Still in the Game (cont.)

That’s a mantra shared by all three athletesturned- businessmen profiled on the following pages. While veteran businessman Johnson focuses on positioning the Magic Johnson brand to live on long after its charismatic namesake steps aside, rookie Drew Bledsoe, 36, hopes he can learn from Johnson and others now that
he’s tackling the business world. “My absolute hero in this arena is Roger Staubach,” says Bledsoe, who is funding a high-tech water-filtration company, among other ventures. “Staubach is the epitome of a guy who’s been successful entirely because of smart business practices. And because he works his butt off.” Indeed, the legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback took a job in commercial real estate during every offseason to learn the ropes before starting his own real estate firm, the Staubach Company. In June, Staubach sold his firm to financial giant Jones Lang LaSalle for $618 million, but he still plays a key role at the company.

These three stars rank high among athletes who have used their sports success as a springboard for a second career in business. After retiring from sports in the 1990s, football pros Ronnie Lott and Harris Barton co-founded HRJ Capital, a Woodside, California, firm that manages private equity funds of funds. Retired Major League Baseball centerfielder Lenny Dykstra writes an investment strategy column for thestreet.com and recently launched a magazine for pro athletes called The Players Club. And although 10-time boxing world champion Oscar De La Hoya still fights professionally, he also founded and holds a majority interest in one of the country’s largest boxing promotion firms, Golden Boy Promotions, and a partnership in a $100 million real estate firm. Rounding out the roster are John Elway (car dealerships), Tiger Woods (golf course design) and Shaquille O’Neal (real estate development).

For many athletes, this next act in business isn’t just about lending their name to a restaurant or clothing line, a strategy that can dim as the jock’s limelight does. Increasingly, athlete entrepreneurs are looking to become active players in the business world. “This is another realm where they can exercise their discipline and
drive,” says Carl Kester, a professor of finance at Harvard Business School.“They’re still keeping score, but now it’s in dollars.”

True, these athletes have one thing going for them that most new entrepreneurs don’t. “If they want to call people to discuss an idea, people will generally return the call,” says Kester. But name recognition isn’t always an asset. Athletes often face an onslaught of business ideas from friends, family, acquaintances, and complete strangers, says Kenneth Shropshire, director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative. “Unfortunately, many of these ideas are really bad ideas,” he says. Even when athletes do have a good business plan, they aren’t always taken seriously. When Johnson first set out to invest in urban communities, banks and investors were all too eager to meet with him, but not to talk about business. “They wanted my autograph and a picture, but they were scared to invest in urban America,” he says. Many were doubtful that Johnson would be able to maneuver in the business world as well as he did on the basketball court: “I had to debunk that dumb jock image.”

It’s not just an image for athletes who fail to get outside advice or rely solely on it. “I get scared when players put total trust in their financial advisers or business partners,” says Mike Haynes, who retired from the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989 and is now NFL vice president of player and employee development. “Athletes need to educate themselves.”

Many of them are, by picking the brains of business leaders, participating in offseason internships, or going back to school. In fact, the NFL has teamed up with some of the country’s top business schools to offer offseason business seminars. The annual programs—held at Harvard Business School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School, Stanford Business School, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business—draw about 30 players each, all eager to flesh out business ideas and learn lessons in entrepreneurship. “For many,” says Haynes, “one of the biggest lessons is just how to say no.”

Bledsoe, for one, is well aware of his rookie status. “For me the most important component of all of this is recognizing that I don’t know very much,” he says. Of course, that’s also part of the appeal. “When I was playing ball, it was about seeing how good I could be,” he says. “That’s what motivates me in business. Can I play with the big boys and be successful?”

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