Before his fourth season with the Vikings in 2019, defensive end Stephen Weatherly took part in the test pilot for an internship program the team started to help players build professional networks they could use after their playing days. He met Caribou Coffee CEO John Butcher during his day with the company, as Butcher critiqued the job Weatherly had done pitching the company's new Vikings-themed coffee blend.
Last August, Weatherly hurt his knee while playing for the Browns in preseason, and doctors told him he was one injury away from a knee replacement. The 29-year-old, ever a Renaissance man, took the news as his cue to pursue the business ideas that had been developing in his head for some time.
He got his real estate license, selling the house he had bought while playing in the NFL, and used the money he earned over his seven-year career to launch Athlete Recruitment Center, a company Weatherly billed as a one-stop recruiting shop where colleges could subscribe to a comprehensive database of player information and high schoolers could connect with coaches at the camps Weatherly is launching, supported by the NFL Players Association.
On June 23, Weatherly was in Wayzata with more than 20 current and former players, listening to Butcher speak on a panel with four other sports and business executives as part of the Institute for Athletes' fourth annual player empowerment summit. Afterward, the two reconnected, to talk about Weatherly's burgeoning foundation and when he could find time to introduce Butcher to his hobby of glass-blowing.
"We've stayed in touch ever since that day," Butcher said. "Stephen came to Caribou with curiosity. He was genuinely interested in — and by the way, very good at — a lot of what we do. He's a great example of somebody who's built with a lot of natural talent. One of those, he expresses on the football field. And [the others], they're just now beginning to blossom."
Weatherly was on Butcher's mind when IFA President Blake Baratz called to ask if Butcher could join the summit, meet some of the sports agency's clients and offer some advice on building a successful post-football career. Butcher said yes, pushed back his flight to his sister-in-law's 50th birthday party by a couple of hours and showed up at the Hotel Landing, coffee cup in hand, ready to share advice and field questions from players.
"It's not that different than anybody who's investing time and building their career," Butcher said. "I can't pretend I know everything about the future, but I can say a lot of the skills it takes to be a successful athlete are probably pretty similar to the skills it takes to be an executive."
Baratz launched the IFA summit to help his clients — many of them players in the middle of their NFL careers — build connections that could help smooth the path from pro football's bright, brief spotlight to the successful post-playing career many athletes have struggled to find. The three-day event gave players a chance to meet Minnesota-based business executives and talk about everything from branding strategies to future plans.
During the panel discussion, former Vikings running back Robert Smith opened up about his battle with alcoholism after his career and the mental health struggles many players face after retirement. Twins chief revenue officer Meka White Morris recalled her father — Celtics Hall of Fame point guard Jo Jo White — needing a second career after his playing days ended, because NBA salaries in the 1960s and '70s weren't lucrative enough to sustain players through the rest of their lives.
"So I will be damned if people who give their lives and sacrifice their bodies the way that you guys do don't have a road map for themselves beyond playing," she said. "There will be people in this room who are blessed to play for a decade or more. And there will be people in this room who aren't so lucky. But my God, the gift that you have of today, in this moment, is without question something that I'm passionate about."
Aaron Ryan, the Minneapolis Southwest graduate and former NBA executive whose NorthRock X financial services firm manages more than $4 billion of assets for professional athletes, told athletes to make business connections while they are still playing — "because they won't take your call as much when you're not." That advice, Ryan said later, came first from Magic Johnson to Tony Parker, the six-time NBA All-Star who is now Ryan's business partner at NorthRock X.
"It's a delicate balance, right?" Ryan said. "There's this idea that you're really homing in on your first craft. And you know that it's going to be a truncated period. So how do you devote attention to your career, especially in the early years of a young athlete's career? But those who really gravitate [to it] are the ones who are the most intellectually curious. They're balanced in their expectations, that while [a career in sports] may last a long time, it's also a fleeting opportunity."
The average NFL career lasts less than 3½ years; players must complete at least four seasons before they reach unrestricted free agency. Baratz, an NFL agent for nearly 20 years, has long worked to prepare players for the reality their seven-figure salaries can be gone before they turn 30. The player empowerment summit, he said, is a natural extension of that work.
"It just kind of brings to life what we're talking about [with players]," he said. "It's important to have different perspectives and different people talking about it. I can't talk to clients about every single thing in the world without it becoming redundant or going in one ear and out the other. So I think it's just for them to see it, too — for them to see the environment [of business professionals] without overdoing it."
When Weatherly told other players he was going to the summit, he said he received texts from several who were intrigued by the idea and asked if they could attend. The summit, he believes, can be the kind of thing that smooths his transition from the NFL to the rest of his career.
"Coming to events like this, learning how to network, learning how to convey the passion that I have in a concise way, it's my new thing," Weatherly said. "I'm no longer learning like 30 short plays; I'm learning how to pitch to C-suite executives."
