The NFL's soft side - Behind the Scenes

EVEN WHEN HE BEAT THE ODDS and earned a roster spot with the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 1994, Troy Barnett knew his days in the NFL were numbered. The unheralded defensive end from North Carolina immediately started planning for life after football by participating in an internship program coordinated by Patriots Player Development director Andre Tippett.

Barnett interned at Reebok International, shuttling between several different departments to gain a general understanding of how the company functioned. He ultimately gravitated toward Management Information Systems and returned to Reebok the following offseason to continue working in that area.

Ankle and knee injuries that required surgery ended Barnett's NFL career after two seasons. He resumed his internship at Reebok, earned a full-time position in 1998, and was promoted to senior process business analyst last spring.

"When I stopped playing, I had done well enough at Reebok to catch the eye of a few people, and they brought me back in," Barnett says. "I worked as an intern for a little while, and then they offered me a full-time position, and I've been progressing throughout the company since then."

Barnett's success story is inspiring, but thanks to NFL Player Development, it's not unusual. The leaguewide program was established in 1991 to provide valuable resources to assist players and their families with career development, personal growth, social interactions, and family relations.

All 32 NFL teams have a player development director. Programs offered vary among the clubs, but one common emphasis is the transition into and out of the league.

Players and their families are given assistance with education and career internships. They're also connected with resources to address personal issues that include coping with depression, anxiety, injuries, relationships, family issues, eating disorders, and relocation.

Players and their significant others also gain information and exposure to services that will enhance their decisionmaking abilities. Those programs include a rookie orientation, a wives orientation, life-skills workshops, a rookie symposium, a security seminar, and an insurance workshop.

"The primary benefit is just the support," says former NFL Player Development director Guy H. Troupe, "so players can be more productive on the field during their careers and address some of the issues that might be impacting their on-the-field performance.

"And it's really ultra-important in terms of their off-the-field development and transition out of sport because they haven't had a lot of time to get the kind of repetitions that their college classmates got in terms of work experience and exposure to a professional environment That's really the value in it."

Earnest Byner, an NFL running back for 14 seasons, is in his sixth year as the Baltimore Ravens' Player Development director. He accepted the job after a discussion with Chiefs counterpart Lamonte Winston during a trip Byner took to Kansas City to interview for an assistant-coaching position with Marty Schottenheimer.

"I had already been offered the job in Baltimore, and when Lamonte told me about what he was doing, my spirit lit up," Byner says. "I knew then that this is what I should be doing. I've always helped guys that were younger than me.

Even in my second and third year in the league [as a player], I was assisting people."

Byner has performed numerous tasks, including arranging meet-and-greet sessions in which Ravens players discuss internship opportunities with area businessmen and continuing education options with local college representatives. Byner is convinced that the success of the player development program depends on the ability to tailor available resources to meet individual needs.

"One of the things that I believe is crucial to the job is how you make it applicable to each guy and show them how they can use some of the things that you offer," he says. "And even with that, sometimes you don't reach all of them."

Not all NFL players take advantage of the development programs. But those who do participate include the young and old, the famous and unknown. NFL all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, for example, utilized the continuing education resources to return to the University of Florida to earn his degree in Public Recreation in 1996.

"You've got guys that are older, ready to transition out, who see that they need to start building some other avenues of success," Byner says. "You've got some of the very young guys that are mature who want to go ahead and start setting things up. And you've got some of the middle-range guys that are kind of like, 'Well, I've played around long enough. Let me see what else is out there.' It runs the gamut. It just depends on the level of maturity."

Of the 32 player development directors, 24 are former NFL players. The Oakland Raiders' Willie Brown is the only Hall-of-Famer. A few--like the Houston Texans' Todd Scott, the Tennessee Titans' Al Smith, and the Chicago Bears' Dwayne Joseph--first participated in the program as players.

And then there is the Detroit Lions' Beth Gay, one of only two women to hold the director of player development title. Gay originally joined the Lions as a media relations intern in 1996 and was promoted to her current position in 2001.

She earned an undergraduate degree in social work from Eastern Kentucky University and a master's degree in sports administration from Wayne State University. Despite the dearth of women in her field, Gay does not view her gender as an obstacle.

"If you do a really good job and you're very passionate about the work that you do, I think that anyone can succeed at this position," she says. "It's definitely a helping profession, and that's first and foremost."

Gay coordinates a unique mentoring program in Detroit that matches young Lions players with former stars still living in the area. For instance, second-year quarterback Joey Harrington has been paired with ex-lineman Rich Stringer and second-year defensive end Kalimba Edwards has been matched with Hall of Fame defensive back Lem Barney.

"Really, the main goal was to create an immediate friend in the area, someone they could immediately relate to," Gay says. "It could have been anything from helping somebody to buy a car to helping somebody find a really good restaurant or being that extended family in the area and just having him over for dinner or going to church together."

NFL Player Development's latest venture is giving ex-players a chance to see how the other half lives. Martin Bayless, Reggie Brooks, Barry Foster, Eric Green, Amp Lee, Hugh Green, and Reggie McElroy all worked as coaching interns for NFL Europe teams last spring.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for players to gain experience in the coaching profession," says John Beake, NFL vice president and managing director of football operations for the NFL Europe league. "The internship opens the door for these players to begin their coaching careers."

Barnett, who charged through a similar door at Reebok, credits NFL Player Development with helping him not only land on his feet after his playing days were over, but also gain a strong foothold in a second career.

"I owe it all to them because I would never have met the contacts to even come back in to work at Reebok," he says. "I would have had to start over. I probably would have ended up back in my hometown [in Jacksonville, N.C.] figuring out what I was going to do.

"It helped me transition from not playing, and it still kept me in the athletic industry. It's been an awesome experience for me. Every player should take advantage of that."

COPYRIGHT 2003 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group