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By Brett Borden
Special to NFL.com
In the NFL, experience means everything. Younger players constantly defer to the players who have been there before them. This mainly applies to football, but there are times when off-the-field advice is every bit as important.
Carolina Panthers safety Mike Minter remembers the first veteran who talked to him about setting himself up for success in more ways than one.
"My second year in the NFL, I started to think about what I needed to do after football," said Minter, who is entering his 10th season, all with Carolina. "Eric Davis was that guy who took me under his wing and taught me the business of football. I think that's the first thing you have to learn. He taught me that aspect of it.
"It's very difficult. What happens is it's a process. First you come into the league and you're just happy to be here. You're thinking about fitting into the team and not much else. Then, you start to learn the game of football, and hopefully the business side of it, too. You come to understand that you are a business and you have to do certain things to make it last."
It seems odd at first comparing a human being to a business, but in this case, the two share many things in common.
"If you look at businesses in general, most of them go under in three to five years," Minter said. "So does a typical NFL career. To sustain your business, you have to be consistent and you have to have the right work ethic. When you do that, your business will sustain itself, be it on the football field or off. Those who get that concept down on the football field first will have an easier time off it."
Panthers director of player development Donnie Shell preaches the same message to the younger members of the team. He has given many players a chance to test drive different careers via internships he sets up in the Charlotte community. Eight-year veteran Mike Rucker is one of those players who have taken advantage of Shell's program.
"Donnie was one of the first guys who took me under his wing," said Rucker, who like Minter has a handful of business interests to tend after while he's away from Bank of America Stadium. "I took advantage of his internship program to start thinking about life after football. It's a hard thing for guys to think about when they're just beginning their careers. In other careers, retirement is 30-40 years away when you're coming out of college. For us, it's 10 years away if we're lucky, and for most of us it's five years or less."
Some might think that simply investing the money made from playing should sustain a player through the rest of his life. Not true, says Rucker.
"When you're done, and you've invested your money right and all of that, you could retire, but your mind would go to mush. You have to think about what you're going to do so that you're still stimulated intellectually. You're not sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Being around guys like Reggie White in 2000 and Eric Davis to some extent, it kind of trickled down to me."
It also trickled down to defensive end Al Wallace, who has leaned on both internships and advice from teammates to get himself in position for his "first retirement."
"As I get older, I can see the finish line in the distance, and I want to maintain a certain lifestyle and keep myself busy," said Wallace, who is entering his seventh season in NFL and fifth with the Panthers. "We have a great group of guys in here who are entrepreneurs like Mike Minter and Mike Rucker. Being able to connect with those guys and throw around some ideas and come up with some ventures that we all want to be involved with, both us and our wives, is great.
"Being 32 now, I'm 10 years out of college. I'm still a young person, but I would just now be going into the work force and starting off where my buddies started off 10 years ago. You're going to have to come up with something to take care of your family and maintain your lifestyle. You want to look into wealth management. Coming up with business ventures is a great way for us to keep some cash flow going and bring another challenge to our lives."
That, perhaps, is more important than simply finding a way to keep cash flow going.
"I think a big thing for athletes is the thrill of competition," Wallace said. "We need to be challenged. So what I have found working with Mike and Mike these last few months is that going out into the business world is another challenge. It gives our bodies a break and lets us use our minds while also giving something back to the community and serving as positive role models."
Minter says the same concepts that apply on the football field apply off it.
"The guys whose careers are shorter than they should have been are the guys who struggle outside of football, too, because they haven't learned to maximize what they have," he said. "There are a lot of guys in this league who are very talented, but talent is only going to carry you so far and then you're done.
"A guy like Darrell Green, on the other hand, had talent and maximized it, playing 20 years. Or Eugene Robinson, who played 16 years. Eric Davis played 14 years. Look at John Kasay. Think about him being with just two teams as a kicker in 15 seasons. That's amazing."
Special to NFL.com
In the NFL, experience means everything. Younger players constantly defer to the players who have been there before them. This mainly applies to football, but there are times when off-the-field advice is every bit as important.
Carolina Panthers safety Mike Minter remembers the first veteran who talked to him about setting himself up for success in more ways than one.
"My second year in the NFL, I started to think about what I needed to do after football," said Minter, who is entering his 10th season, all with Carolina. "Eric Davis was that guy who took me under his wing and taught me the business of football. I think that's the first thing you have to learn. He taught me that aspect of it.
"It's very difficult. What happens is it's a process. First you come into the league and you're just happy to be here. You're thinking about fitting into the team and not much else. Then, you start to learn the game of football, and hopefully the business side of it, too. You come to understand that you are a business and you have to do certain things to make it last."
It seems odd at first comparing a human being to a business, but in this case, the two share many things in common.
"If you look at businesses in general, most of them go under in three to five years," Minter said. "So does a typical NFL career. To sustain your business, you have to be consistent and you have to have the right work ethic. When you do that, your business will sustain itself, be it on the football field or off. Those who get that concept down on the football field first will have an easier time off it."
Panthers director of player development Donnie Shell preaches the same message to the younger members of the team. He has given many players a chance to test drive different careers via internships he sets up in the Charlotte community. Eight-year veteran Mike Rucker is one of those players who have taken advantage of Shell's program.
"Donnie was one of the first guys who took me under his wing," said Rucker, who like Minter has a handful of business interests to tend after while he's away from Bank of America Stadium. "I took advantage of his internship program to start thinking about life after football. It's a hard thing for guys to think about when they're just beginning their careers. In other careers, retirement is 30-40 years away when you're coming out of college. For us, it's 10 years away if we're lucky, and for most of us it's five years or less."
Some might think that simply investing the money made from playing should sustain a player through the rest of his life. Not true, says Rucker.
"When you're done, and you've invested your money right and all of that, you could retire, but your mind would go to mush. You have to think about what you're going to do so that you're still stimulated intellectually. You're not sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Being around guys like Reggie White in 2000 and Eric Davis to some extent, it kind of trickled down to me."
It also trickled down to defensive end Al Wallace, who has leaned on both internships and advice from teammates to get himself in position for his "first retirement."
"As I get older, I can see the finish line in the distance, and I want to maintain a certain lifestyle and keep myself busy," said Wallace, who is entering his seventh season in NFL and fifth with the Panthers. "We have a great group of guys in here who are entrepreneurs like Mike Minter and Mike Rucker. Being able to connect with those guys and throw around some ideas and come up with some ventures that we all want to be involved with, both us and our wives, is great.
"Being 32 now, I'm 10 years out of college. I'm still a young person, but I would just now be going into the work force and starting off where my buddies started off 10 years ago. You're going to have to come up with something to take care of your family and maintain your lifestyle. You want to look into wealth management. Coming up with business ventures is a great way for us to keep some cash flow going and bring another challenge to our lives."
That, perhaps, is more important than simply finding a way to keep cash flow going.
"I think a big thing for athletes is the thrill of competition," Wallace said. "We need to be challenged. So what I have found working with Mike and Mike these last few months is that going out into the business world is another challenge. It gives our bodies a break and lets us use our minds while also giving something back to the community and serving as positive role models."
Minter says the same concepts that apply on the football field apply off it.
"The guys whose careers are shorter than they should have been are the guys who struggle outside of football, too, because they haven't learned to maximize what they have," he said. "There are a lot of guys in this league who are very talented, but talent is only going to carry you so far and then you're done.
"A guy like Darrell Green, on the other hand, had talent and maximized it, playing 20 years. Or Eugene Robinson, who played 16 years. Eric Davis played 14 years. Look at John Kasay. Think about him being with just two teams as a kicker in 15 seasons. That's amazing."
