Offseason for NFL players doesn't mean these stars are off from work.
Michael Haynes, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who oversees the NFL's player development department and internship program, makes sure this is so and stresses post-football planning to players. Through those programs, the league sets up players, current and retired, to spend their springtime learning a variety of careers with local companies to help them prepare to make a living when they retire from football.
The 50-year-old Haynes feels there is no time like the present to plan the future, especially when the average NFL career is about four years. That leaves decades for post-football opportunities.
'[The program] serves to expose the guys to other things outside of football or at least off the playing field,' Haynes told the USA Today, who recently profiled several players that switch careers during the offseason. 'If we can get them to take small steps in six to eight weeks and get them to focus on things other than being football players, it actually helps them to be better football players.'
One of the players taking advantage of the internship program is Jarvis Green, the New England Patriots backup defensive end. He works as many as 40 hours a week during the offseason at Rolls-Royce Naval Marine in Walpole, MA.
'It's been hard with football and the family,' Green said in the national newspaper. 'But this will help me down the road.'
The 25-year-old Green, who majored in construction engineering at LSU, works a shift at the plant where Rolls-Royce designs and builds propellers for various U.S. Navy craft. Looking forward to his third season in the league, Green has a wife in college and two children under the age of 7, and began at the company working in administration.
New York Jets offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie, also 25, interned at the NFL's player development department last year and this offseason worked in officiating.
'It's a chance to experience a real-world situation and what it's like to make a regular salary working 9-to-5 while thinking on your feet,' McKenzie, a four-year veteran, told USA Today.
McKenzie's teammate, Quincy Stewart, also interned with the league, but in the marketing department. His main project surrounded developing player images as it relates to marketing, advertising and promotions.
Some of the other Black players currently involved with the league's internship program are NFL free agent Frank Moreau who interned in the league's player development department; Chiefs' linebacker Shawn Barber, who works in financial planning at the Legacy Financial Group; Giants' running back Tiki Barber is a contributor to NBC's 'Today' show, Colts' defensive back Anthony Floyd works in the insurance division at Northwestern Mutual; Chargers' defensive back Sammy Davis works in the finance department at Pollakov Financial Group and Lions' defensive end Robert Porcher worked training camps for NFL Europe Operations.
