The Winning Game

Can student athletes aspire to be CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, or is that just a fanciful notion?

For Chris Valletta ’00, former Texas A&M offensive lineman who advanced to play for the NFL, his sports career was a segue into his current multimillion-dollar business ventures, talks, and entrepreneurship. Valletta wants student-athletes to understand they possess an inherent set of skills they can harness to become leaders in the business world.

Valletta recently asked a punter on the Texas A&M football team what it takes to be great at what he does. The response was not about leg strength and other physical attributes; rather the punter spoke of his ability to focus, to capture a ball that was coming fast, and to have a proper technique. He needed the vision to gauge what was happening in front of him, where the threats were, and adjust. Plus, he had to perform under pressure and deal with crowd noise.

“Everything you just said about being a great punter — those are the most in-demand skills in the business world today,” Valletta stated.

Two decades ago, with Valletta winding down his NFL career to seek out opportunities in the business world, his father posed a similar question, “What did you do to be successful in football?” His answer included words like dedication, discipline, drive, the ability to handle adversity, and performing under pressure. He would soon realize the value of those skills when working in the advertising department of KRLD News Radio in Dallas — where he was named rookie salesperson of the year — and when he co-founded MISSION in partnership with Serena Williams, Drew Brees, and Dwyane Wade to produce cooling gear for athletes during hot weather.

“In 2021, Chris had a vision to take student-athletes and all the skills they instinctively possess and use those skills to launch them into leadership positions in business,” says Dr. Janet Parish, director of the Reynolds and Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute.

Around the time, Parish had also met with sports lawyer Alex Sinatra ’11, ’14 who — in the wake of the 2021 Supreme Court ruling about players controlling their name, image, and likeness — wanted to create experiential education to protect student-athletes.

“I knew there were going to be bad actors preying upon athletes, so I wanted to make sure athletes understand when they should tread lightly and when they should get additional help,” said Sinatra, the CEO and founder of the strategic sports consulting business Your Potential for Everything, who was instrumental in the setting up of AmplifyU.

“We needed to give student-athletes the resources and education to understand contracts and recognize a good deal.”

The big challenge for student-athletes, says Sinatra, is to realize that their value is not entirely tied to what they do on the field or court. She offers examples of Cincinnati Bengals running back Trayveon Williams ’18, who has grown into an entrepreneur with his foundation; tennis legend Billy Jean King, who ventured into business way back in the 1960s even as she was still competing as a professional; and Basketball Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.

“Earlier, athletes got injured and were tossed aside,” says Sinatra. “Many had no money saved, no platform, no brand. They would go broke and live very desperate lives after their playing careers. Now athletes have so many tools at their disposal to thrive off the court. Just because your playing days are over doesn’t mean you can’t be entrepreneurial and be part of a team.”

AmplifyU trains business leaders for the future across two broad tracks:

• AmplifyONE focuses on topics such as personal finance, entrepreneurship, social media, personal branding, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) law.
• AmplifyALL is centered on business topics like marketing, management strategy, and problem-solving.

One of the beneficiaries of this program is Alexis Ortiz ’24, a senior equestrian student-athlete pursuing a B.S. in Psychology. “I had never taken a business class, and this course opened my eyes. I learned about sales, marketing, personal branding, accounting, social media, sports law, contract negotiations, and even how to use LinkedIn to build my network.”

Starting in fall 2024, student-athletes will have access to a full three-credit, semester-long course dedicated to business. Ortiz has advocated for the program by speaking to several athletes on campus and giving presentations to multiple sports teams. “Every session, more student-athletes participate, and we are getting good feedback.”

While most universities seem to be outsourcing the business education of athletes to a third party, AmplifyU leverages Texas A&M’s wide-ranging athletic network. “I know of no other university,” says Valletta, “where you have a business professor standing next to a former student-athlete — currently in marketing, finance, legal, or sales — and they collaborate to present the information in a framework that makes the most sense to the audience.”

The program’s success lies in how former athletes have responded to it, says Valletta.

“Every former student-athlete that’s come back has expressed interest in co-teaching or sitting on a panel or getting involved. And all of them say, ‘I wish I had this program when I was here.’

“It offers both excitement and confirmation that we are doing the right thing.”