Jed Collins

I'm in the rare, fortunate group that got to see and appreciate the game for all that it gave me. There was a place in time where I was ready. I had just had my first daughter, and I had experienced the tenacity and the true beauty of the game at its fullest. But once that glass shattered, reminding me that I wasn't invincible and that there was this other little being, I kind of knew that I had to start pursuing something else.

I was extremely fortunate to be cut a dozen times. Very few people get to say that, and very few people believe me when I say that. But what it did was force me to see life after football.

Each offseason while I was in the league, I was studying for my certification in financial planning. I was the kind of goofy dude on the team in that regard. But I was also the guy who was hiding my CFP books when we'd go on planes and trips, because I didn't want my intentions to be questioned.

When I was done and walking away from the game of football — where most are kind of just looking for a direction to walk into — I already knew something in the financial world was of interest to me.

I was handed my first big check my rookie year — and as an accounting major and somebody who grew up around money and with a family of highly educated people in Orange County, CA, I got handed this big check and I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. Nobody had ever taught me about money.

That check started me out on the journey, and as I got educated, I realized guys within the locker room needed that education again, even if they had a business degree.

I was supposed to be the one who had some answers, but I didn't have them until I started studying and got that CFP designation. And so, with that, I started to educate and empower guys on teams wherever I was. I would try to find some of the young cats, even some of the veterans, and explain our benefits package, cash management, what an index is, etc. I found that I enjoyed that educational atmosphere – I really got fulfillment out of teaching. So, as I was becoming a financial advisor on the side, I would go out and teach colleges and high schools the basics of money. This “side hustle project” had become a passion.

As I started to teach other guys in the locker room, I realized the problem everybody wants to highlight and point to is, "big dumb jocks don't know what to do with their money." The reality is NOBODY knows what to do with their money.

Walking into an NFL locker room is the beginning of the dream, but it's not the end. The real dream of the NFL is to leave the game with the dream intact, not to just enjoy it while you’re there. That is the challenge and the premise of the business I've started.

We all know the physical toll the game is going to take on us. If we walk away from the game without having the financial plan to empower us throughout the rest of our lives, I see the dream becoming a nightmare very quickly.

I created a course called 'Rookie to Veteran' that has nothing to do with money. It was all around the behaviors and the principles I witnessed in my NFL journey. Again, 12 times, 13 different locker rooms — I got to experience the best in the world. I tried to be among them, but truly the only reason I was able to sustain and go seven years was because I stole from every guy who I came across.

I'm a journaler, so I was writing down stories and interactions and things I saw and heard, and that is what became this framework of 'Rookie to Veteran'. It is 10 principles, 10 behaviors, that really bridge that gap between the potential of a dream, and actually succeeding in achieving that dream. I firmly believe current, former and future NFL players, as well as professional athletes at large, will be a new wave of wealth — but only if they understand the opportunity and capture it.

I have a book that was published this month called ‘Your Money Vehicle’. I would love to challenge any former player to take my financial literacy test that is the summation of my book. It's a humbling realization of how little we actually understand about money.