Is the NFL really just about money?

Alexis Paul

An ESPN business analyst spoke on behalf of the Sports Lecture Series about the NFL being

mostly about money, not all about the skills players have. Approximately 100 business students

gathered in the Oval Theater (located in the Marshall Student Center) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday

night to listen.

Andrew Brandt, who occasionally appears on ESPN to discuss NFL games behind the scenes,

spoke to students and alumni during the University Sports Lecture Series about how he began his

career by starting the marketing expansion for a football team in Barcelona, Spain. In 1992 he

created the first half time shows for the Barcelona Dragons, while also being titled the youngest

General Manager at the time.

“It’s all about the money,” said Brandt when trying to describe why getting into the sports

industry is successful.

Within his 25 years of experience with the NFL, he shared that the flip side of it is all about

money, and some games can even be set up for professionals and fans.

“Everyone can talk about the games, but I can talk about what goes on behind the games, what

happens behind the curtain,” Brandt said.

Brandt said that he had to step outside of his law school circle entirely to pursue sports, which

started at Stanford Law. He then became a sports agent at ProServ, followed by Woolf

Associates. He then moved on to Vice President of the Green Bay Packers, founded the National

Football Post in 2008, and is now working towards increasing the academic side of the NFL as a

director, columnist, and analyst for ESPN.

Throughout his different positions, he spoke of his experiences while working closely with

wealthy, famous people such as Master P, Matt Hasselbeck, Ricky Williams, and many doctors

and lawyers. He said these life experiences taught him that money is a huge factor in some of the

games that are played in the NFL.

“My life at the time was like an episode of “MTV Cribs,” it’s like I’m meeting with famous

people around a bunch of money…and my head was just spinning,” he said.

The USF students and alumni seemed very intrigued by Brandt’s speech as he shared some wise

words of his own, “So, one thing about life and lives and careers is that it all sounds very

spiritual, but it does seem to happen when one door closes and another opens.”