Great message. Hope other programs are doing the same thing.
LINK
As Darius Walker stood in front of a packed auditorium in the Guglielmino Athletic Complex and looked at the crowd of football players in attendance, he knows exactly what would be going through his mind as a student-athlete.
“I remember sitting in this same room thinking the same thing,” Walker said Tuesday morning. “Like, 'Man, whoever is up there talking to me, none of this stuff applies to me. I’m going to be the exception.' And the reality is that a lot of guys end up going down that same road because it takes longer to understand and mature.”
But the former Notre Dame running back, who is the program’s fourth-leading rusher, didn’t have the opportunity to attend a program about post-graduate finance skills when he was a student. Walker didn't sit through a presentation like the one he and 11-year NFL veteran Bart Scott delivered Monday evening.
That’s why Walker, who now splits his time as a private wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley and ESPN commentator , approached Notre Dame’s director for football operations, Chad Klunder, earlier this year about hosting a program that teaches players how to understand loans, credit scores and other necessary financial information after graduation.
“When I talked to the guys, that was sort of my big push,” Walker said. “My big message, if you will, was that the reason that I wanted to bring this to Notre Dame specifically is because it’s something I thought I would have really benefited from when I was a student-athlete here.
“And so to be able to deliver that to them made it even more special for me, having gone to this place and having sat in the same seats that they were sitting in with the same look on their face that I had at 18, 19 years old.”
Walker has a degree from Notre Dame's esteemed Mendoza College of Business, but it wasn't until two years ago that he was able to put his coursework to use. The ESPN college football commentator found himself frustrated with the amount of free time he had in the offseason. There was rarely free chunks of time during his time at Notre Dame or in the NFL. Now that it was there, Walker needed to fill it.
“I was sitting around for six, seven months a year when football season was over and thinking, ‘What the heck am I doing?’” Walker said. “I’ve got to do something else. The education you get at Notre Dame is so great that I’d be remiss if I didn’t take full advantage of that.”
The business-marketing major recognized a void he could fill and found a job at Morgan Stanley. Through his work there, Walker educates student-athletes—a group the former running back resonates with—how to handle their finances, an area of post-graduate life that can be costly if it isn’t handled properly.
Former NBA star Antoine Walker is a prime example of what can happen if a professional athlete doesn't keep his or her finances in order. The former power forward, who earned $110 million before going broke after retiring from the NBA, also works with Morgan Stanley’s Global Sports & Entertainment Group program to discuss his experiences. The group has hosted workshops at Boston College, presented to the Jacksonville Jaguars' rookies and is currently in talks with the University of Utah about bringing the workshop to Salt Lake City.
Understanding how to budget, maintain a good credit score and pay off loans is imperative for post-graduates to know, non-athletes and athletes alike. But Walker’s noticed that athletes struggle in particular because of the way their college life is set up.
“You’re conditioned to have people help you with a lot of things,” Walker said. “Whether it’s getting situated with your dorm, or getting your classes put together, the counselors help the guys with that. You’re used to having a lot of help with your stuff and when you get out post-graduation, now all of a sudden you need to do that stuff.
“You need to set up your utility bill and pay it on time. You need to move your stuff from South Bend, Ind., to Chicago or wherever it is. You have to be hands on making these decisions yourself, and you don’t have a whole lot of experience doing that.
“I definitely ran into that when I got into the league, was I was like, now I’m responsible for all this stuff that sounds easy, but I’ve never done it before. There’s a lot of growing pains that I think every person goes through when they leave college, but especially student-athletes because they’re so conditioned to live life a certain way.”
Walker said the program was a success, especially considering the sizable crowd.
“I think we were surprised a bit at how engaged the guys were,” Walker said. “When we’ve done the program before, generally we’ve done it with about 10-15 players at most. And this was, this was I think all 90 guys, or close to. It was a lot of people to calm down after jokes, to corral after there was cool stuff that was happening, to really get under control. It was exciting, but it was a lot of guys, and they were much more engaged than we thought they would be, which was great.”
The program doesn’t delve into details covered in Notre Dame’s upper-level finance classes, but the information applies to all post-graduate career paths. And for Walker, the program is also about filling a void that was there when he was a student-athlete.
“We really just try to get into the basic stuff that they’ll be using, regardless of whether they sign a $20 million NFL contract or if they go work a corporate job in Chicago,” Walker said. “It doesn’t really matter. The principles that we teach them and talk about, they apply.
“It doesn’t really matter what you go into. Here are the life skills that you’re going to need to know, that I would loved to have known at your age. Let’s see if we can get that to you early.”
LINK
As Darius Walker stood in front of a packed auditorium in the Guglielmino Athletic Complex and looked at the crowd of football players in attendance, he knows exactly what would be going through his mind as a student-athlete.
“I remember sitting in this same room thinking the same thing,” Walker said Tuesday morning. “Like, 'Man, whoever is up there talking to me, none of this stuff applies to me. I’m going to be the exception.' And the reality is that a lot of guys end up going down that same road because it takes longer to understand and mature.”
But the former Notre Dame running back, who is the program’s fourth-leading rusher, didn’t have the opportunity to attend a program about post-graduate finance skills when he was a student. Walker didn't sit through a presentation like the one he and 11-year NFL veteran Bart Scott delivered Monday evening.
That’s why Walker, who now splits his time as a private wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley and ESPN commentator , approached Notre Dame’s director for football operations, Chad Klunder, earlier this year about hosting a program that teaches players how to understand loans, credit scores and other necessary financial information after graduation.
“When I talked to the guys, that was sort of my big push,” Walker said. “My big message, if you will, was that the reason that I wanted to bring this to Notre Dame specifically is because it’s something I thought I would have really benefited from when I was a student-athlete here.
“And so to be able to deliver that to them made it even more special for me, having gone to this place and having sat in the same seats that they were sitting in with the same look on their face that I had at 18, 19 years old.”
Walker has a degree from Notre Dame's esteemed Mendoza College of Business, but it wasn't until two years ago that he was able to put his coursework to use. The ESPN college football commentator found himself frustrated with the amount of free time he had in the offseason. There was rarely free chunks of time during his time at Notre Dame or in the NFL. Now that it was there, Walker needed to fill it.
“I was sitting around for six, seven months a year when football season was over and thinking, ‘What the heck am I doing?’” Walker said. “I’ve got to do something else. The education you get at Notre Dame is so great that I’d be remiss if I didn’t take full advantage of that.”
The business-marketing major recognized a void he could fill and found a job at Morgan Stanley. Through his work there, Walker educates student-athletes—a group the former running back resonates with—how to handle their finances, an area of post-graduate life that can be costly if it isn’t handled properly.
Former NBA star Antoine Walker is a prime example of what can happen if a professional athlete doesn't keep his or her finances in order. The former power forward, who earned $110 million before going broke after retiring from the NBA, also works with Morgan Stanley’s Global Sports & Entertainment Group program to discuss his experiences. The group has hosted workshops at Boston College, presented to the Jacksonville Jaguars' rookies and is currently in talks with the University of Utah about bringing the workshop to Salt Lake City.
Understanding how to budget, maintain a good credit score and pay off loans is imperative for post-graduates to know, non-athletes and athletes alike. But Walker’s noticed that athletes struggle in particular because of the way their college life is set up.
“You’re conditioned to have people help you with a lot of things,” Walker said. “Whether it’s getting situated with your dorm, or getting your classes put together, the counselors help the guys with that. You’re used to having a lot of help with your stuff and when you get out post-graduation, now all of a sudden you need to do that stuff.
“You need to set up your utility bill and pay it on time. You need to move your stuff from South Bend, Ind., to Chicago or wherever it is. You have to be hands on making these decisions yourself, and you don’t have a whole lot of experience doing that.
“I definitely ran into that when I got into the league, was I was like, now I’m responsible for all this stuff that sounds easy, but I’ve never done it before. There’s a lot of growing pains that I think every person goes through when they leave college, but especially student-athletes because they’re so conditioned to live life a certain way.”
Walker said the program was a success, especially considering the sizable crowd.
“I think we were surprised a bit at how engaged the guys were,” Walker said. “When we’ve done the program before, generally we’ve done it with about 10-15 players at most. And this was, this was I think all 90 guys, or close to. It was a lot of people to calm down after jokes, to corral after there was cool stuff that was happening, to really get under control. It was exciting, but it was a lot of guys, and they were much more engaged than we thought they would be, which was great.”
The program doesn’t delve into details covered in Notre Dame’s upper-level finance classes, but the information applies to all post-graduate career paths. And for Walker, the program is also about filling a void that was there when he was a student-athlete.
“We really just try to get into the basic stuff that they’ll be using, regardless of whether they sign a $20 million NFL contract or if they go work a corporate job in Chicago,” Walker said. “It doesn’t really matter. The principles that we teach them and talk about, they apply.
“It doesn’t really matter what you go into. Here are the life skills that you’re going to need to know, that I would loved to have known at your age. Let’s see if we can get that to you early.”
