The Player’s Networking Event (PNE) was a three day Super Bowl experience that was held at the Florida International University Kovens Conference Center. PNE was first established in 2001 as a pilot program under the National Football League’s (NFL) Player and Employee Development Department. It was originally a one day event typically taking place the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday, and created to provide active and former NFL players with exposure to corporations interested in providing players with work experiences through the NFL’s Career Transition Program. But this year, they added on to their mission.
At the 20th presentation of PNE they expanded the program to three days and added a focus to mentor high school athletes in the south Florida community and teach them about health and wellness on every level. Many high school football players and coaches were able to benefit from some of the programs designed to educate the young athletes, as well as expose them to different career paths.
The event kicked off on Thursday with A “High School Symposium.” The athletes filed in and started the day off with a panel discussion from former collegiate athletes who all played on different levels and for various universities including Division-I football bowl subdivision (FBS), Division-I football championship subdivision (FCS), predominantly white institutions (PWI), and historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). The purpose of this panel was to inform the athletes of all the different pathways available to them. Often times, athletes only focus on the “big programs” or the college teams that they see on television. But there are 100’s of other opportunities available, and the main focus of this panel was that it isn’t about the best athletic school, but about the best school that fits you and your long term academic needs.
After this panel, athletes broke up into groups that forced them to separate from their teammates and meet players from other schools in smaller groups. From here they rotated through breakout sessions such as a financial literacy course, a pitch competition, and were shown the different career opportunities available to them. A big theme of this weekend was the transition of athletes to the business world and the difficulty of that to which former NFL player Will Shields commented , “Football is what you did, it’s not who you are. It doesn’t define who you’re going to be and what you’re going to accomplish.” So many athletes find it challenging to give up the sport that they love. PNE made sure to address these challenges and encouraged athletes to get focused on life after football.
As we dive into the world of athlete mental health a huge area of need is mentors. So often the focus is the development of players athletically but not the development of players mentally or emotionally. The athletes who were able to attend this event were able to speak to and converse with a host of players who at some point walked in their shoes. Players such as Will Shields, Mack Hollins, Jon St. Clair Kenny Phillips, Michael Mckenzie, Ray Ellis, & Uche Nwaneri were all some of the players who walked through the doors at the 20th Annual Players Networking Event. It is important to continue hosting opportunities as we work to best prepare these athletes for a life of success on and off the playing field.
Excellent recap, thank you for sharing and putting the good word out there! I have posted it as a featured item on my Linked IN page. Going forward if you ever need more intel or a quote for future stories / blog / podcast content on “life after sports” or the challenges athletes face with career transition outside the lines when the cheering stops, do feel free to reach out and give me a call. We are most happy to share our learnings the past two+ decades around the efforts and stories where athletes are making the grade and a positive difference in their communities, either as active or former professional athletes! Best & blessings, thanks again! Kirk