One Day, One Job » football

National Football Foundation

Willy Franzen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:22:26 +0000

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means that it’s time to talk about jobs in football (we’ve featured NFL jobs in addition to a few other cool opportunities). Since it’s our practice to feature non-profits on the weekend, I started browsing around the NFL’s Join the Team site, which features all of the league’s charitable work. One of the things that I came across was the Play It Smart program, which partners “academic coaches with student-athletes in order to, ‘take a student-athlete’s passion for sports and intense dedication to their team and transform it into a force for greater good in their lives.’” It’s a partnership between the NFL Youth Football Fund and the National Football Foundation. I decided to focus on the latter, as they’re exactly what I was looking for—a football related non-profit. The organization’s full name is The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. The Foundation is located in Irving, TX, while the Hall of Fame is located in South Bend Indiana. The organization’s mission is “to promote and develop the power of amateur football in developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America’s young people.”

Touchdown at National Football Foundation

Although the National Football Foundation occasionally works with the NFL, they’re an independent organization that is really focused on amateur football. I’m a big fan of organizations like this and National Coaching Fellows that work to improve achievement at the intersection of athletics and academics. Unfortunately, the National Football Foundation’s About page, so you should probably rely on their Wikipedia page for more info. You’ll see that the organization was founded in 1947 “by General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army Black Knights football coach Earl “Red” Blaik and journalist Grantland Rice.” You’ll also find that their current chairman is Archie Manning, the father of Colts’ QB Peyton Manning. Just as it’s hard to find information about the organization, it’s nearly impossible to find information on their jobs. You’re not going to find job postings, so you should get started by using their LinkedIn Company Profile to do research, and then use the Foundation’s Contact page to reach out to the right people. I can’t say for sure that they’re hiring, so it’s up to you to find out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Whom are you taking? Colts or Saints?

STATS

Willy Franzen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:41:20 +0000

I love statistics—especially when applied to sports—so it should be no big surprise that some of my favorite blogs include The Wage of Wins Journal, Sabernomics, and FanGraphs. Surprisingly, the statistical knowledge found on the best blogs these days is often far ahead of what you will find in the front offices of many major sports teams. The reason for the recent advancement in statistical sports knowledge of laypeople has a lot to do with how easy the Internet and computers have made it to collect and analyze in-depth data. A big reason that sports data is available is because of Northbrook, IL based STATS. Their story is pretty cool. They were founded in 1981 and “began as a grass roots operation tracking baseball in a unique, esoteric fashion.” Now, they’re “the world’s leading sports information, content and statistical analysis company.” I guess that numbers worked out for them.

Do Your STATS Match Up?

If you’re a sports stats geek like me, you’re probably already dying for a job with STATS. As you look more closely at the company, I think that your excitement will grow. They couldn’t be a bigger deal when it comes to sports statistics—they cover an insane number of sports, and their clients include the NFL, the NBA, CBS Sports, Google, Yahoo!, and quite a few other impressive names. So what about jobs at STATS? There are quite a few opportunities, and plenty of them appear to be suitable for new college grads. Current entry level positions include Part-Time Paralegal, Soccer Optical Tracking Position – Major League Soccer, Database Administrator, Computer Programmer, Data Collectors (Golf, Football, Baseball, or Soccer), and STATS Reporter. All of these jobs look awesome, so apply by sending a cover letter and résumé to jobs@stats.com (a few positions require you to apply in a different way, so be sure to check out all of the Job Listings first).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

And if you ever wondered about proper sports grammar, you need to check out STATS’ Style Sheet.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Willy Franzen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:45:26 +0000

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Last year on this day, we featured the USA Football, a non-profit organization that promotes amateur football. Since then we’ve taken a look at some other Super Bowl related jobs like the those with the NFL’s teams and with World Vision (they administer the donation of Championship paraphernalia that was produced for teams that didn’t win a championship). If you want to work in or around the sport of football, it’s a good idea to use all of the hoopla surrounding today’s events to generate ideas for your job search. That’s why we’re going to look at the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. Despite their strong ties to the NFL, they’re actually a non-profit organization based in Canton, OH.. Their mission includes 4 parts, and it’s what you would expect:

To honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to professional football; To preserve professional football’s historic documents and artifacts; To educate the public regarding the origin, development and growth of professional football as an important part of American culture; and To promote the positive values of the sport.

If you love football, then finding a job at the Pro Football Hall of Fame would be pretty cool.

Your Place in the Hall of Fame

Whether you’re a football player or a job seeker, getting a place at the Pro Football Hall of Fame isn’t easy. In fact, it might be harder for job seekers, because there’s no clear path on how to get in. If you’re a football player, at least you know that if you meet certain statistical figures, you’ll have a pretty good shot. Unfortunately, the Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn’t have a jobs page, and Google doesn’t turn up much info on how to land a job with them. They do have a Volunteer Opportunities page, which might provide a way to inquire about jobs, but there’s absolutely nothing on how to join their staff (there have to be some actual employees at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, right?). Since you have plenty of time before the game today, we’re looking at you to find some more information on how to land a job with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We know that there’s a way in, and even though they may or may not be hiring right now, we’d love to know what it is.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What are you doing for the Super Bowl?

Arena Football League Teams

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:00:54 +0000

Do you know how to make any sport better? Just put the word “arena” in front of it! Arena Soccer, arena badminton, arena fishing, arena skydiving… you get the point. Putting “arena” in front of a sport’s name is only second to putting “extreme” in front of it. Well one of the sports that actually works (not necessarily better) in an arena is football. The Arena Football League is putting out a product that is exciting to watch and offers an option for the football junkies who are bored to tears in the offseason. Getting a job in sports can be tough, and getting a job with a team in a major sports league can be near impossible. Sometimes looking to the secondary leagues (sorry AFL) can offer great options.

Arena Entry-Level Job Hunting

If you need an introduction to the Arena Football League, the Wikipedia page is probably a good place to start. You can also check out ArenaBowl.com. The Arena Football League is yet another sports league that uses TeamWork Online to manage its job postings. We like the way TeamWork Online does things, so it should be pretty easy for you to get the scoop on entry-level jobs with a variety of Arena Football League Teams.

One nice feature of searching for jobs with secondary sports league teams is that they often offer locations beyond the major cities that have NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL franchises. Almost all of the entry-level job opportunities with Arena Football League teams have something to do with ticket sales, so if you aren’t good at selling, you may want to sign up for their job notifications and wait for new opportunities to crop up.

Current opportunities with AFL Teams include: Ticket Services Coordinator – San Jose SaberCats (San Jose, CA), Ticket Account Executive – Amarillo Dusters (Amarillo, TX), Inside Sales Representative – Los Angeles Avengers (Los Angeles, CA), Account Executive – Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings (Bossier City, LA), Account Executive – Lubbock Renegades (Lubbock, TX), Ticket Sales Account Executive – Utah Blaze (Salt Lake City, UT), and Communications Manager – Columbus Destroyers (Columbus, OH). The Communications Manager position is the only non-sales position, but it seems to require more experience than the typical new college graduate would have (although the description sounds well suited to an entry-level hire).

Applying online through the TeamWork Online site is easy, so start looking over the jobs with Arena Football League Teams and see if any interest you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you an Arena Football fan?

Xenith

Willy Franzen — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:00:03 +0000

Is your job search starting to make you want to bang your head against the wall? Before you do that, consider purchasing (and wearing) one of Xenith’s X1 football helmets. Xenith has drawn from both medical experts and athletes to make a helmet that makes football safer for all participants. Collisions are a significant part of football, but with Xenith’s technology, the head and neck injuries that come with them don’t have to be.

Is Xenith hiring new college graduates? We’re not sure. There website doesn’t have a Careers page, and even if it did, we couldn’t link to it because their site is in Flash. Why are we talking about them? Because their product is exceptional. Moreover, they boast a couple 2006 graduates on their Management Team page, which tells us that they put a high value on young talent. This company looks especially enticing for the “retired” college athletes out there who can’t deal with sports withdrawal. This could be a perfect company to help you get your feet wet in the sports or sporting goods industries.

Speaking of wet feet… if you’re not already aware, we’re writing from poolside. Please excuse our brevity. Take it as a chance to practice your research. While we’re enjoying the sun, you can direct your cold calling/e-mailing attempts for entry-level jobs at Xenith to info@xenith.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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NFL Teams

Willy Franzen — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:00:36 +0000

The Super Bowl is over, which is heartbreaking for all you football fans. I’d make reference to the outcome of how either the Pats pulled off a perfect season or Eli Manning finally lived up to his last name and got himself a ring, but I wrote this post a few days in advance because I’m in Costa Rica fishing. I probably only watched half the game before going to bed so that I can wake up at 5 AM to get on a boat. I also only saw commercials in Spanish, which are not the same Super Bowl commercials that we’ve all come to love (by the way, don’t be influenced by the big job boards buying Super Bowl ad space, they’re still a really bad way to find authentic information for your job search). There’s no Internet down there anyways, so it’s not like I could have updated this post even if I watched the whole game. You should definitely feel sorry for me.

Yesterday, we told you about jobs at USA Football as a part of our non-profit weekends feature, but while we were researching them, we found some great entry-level jobs with NFL Teams. We know you’re still excited about the outcome of the Super Bowl, so let’s put that energy to good use and find you a job in football!

There are good things and bad things about how NFL Teams market their jobs online. The good news is that they all do it together, so it’s easy to find jobs with a number of teams on the same site. The bad news is that it’s hard to find information about what it’s like to work for the individual teams; in fact, there’s not really any information about the jobs beyond what is said in the job listings. Usually, we’re able to provide you with an assortment of links to get you started on your job research, but today you’re going to be on your own while you target your fact finding to specific teams (if you don’t know how to do this, read the One Day, One Job Article Archive).

If you want a job with an NFL Team, here are some clear cut entry-level options with specific teams:

Chicago Bears – Staff Accountant (Chicago, IL)

Minnesota Vikings – Graphic Design Coordinator (Eden Prairie, MN)

Miami Dolphins – Project Support, Ticket Sales and Account Manager, Premium Seating (Miami, FL)

These jobs might be a stretch for a recent college graduate, but you never know:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Accounting Assistant and Marketing Manager (Tampa, FL)

You can also look at all job openings with NFL Teams.

Some of these job descriptions say that you will be asked if you have the required experience as part of the application process. We’re not sure if that means that they’re really strict about required experience, or that they get so many applicants that they want to discourage people who aren’t completely serious (and well suited) for the given job. Don’t lie, but remember that experience is a subjective term.

NFL Teams have hired a lot of people through this website, so good luck adding yourself to the list of successes.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs with NFL Teams.

USA Football

Willy Franzen — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 13:00:05 +0000

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Yes, this might be a first. A weekend where both Saturday and Sunday are major holidays. Don’t even try to dispute the validity of Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday as major holidays. That means we have another holiday themed non-profit organization to talk about. We looked high and low, and couldn’t find too many football related non-profits, which surprised us. We especially wanted to find one that is actively hiring, and on that front we struck out – er – got sacked.

USA Football is a non-profit organization that aims to support and expand the sport of amateur football. They don’t have any current job openings, but they are primed for some cold calling. If you want a job in Football, working at USA Football will definitely give you the right connections. They have an impressive list of staff and board members – including Chairman Jack Kemp, who was a 13-year NFL Quarterback and running mate to Presidential candidate Bob Dole (we’d reference Bob Dole’s endorsement of a certain brand of male enhancement products, but we’re afraid that word will get us flagged by spam filters). If you want to get a job that will build your network for a future job in football, this is a great place to start. On the other hand, if you want a job with an NFL Team now, wait for tomorrow’s post on One Day, One Job.

Note: On April 27th we revisited entry-level jobs at USA Football.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

The USA Football Home Page
USA Football’s Employment Page (nothing here right now)
Overview of USA Football
Bios of USA Football Executives
USA Football’s Board of Directors
Contact USA Football

Whom are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?