Wharton students may find themselves rubbing shoulders with National Football League players in Huntsman Hall next month.
The NFL and Wharton recently announced a joint venture to provide NFL players with education for their post-playing careers.
The program, which will be jointly hosted by Wharton's executive education program and the newly formed Wharton Sports Business Initiative will commence with a three-day seminar in April followed by yearlong support provided to the 35 players who participate in the first trial.
Kenneth Shropshire, director of the WSBI and professor of Legal Studies, will lead the seminar. According to Shropshire, classes will be taught on a wide range of topics including investment advice, entrepreneurship and the reading and evaluating of contracts. Shropshire also said that he hopes to create mentorship opportunities for the players with Wharton alumni during the conference.
According to Troy Vincent, a Buffalo Bills player and head of the NFL Players Association, the program was developed as a result of players' interests in developing their post-NFL career skills.
"Players realize that we all have different interests in our lives and what we want to do after our football careers," Vincent said, adding that he is hoping that "each player walks away [from the conference] with the tools and knowledge to pursue their dreams as they begin to explore investment opportunities."
According to NFL spokesman Dan Masonson, the NFL has already received a tremendous amount of player interest. As a result, the participating players will be chosen based on a number of factors, including seniority and business background.
The NFL Player's Association chose Wharton for the program after exploring many institutional options because "the faculty and Wharton's ability to research was superior to others," Vincent said.
Wharton also hopes to benefit from the partnership.
"This will be a different kind of executive education" for the Wharton School, Shropshire said, adding that the players in the NFL are generally "young, relatively wealthy individuals who could certainly use this kind of professional guidance."
The partnership announcement comes on the heels of the establishment of the WSBI. The initiative, which aims to form educational opportunities through the partnership of students, faculty, players and sports organizations, was announced at the end of February.
The WSBI "is something that we've been thinking about for a while," Shropshire said, adding that "the NFL signing indicates that we were right about it."
