You might be questioning how to work in the NFL and have Roger Goodell as your boss. There are many types of jobs in the NFL. The National Football League is one of the largest sports leagues in the world. Each year, the Super Bowl is seen in over 100 countries and by over 100 million Americans.
You may be wondering how to get a job in the NFL. Due to the success of the league, having an NFL career with an NFL team can be difficult. What does it take to find work if you have a sports management degree? If you want to learn how to work for the NFL, read on.
Internships Are Not Optional
You need to have at least one internship with an NFL team during your college years if you want to land NFL jobs with a team after you graduate. In some cases, you may be able to make connections with NFL executives for internship opportunities by working with major college team programs that have former NFL employees working for them.
The good news is that your guidance counselor or the head of your sport studies department can help you find internship and other work experience opportunities within the NFL. For those who are serious about getting ahead, it may be necessary to travel to a city several hours away if there are no teams nearby. Finding NFL entry level jobs after your internship will be another important step.
Its All About What You Have Done
While you have to do well in school, your practical experience is going to pay off more than getting good grades in class. If you can show that you have experience selling tickets, negotiating contracts or community outreach, you are going to be a valuable commodity to NFL teams with NFL jobs.
The biggest thing to understand about the NFL is that they are all about their public image. In recent years, the league has gone to great lengths to show that they care about their fans by adding WiFi to new stadiums as well as the RedZone channel on stadium jumbotrons. This means that you have to be able to understand public relations and how to sell the team to the public if you want to get a job in any capacity at the NFL level.
Who Do You Know?
Take the opportunity to meet as many people within the sports world as possible during your college years. If you have the chance to take a class taught by a marketing professional currently working with an NFL team or by a current NFL executive, you should jump at that chance. Many NFL teams hold their summer training camp at a college campus. Working at training camp gives you an opportunity to work around players, coaches and executives. This is the perfect place to network with the people who you need to know if you want a job in the NFL. Someday you could find yourself with one of the NFL front office jobs. If you want to have an NFL job, but you aren’t a football player, there are other options such as:
- public relations
- finance football operations
- sales media relations
- human resources
- ticket sales
- video coordinators
Conclusion
How hard is it to get into the NFL? Now that you’ve learned more about how to work for an NFL team, you know that it takes a lot to work for the NFL regardless of what degree you have. If you know that your goal is an NFL job, you need to start building your professional background by gaining work experience and business connections as soon as possible. The experience that you gain and the connections that you make are going to outweigh almost anything that you do in the classroom.
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