Michael Tillery.com

Difference Maker: Ryan McNeil

May 17th, 2006
by Michael Tillery

Difference maker. Those powerful words best describe Ryan McNeil. McNeil played 12 seasons in the NFL, menacing quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers alike. During his career he also was the Player Representative for the San Diego Chargers in 2002, and served as one of the initial members of the NFL's diversity committee to monitor minority hiring practices. He was the recipient of the NV (Urban Professionals) Award in 2003 for changing the face of entrepreneurship and business in the sports industry. His organization, the Professional Business and Financial Network was formed during his playing days to lead current and former athletes to conduct their business affairs in the same professional manner they conducted their careers. Simply put, his organization is a safety net so athletes won't squander their money and also use their professional ties to network with their peers. He also published Overtime(OT) Magazine in June 2004. OT Magazine initially was a high end publication mainly for professional athletes and sports industry insiders. It's fan base has broadened to the general public that has become intrigued with how it's founder lays down business wisdom we all could learn from. McNeil recently sat down with www.Blacksportsnetwork.com to discuss his much needed organization.

Michael Tillery: As the product of educated parents, what did they instill in you regarding a proper education as well as having fiscal responsibility?

RM: That's a good question. I think the fiscal responsibility kind of happened as I matured into an adult. I think most parents try to keep the fiscal burden out of mind and out of sight of their kids. Mine were no different. The focus growing up was getting an education instead of having fun. I will admit that I got a summer job without properly asking my parents my junior year in high school. When my Mom found out, she stated that if I kept my grades up, then I could keep the job. Before I went to the University of Miami, I had a summer job then as well. What the job entailed in terms of the responsibility that I had rather than having money in my pocket was more important. Having the power of being able to utilize good decisions to bond with the right people to become more independent. That was more along the lines of what my parents were trying to instill. It wasn't just my parents, but my whole family. Education was the rock, the foundation that everything was built upon basically. I planned on getting an academic scholarship. Fortunately, I was good enough in football to get a scholarship to the University of Miami. Education is definitely where it's at. You have to understand where your individual strengths can best be utilized. Some of us are fortunate to be athletic enough to make large sums of money. To put ourselves in position to have great careers and capitalize on our athletic ability. I tried to put myself in both paths so I could take full advantage of all my strengths. So to answer your question in a roundabout way, my family, friends and I tried to focus on education and keep those financial burdens locked away until we were mature enough to handle them.

Michael Tillery: How did you happen upon psychology and settle on that as a major?

RM: I started off as an entrepreneurship major, but I thought that if I was going to have any success in athletics, that I had to start some businesses. So, I wanted to get first hand experience on how people reacted mentally and physically to different situations. My Mom was a psychology major too, so I was already an analytical type guy. It was easy for me to become a psych major. As you can see now, with all the tv shows such as C.S.I and Law and Order, that is really intriguing. Society wonders. I'm a wonderer, a “what if” kind of guy. It's always nice to know what one is thinking, good or bad. As far as competition on the football field. It helps us well to try and psych out our opponents. As a corner back you are always trying to play mind games with the receivers runners and quarterback so there are things you needed to know before the play happened.

Michael Tillery: You won two national champions with the Hurricanes, how did that translate to becoming a successful businessman?

RM: There's two trains of thought. It could either be a blessing or a curse. I tell folks this all the time. I was born a winner. I was born and raised in an environment that had no boundaries or limitations. I was raised in an atmosphere that was conducive to success. Going to the University of Miami, I felt comfortable from day one. I was around a group and an environment that had very high standards. Freshmen had to adjust to the environment. To understand that we all had to have one goal, to win the national championship, period end of story. The way to do that is you had to be one group that formed a team. If there is confidence instilled in you at an early age, that confidence can continue to grow. Some people call it cockiness. I define it as highly confident. It makes a whole, whole lot of sense when you have one hundred eight, one hundred nine confident individuals aimed at one goal. Rarely can you be stopped. Even with the losses that we had, we stopped ourselves more than the other team stopping us. It's really important, playing on the next level playing against first and second rounders basically in practice to have confidence. You say to yourself, that if I can play against these guys as a freshman, then I have a shot to play on the next level. That's the logic that many of us had going into our junior and senior season to basically get drafted. Once you get to the NFL, you realize that it's the same game— but the mind has to change to accommodate the fact that the NFL is a business. I made sure that I changed my mindset prior to me going so I looked at the game as a professional as a business from day one.

Michael Tillery: Why do you think there are so many Hurricanes in the NFL?

RM: One, the talent. You play with a talented bunch of guys. You stay in Florida. Everyone jokes that it must be something in the water. Florida has a lot of great athletes. I just think it goes back to the environment. It's one thing to have the ingredients. If you give five different chefs the same ingredients, the recipe might come out a little different and taste a little different. If it's not broke don't fix it. We (Miami) went through a little period when we slumped a little bit. Even now we aren't where we want to be exactly. We want to be top five, year in and year out. If all the guys want to be winners and have that track record and play together as a team then you are going to have a favorable result. Which is to win the national championship. Unfortunately, when I was there we lost two, so we could have had four championships in five years. To play in that many big games is a great accomplishment. A lot of people allude to how USC was rolling before Texas derailed them. It's very difficult to keep your whole team on the same page. We had that and it's there now. There's always going to be some adjustments from a coaching standpoint but the core of the University of Miami is what it's know for. Starting recently with Howard Snellenberger and Jimmy Johnson. They started something special at Miami, and that's not going to ever change.

Michael Tillery: Do you think Vince Young is going to excel at the next level?

RM: No, I think Vince Young is going to be a great quarterback in the NFL. The basic logic of football is that great high school players make great college players. Great college players make great pro players. Of course there are exceptions. He burst on the scene as a junior and got better and better at the most appropriate time when all the pressure was on his shoulders. There were many times when he could have cracked and folded up shop, but he did it so effortlessly it's not even funny. When you try to quantify and qualify how well someone is going to do—we don't have any crystal balls—but if I were a betting man, I would say that he would do just fine. It doesn't really matter what system he goes into. All these people say that he can't be a West Coast Offense quarterback because of the terminology. You want winners and Vince Young is definitely a winner. He showed the world that. At Miami, guys would switch from one side of the ball out of necessity, they were winners and it translated from offense to defense and vice versa. Look at D.J. Williams of Denver. He was one of the most recruited running backs to ever play at Miami, he switched to linebacker and the rest is history. Simply put he is a winner. What nobody really talks about is what Vince's teammates have to say about him. They all say he is a winner. He is definitely someone to build your team around. To me that's value, something you just can't get lifting weights. General managers and coaches are smarter than me in the sense that they know who is most likely to perform. Vince Young is an unusual talent. It's not often that someone like him comes around. If he continues to do the things he's been doing, then he will be great.

Michael Tillery: What do you say to young Black athletes that aspire to become professional athletes?

RM: It's the same game you played as a little kid. The same game you played in college. But when you get to the pro ranks it's serious fun. It's a business. Don't get too overwhelmed by the business aspect and don't be too cavalier about the fun and sport aspect. Find that balance. Everyone's balance is different. I've always been the serious guy—even back in the Pop Warner days—I was always highly competitive. My personality hasn't really changed. It's an opportunity to follow a dream. For most of athletes, whether it's football, baseball, basketball or hockey—you name it—to play professional sports is a dream come true so have fun with it. It's a time where there are a considerable amount of resources and money can be made but you have to be willing to learn and be on a learning track. A lot of times we have to slow down and shut out to be like a normal every day hard working citizen instead of the fantasy world that most professional athletes live in every day. You have to be in tune with what goes on around you and be exposed to that at your leisure. You have to maximize all of your opportunities and look at it as serious fun.

Michael Tillery: Is there any correlation between team sports and the business world?

RM: There are many in general. An athlete would be a great person to work with or have work for you. The dedication, determination—the never say quit attitude that you had when you are little, when you first playing sports. I don't know how may CEO's of Fortune 500 companies that played sports in the pro ranks, or college or high school, but I bet that drive is what made them a difference maker to see their talent through to become successful. One of the highest compliments that Jimmy Johnson paid to me was that I was a difference maker. Some athletes did not have it and summarily, the outcome is different. The people who want to make a difference and the people that don't is what the sports and business world has in common. In both fields, the individuals with the drive are the one with the keys to their prospective franchises, both in business and in athletics.

Michael Tillery: Why don't more Black athletes pull their resources together to collectively create more business opportunities?

RM: Do they have to? I argue the same question all the time, but my question is why should they? A lot of them don't have to. A lot of them are making 5,6,7,8,9, 10 plus million dollars a year. They choose projects of their own. I tell them that they are their own building, you are your own sub-contractor. If you are banking over one million dollars a year then you have to look at yourself as your own corporation. Everything has got to be tight. Your marketing has to be good. Your finances have got to be good. Your business plan has got to be good. You have to work out. Eat healthy. Blacks do not have a obligation to pull their money together. They have a choice. We're starting to work with the local city governments to campaign stock. You don't want athletes to just leverage his or her resources in one particular deal or initiative. That's not going to work. You don't want that to happen. Athletes come from all different backgrounds, different business managers, different agents. We might all have the same skin tone but our logic can be different. It could be something that I just don't believe in. We have to get rid of the myth that we as Blacks need to always work together. Don't get me wrong, if there's a deal out there that many athletes can channel their money together to get a something done—even by name recognition--then maybe they should do it. I'm sure it's happening as we speak. A lot of those deals don't get on the front page, or even make it into the paper. But they are getting done.

Michael Tillery: Why did you establish the Professional Business and Financial Network, and what is your objective?

RM: PBFN established itself really, to be honest with you. I was looking for information as to what I was going to do after I retire. At this particular time I think it was my fifth or sixth year in the league. I'm a player, so I was just trying to stay ahead of the game and there wasn't a lot of information out there. There was a little information with the NFL, as well as other outlets, but there wasn't enough for me to make a business out of. I was just thinking to myself. If I was having some issues or concerns what would I do. Many of my peers were having the same questions and I said let's create a portal of information and resources and data that can be utilized from there and go to a networking organization from there. Start some conferences and seminars having other athletes and retired athletes that have done really great things in business. Franco Harris, Roger Staubach the Kellen Winslows. It made a lot of sense then. From that point on we started asking what are the gaps. We need more athletes. We need more people inside the sports base. We then decided to start Overtime Magazine that we have been publishing for two years now. So it just rolled on its own.

Michael Tillery: What is your ambition and some of your goals for Overtime Magazine?

RM: It started out to control information for pro athletes inside a sports base. I never had any intentions of opening it up to the general public. We have been growing in circulation steadily over the last two years. A lot of people from outside professional sports started calling and writing letters saying that the publication contains a lot of good information. It's a business and lifestyle guide. It's not Sports Illustrated or ESPN the magazine. They have their own place. Overtime Magazine is unique. We have our own niche carved out and have done it in a classy and professional manner that everyone who reads it can appreciate. Our goal is to make sure we stay perceived in that particular light and push the envelope as far as being informative and provocative as possible as far as professional athletes. My goal is to expose athletes to what other athletes are doing in the sports base. How things work. If I'm a professional athlete and I'm looking for opportunities. I want to find the right ones. That's what we are here for. So the athlete can make a conscious choice. I'm constantly pushing my rights as an editor to keep me in a position to do that.

Michael Tillery: The majority of NFL teams are comprised of Black athletes. Do you think the league is doing a solid job of minority inclusion regarding coaching, front office jobs as well as ownership?

RM: No. That's a resounding no. I think improvements can be made across the board—in all sports but especially in sports where the the majority of athletes are African American. Everyone if not already—should be aware of the disparaging differences in employment. The improvement comes in the processes that take place when it comes to hiring—not just the hiring. I was on the diversity committee. The reason why they have the process in place that you had to at least interview an African American coach is to give them exposure to the whole process so they will be readily prepared when these prospective vacancies open. A lot of coaches bring along their friends or kin in unwritten alliances. We are all most comfortable with what we are familiar with. That being said—except for Division 1 hiring—we cannot assume that every situation is strictly race. We are doing ourselves a great injustice when we continue to do so. As long as we stay prepared and strong in our respective discipline, we can't help but to get noticed. A lot of my peers want to coach in the NFL right away as opposed to coaching in college or a less established league. Get your lumps and gain some experience. There's a lot of factors. You can't just make a blanket statement and say that race is the reason why. The fact that Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith, and Marvin Lewis are having great success will do nothing but expose African American coordinators that may have been overlooked.

Michael Tillery: It's very encouraging to have the opportunity of posing different questions to former athletes like yourself. You've made a name for yourself in such an admirable way. Athletes need to understand—as do all of us—that its beneficial to take care of our future welfare, now. We at Blacksportsnetwork.com look to African Americans such as yourself because it makes our job a little bit easier regarding how the media portrays positive stories similar to yours that should get more publicity. You have been very eloquent in your responses. We at Blacksportsnetwork.com truly thank you. Tavis Smiley recently released The Covenant for Black America that outlines an agenda for a more productive people. Any comments?

RM: I haven't seen it and haven't read it, so I'll be interested to see what he has to say. I know Tavis well. He's one our foremost speakers—very provocative--some deem him controversial. I think you need someone like a Tavis Smiley to ensure that we as a race do the right thing in elevating our position world wide. I've been a Tavis Smiley fan for as long as I can remember. So many people focus on athletes, but there are many other public servants that are doing their jobs to not only help us, but all people.

Ryan McNeil thanks for the soul flow.

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