Exclusive with Ed Reynolds NFL Legends Community Director of the Northeast Region

Can you let me know how you got involved with the NFL front office initially?

I was retired for three years when a former teammate recommended me for a job there with Gene Washington in the league front office. He was working on game operations and needed an assistant director. I interviewed for that job and started working for him.

One of my main tasks was to work with teams on uniform code violations, and we launched the high school coach of the week program. We also started a college relations program where we’d go to the colleges and talk to the athletic directors to see what they’d like us to talk to their athletes about. Gambling, drinking…there were a myriad of things we could talk about that were relevant to their schools. We wanted to help show colleges that we weren’t interested in taking kids away from college. Our rule is unique in that you have to be three years out of high school before you can sign with an NFL team. Three years is a long time – you really have to go to college to play.

How did the Steelers help with those programs?

The Steelers ownership – Giants too – they were some of the best organizations to work with.

For example the uniform stuff. We had rules in place and would send someone to each team to talk to them about the rules. We had 50-to-60 products that were sponsorship products. Dan Rooney advised we use former players to do the work since they knew the mindset of players. He had a great idea – for teams to pick the top three former players in their community to do that work. And we should send that list to the NFLPA and pick from that three. This way you had someone who understood the players and we had the NFLPA’s buy-in.  It was a great idea.

The high school coach of the week program he helped with too. He and Mr. Mara advised we work with a local sportswriter who covered high school sports in that area because they followed the teams so closely. And that it shouldn’t just be about the teams’ records, but about graduation rates and community work as well.

Every week at halftime we present the winner and give them a $500 check. At the end of the year we bring them all in at halftime and announce that year’s winner and give them another $500 check.

You then moved to NFL security correct?

After three years I did yes. We’d give presentations to teams every year – every team had a mandate to do a one-hour presentation on a security issue. We’d have videos with former players on issues like identity theft, drunk driving, gambling…

Each team had an NFL player rep dedicated to them. Let’s say Ben Roethlisberger wanted a background check on someone doing work at his house, the player rep would handle that and get the results back to him. If a player was in a different city, say they didn’t live in the city they played in in the offseason, they were all given cards with the player reps that worked in each city so they could reach out to them if needed.

Each team had their own security people as well, but we offered these services too. We want the players to know that even though we’re management, we’re not the enemy.

What were some of the big issues then in the early – to-mid 2000’s when you served in that capacity?

Impersonation was a big problem – MySpace was big then and girls thinking they were dating players but really they were guys impersonating players – that was big. And identity theft was in its infancy then. We’d also talk to guys to make sure they weren’t being taken financially.

And now you are working with the NFL Legends Community. What does that group do for players?

The NFL wanted to help NFL alumni more. They didn’t want to call them alumni though. Every player was a legend at some point – in high school, college, the NFL…We wanted to help players be able to get together and commiserate about their playing days and to re-connect with teammates.

We started calling guys to get them to sign up. The NFL has alumni chapters too but you pay dues for those. This is free and is more about giving players assistance on things like benefits, the HRA we got through collective bargaining – how to use that for reimbursement and with the NFL’s designated hospital network.

The three-to-five year retired guys are harder to get. Its the older guys that often feel like they are forgotten. I have to say though, the Steelers and Giants, they already do such a great job with programs for their players. But we don’t compete with the other organizations’ work and chapters. We give players information on where to go to get help with whatever they need. Chapters, NFLPA programs, the Trust…

Are there team-specific programs that stand out to you as well?

I know the Steelers do special things for players but they do it on their own. Joe Gibbs had his own fund to assist players who played for him and who were in more dire need of him for things like rent.

The Steelers – November I think is the month we honor military veterans. But the Steelers have done that forever. They have been the best at that. I was in the military reserves – seeing that chokes me up.

Any other thoughts on these programs?

We have over 12,000 players signed up in the programs now. It wouldn’t be possible without people like Lynne Molyneaux of the Steelers. She’s just a fantastic person. She and Joann Lamneck of the Giants. We could not have accomplished so much without their assistance with their alumni.