Study Hall: NFL Players Enroll In Business Management Program

About 120 NFL players this year have enrolled in the NFL Business Management & Entrepreneurial Program, according to Marcia Smith of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. The three-day program, which started yesterday, is being held at Stanford Univ. Graduate School of Business and Northwestern Univ.'s Kellogg School of Management for $5,000 and at Harvard Univ. Business School and Univ. of Pennsylvania's Wharton School for $10,000. Players pay for the program themselves and are seeking to "gain some financial sense about the business ventures they hope to start and turn profits in the years beyond their playing careers." Eighty percent of the program's participants already have undergraduate degrees. Stanford management professor George Foster: "Less than 1[%] of NFL players have the kind of sizable endorsement deals that set them up for life. The other 99[%] have to think about making smart decisions about their money and time after they leave the NFL." The voluntary program began at Harvard and Wharton in '05 with 66 players, and since then more than 350 have "gone back to school to study and improve their entrepreneurial skills and tinker with business plans." NFL Dir of Player Development Christopher Henry: "We know that many NFL players start businesses, and we started this program in 2005 to help educate them about their choices. What they find is that the real world is just as competitive as football" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 3/3).