Catching Up With Former Player Rep: Terrell Fletcher

What inspired you to become a Player Representative?

For me, the real question was, “how can I get involved with the governance of understanding the game, and understanding the behind the scenes of the game, more so than just being a player?” I was always just like everybody else. I fell in love with the game and knew that the game was going to be a real pathway to opportunities for me. I wanted to make sure I used it that way, but I also had this aspect about me that was interested in the business model of how things were run. Particularly, at the time when I played, we felt that the owners were winning a tad bit more than the players were. Now it's a little bit more even, but at that time, the economics were so imbalanced. Having a voice from our squad and from our team that could express the things that we hear in the locker room was important, and I felt like I could do it. I was very surprised that our team chose me, because we had so many voices that were louder than mine. I realized how my teammates saw me; they didn't just see me as another guy out there running and playing football. They also saw me as a cerebral thinker, a person who would represent them well. A person that understood some of the nuances of business and they trusted me with their voice. It wasn't even something I jumped into at first. Rodney Harrison was the guy that really convinced me to run. He said, "Man, you should put your name in. I'm going to vote for you anyway, whether you do it or not.” I thought that was very telling. I was very honored.

What lessons and experiences did you take away from being a player representative?

I think some of the biggest lessons that I learned were the value of collaboration and compromise. Being in those types of rooms, I think you come in thinking that it's going to be like a TV show. You're going to put your foot down; you're going to tell them that it's going to be a work stoppage. But we don't get everything we want, and you have these high, lofty, and at times aspirational ideas about what can be accomplished in those meetings. Then you go and you learn how business is done. So, for me, learning the language of compromise and the language of collaboration was important, because compromise can sometimes sound like a negative thing. It's about learning the language of collaboration and working together with the opposite side so that we can both walk away with winning. I've learned that sometimes it's not always a good thing if you win and they lose, or vice versa. Obviously, nobody wants to be on the other side, but if you win and they lose, then you'll have to compete again. If we can find ways to have win-wins, then it can serve us for a season and keep us, the players, satisfied and happy, and keep the owners satisfied and happy until it's time to do it again. I've taken those lessons into my own business too. The journey is knowing the idea that collaboration is how anything gets done. Very rarely does it get done with one person.

Why do you think more players should be involved, or be active with the NFLPA?

There are a few reasons. One, there’s so much more access to information about how the league is run and how organizations are run, which we didn't always have. 25 years ago, we were just employees, and they were business people. It took us a while to realize that we have marketable power that challenges us as individuals and the collective organization of players. It challenges us to think more business oriented, and to not just view ourselves as just wanting to go and play for the love of the game, but there is a monetary value. There is marketable market value that goes beyond just the dollars that you make. There are levels and stages and relationships that you'll have while you're in this space that you may not be able to touch again if you're not in the space—or if you weren't in the space, you certainly wouldn't be in the room. I think it's important now more than ever to take advantage of the information and access that's out there so you can leverage it and make it work for the players and for your personal journey along the way. Trying to help a 20, 21, or 22-year-old understand that life doesn't end when football ends. While you're playing, you should be setting yourself up for life after football. This is a part of the conversation that I have with all young athletes that what you're doing now attracts so many people, and if you leverage it right, they'll be talking about you when you're 50. What other job are you going to be able to do that in? It is a matter of understanding your unique market position right now. How do I leverage that? How do you do good things? How do you do lasting things? How do you let people remember your smile and your kindness and how you leverage your influence as a star athlete. As opposed to them, remembering your DUIs or your nights at the nightclub? Let's just say you play until you're 30; the hope is that you've got a lot of life left to live. You just never know what director, what CEO, what owner of a company took notice of the way you went about your business and the relationships that you may have made while you were playing. My post-football career is due to the relationships I made while I was playing.

What's one piece of advice that you have for players who are transitioning out of the NFL?

A lot of my advice depends on what you did while you were in the NFL. While you're in the NFL, you want to create the most marketable version of yourself possible, and that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in all these commercials. Your football team is in a market. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of odds on the least player in that market. Who do you want to be remembered as? Start working toward that while you're playing. I think one of the mistakes I made earlier in my football career, specifically in college, was that I thought football was who I was. It wasn't, and in reality, football is just what you do. Football is, no matter how great you are at it, no matter how amazing you are at it, it's still one of the many things you do. Now you might do it at Tom Brady's level, you might do it at Joe Watermelon's level, but it is still just what you do. Even with all the great football success, Tom Brady is still a father, somebody's uncle, and a television announcer. He still had to find other things to do, so I had to challenge myself to take the advice of all the people that I thought didn't understand the journey of what football is, and to develop other parts of myself. While you're playing, develop your skills, develop what you love in this world besides football, because I promise for 99% of us it's going to come to an end. I also learned that, whether people realize it or not, 99.5% of the population don't play professional football, so they will need you to do more than come and teach their kids how to play football. They might need you to come and be the face of their organization, or to be the CEO, or to be the voice of a call, or something like that. If you leverage that while you're playing, it makes it so much easier when you're done playing. So, that's my real advice to players: What are you doing while you're playing? What else do you love? How can you develop yourself? While you're becoming a great football player, how do you develop other passions, other things that are deep inside of you that you'll end up doing forever, and it might be birthed out of football. I spend much of my time now doing business and public speaking, and they certainly didn't teach me that in football. But I will say this: when I send my speaker's report to Walmart or to Marriott, that “NFL” shines really bright when they look at that report. Find your passion and don’t be afraid to develop it. You’re young enough and you do have the time. It will take away from your time out, but that is okay. 

What's one piece of advice that you wish you got when you started your NFL career?

Never take for granted that you are part of the less than 1% of all people in this whole world that get to play a professional sport. Don't take it for granted because there is a guy on the team that's faster, or a guy on the team that catches the ball better, or that's starting over you. Embrace and celebrate the fact that you were in the NFL and be proud of it. Own it, and don't let people in the locker room or anyone else make you feel bad about not being a marquee name. Accept all the beauty that comes with being part of the NFL. Go see the NFL Hall of Fame, go see all the acts. Take advantage of it, because you've earned it. You had to work hard, but you earned it.

What are you doing now in your career?

When I retired, I took a faith journey. I started to leverage my speaking ability, and I had a real passion for education and faith, so I went to seminary. My last two years in the NFL I was going to seminary, so I would practice during the day, and then take night classes. Then during the summertime, I had a little bit more time to catch up. I got my master's degree in religious studies and finished up by the time I retired. I started working for a wonderful organization and church, and I was very fortunate to be able to pastor that church for 17 years. We took a congregation from 12 people to 1200 people, and we did some amazing things right in the city of San Diego. We stood for some causes, and we were able to fight for some underserved communities in the city of San Diego. We raised hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes that we that were dear to our faith community. After dedicating my life, I got married, and I had 3 beautiful children, Kya, Kory, and Kingston, and my wife is Kavalya. I'm the only one that's not a “K”. I feel very fortunate to have been chosen to be her husband and their dad. After 17 years, I wanted to start to flex another bone, and I knew I had a solid business acumen. I had skill for getting into deals and getting deals done. So, I just took a big step of faith, and all the things that I have done, I've had to try to use my courage to do it, because even now, I’m not the biggest, not the strongest, wasn't the fastest when I played in the NFL, and I made it 8 years. Same with faith, I was the least likely. I dug and put my shovel in the ground to prove my worthiness in that industry and then the same happened with business. I wanted to become a business owner, and I wanted to flex that part of my skills that God had given me. I gave 17 years to faith, public service, public speaking, and now for the last 6 years I've been giving to business, and to development. The Fletcher Agency is a series of businesses that comes together to try to serve and develop our communities underneath it. We have just merged them. I had 3 Allstate’s and I just merged them into one big Allstate company. We also have Fletcher Real Estate, and we are currently right now seeking to close as we're talking on a logistics company. The business has been a beautiful thing for me, as I transitioned out of Ministry. Faith was absolutely fantastic, but I'm one of those people that feel that we are multifaceted individuals and people, and that skills can go from one thing to another. You just have to learn how to apply it to that particular industry. My superpower is the ability to motivate, inspire, educate, and entertain every person I come across, and I can tell you that I take that everywhere I go. That's what I did in the pulpit. That's what I do with my companies and my businesses and along with that, I also do corporate public speaking. So, that's how I've been spending my last couple of years. Cultivating and building businesses and buying companies, while going out and public speaking, encouraging these large corporations to connect their heads and their hearts.

What does the NFLPA Fraternity mean to you?

So, understand this about the National Football League for me, and why it's valuable, and then I'll explain to you about the PA because none of this is possible without the PA. I have a doctorate degree in transformational leadership. Football has taken me from my bachelor's to my master's to my doctorate degree, and I have literally not spent a penny on education. That's because of football. I have taken advantage of the education reimbursement program that we have here at the National Football League Players Association. Being one of the first when they first started it, I was one of the first people to take advantage of it and because no one else was. I was able to come back and do my doctorate degree 5 years later and I said, “well, if nobody's taking it, I'd love to.” Our retirement benefits are also great. I feel like you want to be a rich old person, not just a rich young person. You can work at 25, 30, 35, or 40 years old, but as you start to move into your 60s you can rest a little bit. The NFLPA has provided that type of cushion for me. Obviously, the marketing that is just connected with having been associated with the National Football League as a brand has opened doors that I could not walk myself through. Football is one of the ways I've traveled around the country. I've had some of the most amazing experiences through both college and the NFL, but being able to travel internationally, experience things like flying with the Blue Angels, and the NFL has opened up my horizons to possibilities. This kid from Saint Louis who had never left Missouri except to go to Arkansas and back, had a whole world opened up to him because of football, the NFL, and the Players Association. The causes that we have chosen to fight for, the ideas that we chose to bring to the table that have challenged the owners and the League to open up opportunities to let us participate in the experiences in the growth, in the wealth, and in the overall expansion of the National Football League. I happen to be fortunate that I had a brother playing as well, so he says that he feels the same way about the National Football League, and I had another brother that played all the way through college and he understands that football has been a real blessing to our family in many ways and in many regards. So, I salute the Players Association for making a lot of these things possible for our past players and our current players and we just always hope that as future players move forward that they remember the generations that laid these foundations for them to participate.