The Houston Texans are breaking new ground by hosting an NFL
business networking meeting that will bring active players
and area business executives together. The event is called
a "Corporate Combine", and with the partnership of Sports
Professionals, Inc., an Ohio based company, the event will
help Texan players develop new contacts in the business world.
"These contacts serve several purposes for the players including
the ability to cultivate business relationships with Houston
area corporate leaders", said Kirk Dixon, President and CEO
of Sports Professionals, Inc..
Todd Scott, the team's Director of Player Development, said
the event will be an opportunity to recruit Houston area businesses
to participate in the Texans' Career Internship Program for
the 2003 off-season. Scott said, "most people are surprised
to find out that 60% of NFL players careers last less than
three years, 80% are cut within five years". "The
majority of players who come to the league have to do something
else post football. While the money is good while you play,
in most cases, it doesn’t last very long for the non-marquis
players", said Scott. |
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That
is where Kirk Dixon, President and CEO of Sport Professionals,
Inc. (Columbus, Ohio) gets into the game. Dixon, a former
Reebok executive and student athlete at Ohio State, has been
supporting transitioning players since 1994. "Our company
helps professional athletes plan for and positively manage
the end of their athletic career", says Dixon. When you
think about the fact that most athletes at the professional
level have been playing sports since they were six or seven
years old, to confront a change in that lifestyle in your
twenties or thirties is most cases, devastating. "We
give active and former athletes direction, and a game plan
for the next phase of their life", says Dixon.
Guy Troupe, the NFL's Senior Director of Player and Employee
Development in New York agrees. That is why the NFL hired
Dixon to design and deliver the League's only formal Career
Transition Program for players to date. "We challenged
Kirk to give us a program that not only helped players figure
out who they wanted to be off the playing field, but also
secured for them real jobs within six months of separation
from the league." |
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"We felt
that if Sports Professionals could help us place 50% of the
guys in our pilot program, it would be successful", said
Troupe. Dixon landed jobs for 90% of the players involved.
Todd Scott of the Texans was one of his pilot players. "Had
it not been for Kirk and his consulting team, I am not sure
when or where I would have landed post football, said Scott."
Now I am in the position to help active Houston Texan players
prepare to make the move now, before they have to.
On Monday, Todd Scott, Kirk Dixon, Guy Troupe, Troy Barnett,
a former NFL player currently working for Reebok, and Greg
Rake, a Vice President with Pier One Imports, will be the
keynote panel of speakers for Houston's Corporate Combine.
"If we're successful, current Texan players and local
corporate executives will commit to team up during the off
season", said Scott.
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