the horror stories (about players being broke), I say how? But I know how. There are a lot of decisions you have to make as a young player, people you feel you have to take care of and all that. And some guys just make some bad decisions. I was fortunate that I made good decisions.’’
While playing for six years in the NFL, five of those six in Washington gives Pounds name recognition in the business world. It’s worked both ways for him.
“It’s a gift and a curse,’’ he said. “One side is, ‘what do you know about real estate, you’re a football player.’ But people do like football and they want to talk football with you. So it opens the door, and then you have to sell them that you do know what you’re doing.
“I will say,’’ Pounds said with a chuckle. “I’ll talk with clients and sometimes it’s 95 percent football and five percent business.’’
He has used a lot of what he learned from his days playing football and transferred it to his success in the world of real estate.
“There are a lot of aspects to it,’’ Pounds said. “For instance, in football you can’t be late for practice or for a meeting, and I was never late for either. In the real world, people are late for things all the time. How is that? I don’t get it.’’
Pounds laughs when he compares the two and he can because he’s made it in both very successfully.