NFF helping to provide for players after football

COLLEGE FOOTBALL is in a continual state of flux. Name, image and likeness. The transfer portal. Conference realignment. All of it has sent the enterprise into the most chaotic period in its history. But for all the madness that’s gone on within the sport, Steve Hatchell and the National Football Foundation are hoping to focus on a few of the positives while creating professional development opportunities for players moving out of the game.

“Our biggest thing is with all of the challenges to the game right now — whether it’s transfer portal or NIL, better known as pay-to-play — we’ve been asked to do a lot of things that the foundation [has done in the past], but to heighten it and to expand it and that has to do with more emphasis on education,” Hatchell, CEO and president of the NFF, said. “Because not everybody is in the transfer portal, not everybody’s getting $1.5 million to be the quarterback at Notre Dame, and there are a lot of good things going on.”

This year, Hatchell noted the NFF honored a record 2,000 players from 341 schools via the Hampshire Honor Society. Those players were required to graduate with a GPA of 3.2 or better throughout their careers in the NCAA, NAIA or sprint football.

Beyond awards, the NFF is adding professional development to its offerings. The first NFF Leadership and Entrepreneurial Academy began on April 9 and runs weekly through April 30 via Zoom. The idea behind the endeavor is to provide professional education through a free, four-week course designed to provide leadership and entrepreneurial skills that complement athletes’ degrees.

The NFF is also working with companies, including Podium X and Parker Dewey, to assist those moving on from football with résumé help and micro-internships, respectively.

“We’re lining up companies like Delta Air Lines and Fidelity to say, ‘Take a look at these guys,’” Hatchell said. “… It opens up that whole new world [to answer] ‘What am I going to do when I’m done playing football?’”

Hatchell, who served as the first commissioner of the Big 12, has been in college football for the better part of 50 years.

“We’re doing all we can now to create that environment that you can play football at the highest level and then still go on to do great things in life if you don’t make it in the NFL,” he said.