Bay Area School Teaches NFL Players How To Tackle Life Off The Field
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – There's a lot more to being a football player than showing up and playing on Sundays, they have to learn life skills and one of the biggest is managing their money and new found wealth. A new class offered in the Bay Area teaches players how to tackle life off the field.
NFL players can be seriously injured, but they can also be seriously rewarded. While they could earn millions of dollars easily, so many end up broke within just a few years of retirement.
That's why current and former football players filled a NFL-sponsored business management and entrepreneurial program at the Wharton School in San Francisco.
"Football is only so much of your life. I just turned thirty, you know? I plan to live until I'm a hundred, so I have 70 more years left to do something impactful," recently retired player Maurice Jones-Drew told KPIX 5.
Jones-Drew played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders, a running back with more than 8,000 yards rushing. He wants to focus a new stat, his net worth.
"It's very exciting and I think a lot of guys, they're taking this seriously. And you'll see a lot of more guys in the NFL taking this because a lot of kids are more educated coming in," Jones-Drew said.
Mario Moussa of the Wharton School said, "I think maybe the difference between football and the business world is that the business world is a little more ambiguous."
Players need to learn quickly as the average career length in the NFL is a little less than four years.
