First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your time n the NFL?
Now, I have a mouthguard company – Vane Mouthguards . The mouthguards have two sensors than can tell by the g-force of a hit whether a possible concussion occurred for kids playing contact sports. It’s a cool technology we’ve implemented to help kids and parents of kids who play contact sports get a sense of things and to give them some ease of mind when they are worried about concussions.
I also do drug and alcohol talks for kids. I try to reach kids in the Michigan area from all backgrounds. I try y give them some positive outlooks on life. It’s surprising how many kids don’t have positive views on their outlook on life.
I also help train kids – from high school to college – to help them get back into football – to college, the CFL, XFL… just helping them get back in the game.
And lastly, I just started a sideline jacket company and signed the first college team to get the jackets. They are water and wind resistant and fit over shoulder pads – they are fully functional. Nothing out there compares to them.
So- a lot of projects going on. How did you post-NFL adjustment go that got you started in these businesses?
All of these efforts started with my interest in football. I started off in that box, then I branched out. When I talk to kids now, I try to tell them that it’s ok to be in that box, but you can grow after that too. Now football is an opportunity for me to help give back – it’s a platform to give back. It’s important for guys to do so.
The Detroit Public School System – there’s just a small amount of money in that system. They’re doing their best – especially in the inner city – but there’s little funding there. So we try to help there in different ways. We want to give kids there some quality help. I grew up in Cincinnati – not so much in the inner city. I was lucky. But I want kids to be aware of what they can do outside of football too. A lot of these kids don’t think they can do much after if they don’t play football. We want to show them that there’s more they are capable of doing outside of football.
How did you manage it?
I got released as a rookie after winning the Super Bowl with the Giants. I didn’t get picked up for eight weeks after that by Jacksonville. In that time I had to figure what else I could do – to try new stuff. I worked retail for a bit then for a staffing agency doing cold calls. I tried to adapt those skills to outside what I had learned before. I realized you can cold call anyone in the sports business world too. Some people may know of me, or I may know someone they know as well, and that helped me. It taught me that combining those two worlds helped me.
I couldn’t talk business all the time with people – I may not know some of the things they knew about the businesses they were in. But I learned how to start a conversation.
I was an only child growing up – I didn’t really tell a lot of people that. I’m pretty introverted. So when I’m in a room speaking to 500 kids on my own, you have to turn those skills on. I’m an introvert, so it’s exhausting when I’m done. There’s a mental stress to that as well.