Former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland sat down with Forbes senior writer Jabari Young at the Nasdaq MarketSite to discuss financial literacy tips for NFL players as the 2024 season nears. Copeland also shared insights into his real estate portfolio and provided guidance on getting started with investing."
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Boring makes money. It's one of the sayings of former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland.
00:05And in a minute, we'll dive into what he has going on in the business world and how he was able to turn NFL startup capital into a promising real estate portfolio right now at the Nasdaq.
00:18Hello, everyone, is Jabari Young here at the Nasdaq.
00:21And I am joined by former NFL linebacker, 10-year pro Brandon Copeland, played for the Lions and right here in New York for the Jets.
00:29Just two of your stops along the way, man. Baltimore guy, man, welcome to the Nasdaq.
00:33Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. No problem.
00:35This is my first time here. This is actually my first time in the Nasdaq.
00:38It's nice in here. All these years you played in New York Jets and anybody never bring you to the Nasdaq?
00:42Nobody. We weren't winning. That's what it is. You had to stay out of the way.
00:45We didn't have Aaron Rodgers or nobody. Yeah. Yeah, man.
00:48Well, listen, while we're here at the stock market, man, you got to give me a stock. Like what is a razor blade stock?
00:52I know that's one of the things. All right. Yeah. Yeah. OK.
00:55What am I into right now? I'm actually I'm actually working on my children's portfolio.
01:00So I'm actually trying to get out of stocks and get more into ETFs, AOA, JPI, things of that nature.
01:08But I always love Apple. Apple. I always love Microsoft.
01:15We're Google right now. Alphabet's getting under pressure.
01:19My wife works at Google. But right now, the thing that made Microsoft.
01:24I mean, excuse me, the thing that made Google so special, the search engine. Yeah.
01:28It's got more competition than it's ever had. Yeah.
01:31It's got antitrust. It's got you got chat.
01:33You got young people who are going to grow up with asking chat.
01:36You better questions as opposed to going on Google and asking it a question.
01:40So how does that change things over time? So it's an interesting time in the market for sure.
01:45Absolutely. You can't go wrong with Microsoft, though, man. I tell you, that stock is it's been around.
01:49It's going to be around. And, you know, the thing about Microsoft is that globally they're well respected.
01:55There's a lot of geopolitical tension, but the one company is always in the mix is Microsoft.
01:59Right. Right. Software can't go wrong. Listen, man, we are in Black Business Month.
02:03Happy Black Business Month to you. But when you think about that, you know, the theme of August again, Black Business Month.
02:09Give me that individual, that black leader, that black, you know, somebody who doesn't have to be popular.
02:14Right. Somebody who really made a difference in the business world.
02:16Now, well, first and foremost, I'll shout out to my mom over there.
02:20You know, black leader, black leader of our household, Copeland family household.
02:24And only reason why I'm here today. But when I look out at the landscape now,
02:28the people I'm inspired by are the Tyler Perry's of the world, the Kevin Hart's, the Jay-Z's.
02:35And, you know, for me, I decided not to go back and try to get a master's degree or anything like that.
02:40So I watch a lot of interviews and I'm just trying to pick apart the different things that they say,
02:44how they try to own as much as they possibly can to take themselves to the next level.
02:50Kevin Hart always says I'm infatuated with the door behind the door.
02:54Like you get into a room. I came to the NFL.
02:57I was able to get into a bunch of different rooms and everybody was happy in this party.
03:00And then I saw it was was that door over there, which I was doing over there, which I'm talking about. Right.
03:05And so for me, I'm looking at the way LeBron James is of the world.
03:09They're structuring their business, they're structuring their team.
03:12And I think that the phase that I'm in right now is delegation and learning how to delegate,
03:21learning how to pull my hand off of the steering wheel, because in order for me to grow to my next level,
03:30I got to get more and more comfortable trusting the team to execute better than I ever could in the silos of the business.
03:37Man, listen, you sound like a CEO, man, effective delegator.
03:41I love that. And I love that you said, Kevin, man, a fellow Philly guy.
03:45You know, definitely respect what he's did doing in the media space.
03:48And Tyler, you cannot knock what he's doing as well.
03:51Issa Rae, another sister. So, you know, definitely two or three dope names.
03:56And then obviously Hove, you can't you can't knock what he's doing, man.
03:59But listen, you're a former player, man. Again, you announced your retirement last August.
04:03A year into this, man. Congratulations again, getting through that.
04:06But NFL season is right here, right on the cusp. We are right here.
04:11What's the mindset of a player going into it?
04:13We're right in that preseason mix, man. And you get the regular season. What's the mindset?
04:16Yeah, it's tough. So so for those who don't know, I was I played 10 years in the NFL, undrafted free agent.
04:22So from came into the league 2013 to my hometown team, the Baltimore Ravens.
04:26And and frankly, when you're in this time of the year for that undrafted free agent,
04:31you're trying to figure out if you're going to have a job or not.
04:35Are you going to make the team or not? Because the rosters start with 90 people.
04:38It's cut down to 53 of them. Yeah. And that's the difference in you being in the NFL or or not being in the NFL.
04:45And so this time of the year is the pressure is at all time high.
04:49You got guys who are going down and down for injury.
04:52You got guys who may be making the same mistakes two times, three times.
04:56And that weighs on you heavily. But when you go and show up in the preseason games,
05:03that is the true key to give yourself job security.
05:07And what I mean when I say that is when you go into the preseason games,
05:11you are really putting on a tryout for every other team in the NFL.
05:15And so the difference between you being fired, you making practice squad or you being an active roster player,
05:22you actually playing on Sundays. Those are three totally different checks.
05:26But that is also heavily determined off of what you do in those preseason games,
05:29because teams will understand whether they can cut you and fire you and put you on practice squad the next day,
05:36depending on how you ball out in the game on the day before, so to speak,
05:42because if they know if they cut you and you bought out, then another team is going to pick you up and add you to their active roster.
05:48And now they can't cut you. So right now, from the business side football,
05:53you are chasing your dream to play in the NFL, but it's also you're chasing leverage.
05:59Right. You're chasing the ability to smile on cut day.
06:03If the grim reaper comes around and says, hey, let me coach wants to talk to you, bring your iPad and everything like that.
06:08Your heart jump when you hear that moment. Oh, absolutely.
06:11I've seen enough hard knocks like I know what's coming, man.
06:14When they say bring your iPad, it ain't because they want to go over a plate.
06:17Yeah. You almost want to run the other way.
06:20I mean, there's so many jokes about the grim reaper and things of that nature.
06:24And I've been my first year I was fired five times and every Tuesday at 4 p.m.
06:31Eastern is when you get paid for the week.
06:32Like that's how much I know.
06:34I've been fired on Wednesday morning because the Baltimore Ravens wanted to pay me and bring me back the next week.
06:40They didn't end up bringing me back. I ended up having to go to Tennessee.
06:43But they were trying to do a solid for me. Right.
06:47I've also been fired at three fifty six p.m.
06:49Eastern. Tennessee Titans called me. I got a random Tennessee number calling me.
06:54After I'd done community service for him the day before in the jersey, not the day before that morning in the jersey.
06:59Right. And so it is a up and down roller coaster ride mentally for sure.
07:05Just imagine. I mean, people deal with layoffs and things like that all the time.
07:10But it is definitely not for the faint of heart.
07:14And you got to continue to tell yourself, OK, I'm good enough.
07:18Or you got to trick yourself and lie to yourself.
07:22My next shot is going to be the one that that lands.
07:25And fortunately, I stuck around long enough for me to get that shot that cemented me in there.
07:31And I love your perspective, man, because when you think about your career, you have you have so many different entry points, again, practice wide.
07:39So you actually going to be on a roster because you know what you did the year before.
07:42So you feel safe. And then having to go to that adversity, adversity, adversity, get it out there, you know, especially in 2019 when the incident happened.
07:49But I'm definitely going to get into all of that. But before I get out of football, let me ask you something.
07:53Two last things. First, who's your favorite NFL coach? Like the guy who always was the man for you.
07:58And only had to be the head coach. Who's the favorite NFL coach?
08:00Yeah. Oh, man, that's a tough one. Favorite NFL coach.
08:04I'll say Frank Bush. Frank Bush. He's a linebackers coach. He was a linebackers coach with the Jets.
08:08He was also my linebackers coach with the Atlanta Falcons.
08:11And Frank, he just always brings energy to the room.
08:17He's a former player himself. So he's he's fun.
08:20He he's going to make you work and he's going to get it out of you.
08:24But but he's phenomenal. And then the other person's just speaking of, you know, Black Business Month, Jim Caldwell, favorite head coach, Jim Caldwell.
08:33I've had some great head coaches, but Jim Caldwell, he was my head coach with the Detroit Lions as well, too.
08:39And when I signed to Detroit, you know, I want to put his business out there.
08:44But when I signed to Detroit, we sat down for 45 minutes and this is me coming off of what we call an NFL, the street.
08:51I hadn't played in 14 weeks. I hadn't played.
08:55And I'm sitting down and I'm trying to, you know, change my life.
09:00And this is 2015 and we sit in his office 45 minutes and three minutes.
09:03We talk about football and another 42 minutes.
09:05We start talking about life and financial freedom and real estate investing and all those things.
09:09And so every single week, coach, you knew how much he cared about us as human beings.
09:16And he was really trying to cultivate us to become great men.
09:20Every single week, you'd have a leadership lesson.
09:22He'd also have different educational lessons in terms of taking care of your money and doing other things like that.
09:29But he was a guy who truly wanted to see you win both on and off the field.
09:33And that's not always the case in the NFL, because a lot of some some folks, the minority, I'll say,
09:40some coaches would rather you be mentally a slave to having to run through a brick wall for them.
09:49Yeah. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Jim Caldwell comes from that Tony Dungy tree, man.
09:52You know, definitely respected. But listen, let's go inside your empire.
09:56And again, last thing, you got the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl this year, right?
10:00They need to get past the first round of the playoffs.
10:04I know, but they're going to win the Super Bowl.
10:06Oh, man, man, you talking mad. And I got a real life. Right.
10:11Come on, say it. They're going to kill me in Philly, man.
10:14I know I'm a Philly guy. I'm a Cowboys, but you know, I am what I am.
10:18You show up to the Philly games with the Cowboys jersey.
10:20Of course not, man. You crazy. I do that in Dallas.
10:23I do that in Dallas. I go to the Dallas one, though, because Philly is different.
10:27But listen, let's go into your portfolio, right?
10:29Because, you know, you have your football side, but you're also the CEO of BTC Investments.
10:33You know, it's a real estate investment platform, teaches financial freedom as well.
10:38And I find this interesting because as I went inside a portfolio, I'm like, OK, you own the properties.
10:44And I'm looking for your tenants. You got Wawa, Circle K, McDonald's, a Super Target.
10:50Like these are people who pay you every single month because they're leasing that space.
10:54You turn seven million that you made in your NFL career into a 200 plus real estate, 200 plus million real estate portfolio.
11:01How'd you do that? God is good. God is good. All the time.
11:05You know, God is definitely good. I think so.
11:09My rookie year, 2013, I was day trading options, which for those who aren't familiar with it,
11:16that means I'm literally every single day I am trying to pick a stock or some call options that I can go make some money off of.
11:24And what I realized at the end of the year, I made a big trade and I'd done phenomenal the whole year.
11:31I made a big trade and the entire market went down two days after I did this trade because of geopolitical tensions going on over in Greece.
11:40And I was like, dang, like I had no control over this. This doesn't make any sense.
11:45I'm comfortable taking a loss. I don't want to lose. I'm comfortable taking a loss.
11:49But I need to own more of the the.
11:54I have I have to control more of the outcome. Right.
11:58And so I started looking at different professions. Real estate was the next one for me where it's like, hey, if I if I lose on a property, well, I pick the carpets.
12:08I pick the colors. I can't be mad at anybody but more control.
12:12And so that sent me on a journey to start learning about real estate. And I took about three years.
12:17I would go properties. I went around Penn. I went around Temple looking at student housing projects.
12:22And I'm just learning, learning, learning, learning, learning. Started co-investing with some mentors of mine.
12:27And the best thing about that was started doing single family flips.
12:31But these mentors were starting to graduate themselves.
12:34So one guy, Rob Sims, in Detroit with the Lions, he took me around on some some single family flip properties, projects he was doing with some players.
12:43And then he also took me to a multifamily building that he was building with like 40 different units.
12:51And we had to put the hard hats on and things like that.
12:53Then he took me to a property where he's knocking off the top of the house and adding on a whole nother level.
12:58And so being curious and being exposed to, oh, there's more ways to make money in real estate than just the auction property that I renovate and flip in a few months.
13:14OK, well, let me learn about that. I'm going to focus up over here. I'm going to start to learn the process and start to build my team, take my lumps, take my losses.
13:22And then I'm going to graduate there one day. And so for me, started doing single family flips and eventually started graduating a multifamily, started buying, investing in properties.
13:34We got 88 unit in California being built right now, got a 40 unit in Newark, New Jersey.
13:40We got a 66, a 16 and a 12 being built. And then that was great. And I'm like, oh, I made it.
13:47And then I started getting introduced to land development and buying up land and then allowing for different tenants to come in and purchase the land and partner with you either to build the project or to just get out of the way.
14:05We're going to build this ourselves. We're Starbucks. We don't want you touching it.
14:10We're going to build it ourselves and we'll just pay you every single year for the land.
14:14And so seeing that and getting ingrained in that, that's when me and a bunch of NFL players started investing together in different places around the country.
14:24And that's how we've started to build something that, you know, frankly, I never even would have thought was possible.
14:36Five to seven years ago, because I didn't necessarily know that it existed.
14:42The pandemic also just gave a bunch of time.
14:47Obviously, there was a lot of negative things that happened to the world, but it gave a bunch of time for me to just sit down and just to focus on intentionally mapping out what I want life to look like beyond football.
15:01And when I looked at what I was doing in real estate, I'm like, you know, the flips are dope.
15:08But this is even better. You know, having Marriott come in and buy your land to build their thing is pretty cool.
15:17And that's why I tell people, you know, and I want to ask you if you can give someone advice about how to get into even commercial real estate, because you have these, again, big corporations that pay you.
15:28And these are not five to two year leases. These are 15 to 20 year leases.
15:32So you got 15 to 20 years of revenue built in. Right.
15:35If you play and that's a win. Let's say you have that individual does not have any commercial real estate experience.
15:40No, but they have some money that they want to go into that space. What would you advise them to do?
15:44I would tell you first and everything starts showing up to local industry meetings.
15:50There's big conventions that they do in Vegas and things of that nature.
15:55We have a fund manager and a partner in the business who does an amazing job of like literally helping guys get their real estate licenses,
16:06helping guys show up to these meetings and takes us into all the meetings with the different owners of hotels and properties and our partners and things like that.
16:14So we get to get on the fast track, so to speak, with that stuff. But I would tell you, anybody go dive in to the places where these deals are happening.
16:26Right. By doing that, then you're going to start shaking hands with people.
16:32You're going to look and see the different opportunities that are out there for you to co-invest and for you to actually get your name in to some of the ownership spots that you may be looking for.
16:45So even whether it is, hey, I want to put my capital in this now or I'm going to.
16:50And I think that's one thing I've always done a decent job at.
16:53I'm going to go learn about this now so that that day that I can put my capital into this, I'm ready to go.
16:59Yeah, absolutely. Take me back right fast, man. You grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.
17:03What was that like? Because when people think about Baltimore, we obviously think about the wire.
17:07Right. Yeah. One. We all look at that. But what was that like for you?
17:10Yeah. So for me, my my my excuse me, my mother.
17:15It was funny. So my grandfather played in the NFL for 11 years.
17:19My mother, she worked extremely hard to make sure that her children had the opportunity to do everything that they wanted to do.
17:29But she always drew a line of like, if you ain't doing what you need to do in the classroom, you will not touch a football, touch a basketball.
17:35You won't go outside. And so for us, it was sports and it was school.
17:44Literally. And my granddad used to always tell her, if you keep them busy with sports, they won't have time to get in trouble.
17:51Absolutely. Right. So there was a huge emphasis on education in my household.
17:56And and we ended up getting a chance to go to a school called Gilman's, a private school in Baltimore.
18:02And that just started taking us to a different level of exposure there.
18:10Having a head coach who ran a hedge fund, you know, my high school football coach ran a hedge fund.
18:16And I had no idea what the hell that was at the time.
18:21But I asked him for an internship because he could afford to pay for pizzas for all of us on Wednesdays.
18:25Smart move. And I was just like, yeah, well, I was like, you know, you're not selling drugs.
18:29You ain't in the NFL or NBA because you ain't in the best shape.
18:34Like, what do you do? You know. Yeah. And fortunately, he he allowed me to go get my workout in and then go to his office.
18:42And that was the first time I saw Bloomberg terminals and all of that type of stuff.
18:45But when I grew up, you know, unfortunately, Baltimore was at that time, you know, one of the highest murder rates in the war, you know, in the country.
18:59It was a place where you don't go out unless you have at least two other people with you, because if not, you are setting yourself up to get jumped.
19:07And I think that the city is doing a better job of showing a different lens of itself nowadays because there are some amazing parts of the city.
19:16But I remember coming, signing with the Ravens. There were parts of the city I had never seen before.
19:21I was like, oh, this this actually is this is beautiful, you know.
19:24So it's like everything else. Philly gets a bad rep at times. Detroit gets a bad rep at times.
19:29But ultimately, those cities make you the people who you are.
19:35Yeah. NFL. Did you always want that? Because your granddad, Roy Hilton, he played, you know, 10 plus years and 11 years in NFL defensive end for the Baltimore Colts.
19:43Right. So was that always a path that you wanted to go?
19:46Yeah. I mean, frankly, I would much rather be playing with the team USA trying to get a gold medal in basketball.
19:55Basketball was the first love, but football was just something that just always was natural to me.
20:02My body type just made sense for football, but then it just came so much easier to me.
20:08I played with a couple of guys who actually went to the NBA and things like that.
20:12And for them, the way basketball just came like they just naturally knew what to do.
20:17That's kind of how football came for me.
20:19And so at a certain age, it was definitely like I was afraid to admit to people that I wanted to go to the NFL.
20:27J. Cole was my favorite rapper. One of the things he used to always say in too deep for the intro is if they don't know your dreams and they can't shoot them down.
20:34And so when you're around, you know, I've had some amazing friends, amazing people around me.
20:40But, you know, when we're kids, we'll be kids.
20:43And when you say your dreams out loud, sometimes some people will make fun of those dreams or belittle those dreams.
20:48And then you start to get a little insecure about those dreams.
20:51So I always told people football was a means to an end, means to an end, means to an end, means to an end.
20:55But my goal was I'm going to just keep working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working, working some more.
21:01And my goal was to make it to the NFL.
21:04And, you know, you go to UPenn and you get to the league that way, again, undrafted.
21:08But, you know, you look at your entire career, right?
21:11If you had to describe it in one word, what would that word be?
21:15Rollercoaster.
21:16Rollercoaster. Why rollercoaster?
21:17Because of up and down, up and down.
21:20I've had the game.
21:23I've been almost at every single place in the game.
21:28And I don't hide from it.
21:29I've been cut a bunch of times.
21:32Hey, you're not good enough.
21:33I do a football camp every year and I have quotes up of negative things that coaches and people have said to me.
21:39So kids know, like, I don't care about your excuse that somebody doesn't believe in you.
21:44This is what people said about me.
21:46Right.
21:47I've been a starter in the NFL.
21:51I've lost the season in the NFL because of an injury.
21:56I've had this game taken away from me for a P.D. scandal.
22:02Well, I was going to ask you that.
22:03How did you overcome that adversity?
22:05Because, you know, you were balling that year and then, you know, you get hit with this, right?
22:10And it didn't derail you because you still were able to.
22:13Some guys don't ever come back from that.
22:15But how were you, how did you overcome that adversity?
22:18And that was in 2019.
22:20That was 2019 after my best season.
22:23And so, one, the company that we, the supplement that we took were legally suing them.
22:33They ended up having a banned substance within their bottle that it got contaminated with.
22:39And it wasn't on the label or anything like that.
22:42It had multiple nutritionists checking it, but it was a contaminated supplement.
22:46We tried to appeal it from the league and all that type of stuff.
22:49But they said, hey, it's not our fault that they did it.
22:52So, it is what it is.
22:54But you take it on the chin.
22:55And it was one of those things where it's like, you know, I remember talking with the team about it and just telling them, like, first of all, you all know me.
23:03There's no reason.
23:04If you were going to cheat, it would make sense to cheat years ago when people told you you weren't good enough, right?
23:11That's not me.
23:12But second of all, if you guys believe in me, promise you I'll be back and I'm going to come back with a vengeance and help this team.
23:18And so, it was a tough time, but it was also one of those times where you got a chance to see how blessed I am in terms of the amount of people that stayed around me and wanted to be around me.
23:32A lot of people talk about how many people leave them and shun them and all of that type of stuff.
23:36For me, all my friends and family stood ten toes down by my side because they just know that that's not me.
23:44You know what I'm saying?
23:45So, I do remember the one interview I did on it in the locker room with the Jets.
23:51You know, I called them out.
23:53The media has been amazing to me over years.
23:56And I've said the one time I've gotten pulled to the podium is for this.
24:00And I've done some pretty incredible things both on and off the field, right?
24:05That's no ego.
24:06We fed kids.
24:08We've taken thousands of kids shopping.
24:10We've educated thousands of kids.
24:13The one time you guys have called me up to the podium is after this, which I'm happy to answer for it.
24:20But anybody who knows me knows my heart, knows that, one, I would never do that, but two, let's keep going.
24:30It is what it is.
24:31It is what it is.
24:32So, just to get back to the point, having the career taken away in multiple ways, right, or that roller coaster ride, being a starter.
24:43I got named a starter in Detroit and then went out and tore my pec the next day.
24:48And a pec tear is a six-month rehab process.
24:51It was the first preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.
24:54So, for me to finally make it in the NFL 2017 to the starting position and the next day, yeah, your season's over.
25:01Oh, right?
25:02Still find a way to come back, come back, come back, come back.
25:05I guess the other word would be resilience.
25:08Resilience, yeah.
25:09Resilient roller coaster.
25:10Yeah, resilient roller coaster ride.
25:12That's for sure.
25:13You know, it's funny, man.
25:14When I hear you talk, it sounds just like I always like to do this thing where I'll call around the previous stops that guys have been.
25:21I've covered the Spurs.
25:22I know a lot of colleagues in the business.
25:23See, man, I got Brandon Copeland coming to the NASDAQ.
25:25What would you ask him?
25:26And so yesterday I called some friends of mine at the NFL Players Union.
25:29Nice.
25:30And they said, man, you know, the one thing we respect about him is that he got involved with the union early, right?
25:35And so he has a good lens on the talk of money.
25:39And one of the guys said, man, we had Brandon said one day, you know, he had a guy come with a bag of cash and said invest in this for me.
25:46He's like, yo, man, it don't work that way.
25:48This ain't New Jack City, right?
25:49It don't work that way.
25:51But, you know, I found it to be very interesting.
25:53If you think about because of your involvement with the union and you've had a lot of, again, feedback.
25:58What is the general talk about money when it comes to, you know, players in NFL?
26:03Because you hear the horror stories.
26:04Adrian Peterson going broke.
26:05You know, Antoine Walker, the Boston Celtics in a whole different sport.
26:08You hear the horror stories.
26:09But what's the general topic and what's the general conversation about money in 2024?
26:13Yeah, I think now because of the light that's been shined on players who have those horror stories, nobody wants to be the next one.
26:22Right. And so guys are having more conversations about money in and outside the locker room.
26:28You see more guys meeting to talk about real estate or to have a conference on their wealth and meet with financial advisers and just things like what should I be asking my financial advisers?
26:38And more guys are actually auditing their financial advisers now than ever.
26:42Yeah. Guys like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, they got killed because they were having people answer their money.
26:47So guys are more auditing guys now.
26:50Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, is everyone doing it?
26:54No, probably not. Right. But are more folks doing it now than were than they were 10 years ago?
27:00I would definitely assume so.
27:03But also agree with that because I was in the locker room 10 years ago and we weren't having these types of conversations about venture capital and what company you're investing in and why.
27:12And OK, let me join this and and meet and talk about that.
27:15And so I think that guys are starting to let's it's everyone's dream.
27:22I would say most guys dream because there are some guys in the NFL who don't necessarily dream of being in the NFL.
27:30It's the feeling of a lifetime to walk out of a tunnel with smoke and fans screaming and everybody cheering your name.
27:39Right. And so a lot of guys dream of being in the NFL.
27:42And now guys are not just leaving it there, but they're also starting to dream about, OK, well, what can the NFL do for me in my life beyond this as well, too?
27:51And they understand that now that is going to take them using their capital in ways to help propel their lives forward, as opposed to the dream just being I'm an NFL player.
28:05Now, guys want to talk about this team I own or or I'm having this conversation in this.
28:09And I think that that's just going to continue to push the narrative for for for athletes.
28:16And one of the my biggest initiatives right now is is athletes.org.
28:22It's the Players Association for College Athletes.
28:25And and really, it's it's how do we start working with young people early?
28:31One, when it when it comes to money, one get the deal that you actually deserve.
28:37Right. Like sign the deal for the number that you have earned.
28:43And that makes sense. So like if I'm worth a dollar, get paid a dollar, not forty two cents.
28:50Right. Then once you get that dollar, let me go ahead and put that dollar to work for me in ways that can make this thing something that is my employee for the rest of my life, as opposed to me just taking that dollar and just sitting on it, so to speak.
29:08And I think that when you look at college athletes right now, they're going to be getting over a billion dollars next year alone from revenue sharing for their schools.
29:17And there's no players association that has stepped up to make sure they're getting the right amount of money that they should be getting.
29:28And then to making sure that they have the resources and tools and everything so that they aren't being taken advantage of, because now what happens with college athletes is every single thing that plagued me and my teammates in the locker room.
29:42Now, it's just going downstream because there's less infrastructure and protection around college athletes.
29:49So that person who was pretending to be a financial advisor, pretending to be an agent that was trying with the Atlanta Falcons player, well, now they can go downstream to the UGA football player because there's less infrastructure to protect that player.
30:04And so what we've been doing with athletes.org is trying to educate our athletes and give them a voice at these negotiating tables.
30:12We've been trying to give them that on demand support so that they can run free background checks, get their contracts reviewed for free so they can get mental wellness resources and support, get financial education.
30:23And then we've been also help representing them to actually make sure they get the amount of money that they deserve from their schools in the first place.
30:31And if we're able to do that, then we will hopefully look up and see a lot more people that are frankly look like you and I and a lot more people who will be leaving their schools more financially well off or financially secure because somebody went out there and advocated for them.
30:52Yeah, absolutely, man. Well, I want to get your thoughts because we've got a few more minutes before we let you wrap up here, but the NIL front stand on that right fast.
31:00Scare me a little bit. Right. We all look at the positives and there's a whole bunch of positives.
31:05They're young men making money for their towns now, but scare me a little bit.
31:08You see something that may happen if X, Y, Z doesn't happen.
31:11Yeah, well, I think one again, you've just given a bunch of young people money.
31:18You haven't done anything to protect them. And so I'm never going to say let's stop paying college athletes.
31:24But you should be providing them with the tools they need to not be taken advantage of because there's kids in high school now who I know who are getting three hundred and four hundred thousand dollars offers to go play in college.
31:37Now, if I know and I've never met the kid, what does that do for the person that has bad intentions for them and can now try to approach them on a daily basis and try to recruit them and take their money?
31:48We also have last year we worked with slam basketball, slam media.
31:52They did slam summer classic at Rucker Park, top twenty eight high school men's and women's basketball players playing the Juju Watkins of the world have played in it.
32:00The Derrick Whiteheads was on the Brooklyn Nets have played in it.
32:03And what some of those parents were saying is their children have been offered contracts with splits of 30 and 40 percent.
32:11These are the next NBA and WNBA superstars.
32:15They shouldn't be paying anybody 40 percent of anything.
32:18That's just robbery. But again, we've created this.
32:23They've opened up the floodgates, but they haven't given any support to actually make sure that now you don't derail a young person's life because you haven't given them any tools to vet the people around them.
32:34So we've been building that with athletes that or the other thing is there's a lot of right now.
32:40There was a two point five, seven, six billion dollar settlement that the NCAA agreed to to pay college athletes from 2016 to about 2023, July 1st, 2023.
32:52And that's back damages. And then now in the future, they're going to be paying.
32:57Every school will have the ability to pay athletes starting in twenty twenty five, twenty three million, a little under twenty three million dollars for the next 10 years.
33:08So twenty three million dollars per year for the next 10 years.
33:10So Georgia will be able to pay its athletes.
33:13Twenty three million Notre Dame, Ohio State, et cetera.
33:16All of those athletes should be a part of a players association that now comes to the table with UGA and says, OK, well, this is how we want the money, because in the pro leagues, that's exactly how it works.
33:31And the pro leagues, you got the NBA, which is the NBA's players association, who's gone out and negotiated for its athletes to get a little over 50 percent of all revenue.
33:41So anytime the NBA does a deal, LeBron, Steph, Anthony Edwards, everybody can be excited because we're automatically getting a bump in our salary cap and all these other areas.
33:52In the NFL, they've negotiated to get forty eight point five percent of the revenue in college.
33:59There is no players association that has been able to go to the table and negotiate with the schools yet.
34:05We built the players association, but right now the number that the college athletes are getting is about twenty two percent of the school's revenue, which again, what's why are they getting twenty two as opposed to 50?
34:18And there there's a number of reasons why.
34:21Right. There may be. OK, well, the school is giving you a scholarship.
34:24It's giving you meals. It's giving you these things.
34:27However. At this day and age, college athletes are smart enough, are strong enough to have their own representation and be partners in the business, as opposed to bystanders just taking whatever scraps the NCAA and its schools see fit.
34:45Yeah, absolutely. Hey, man, could talk about that all day because a lot of stuff, you know, still right and wrong about NIL.
34:52Again, it's still so new. We have to get it together. But before I look ahead and close here, you know, after an athlete gets out of that particular college phase or high school and they are getting to the pros.
35:02What would you advise an NFL player, no matter what scale of salary you want to save per year to prepare for that roller coaster? Possibly.
35:10Right. Even if it's a long career like a long like Tom Brady, what would you advise that average guy to put up every single year?
35:15Yeah. Yeah. I think first and foremost, when you come into the league, 50 percent of your money is going to be gone right off the bat.
35:20So that's gone. Now you got another 50 percent to work with.
35:24I'm going to tell you, make sure you are having 30 percent of your money that you are just absolutely saving.
35:30I'm not touching. I'm either going to put it in a traditional savings account or I'm going to invest it.
35:35And then now you have another 20 percent of your money to actually live off of.
35:39And depending on where you are in terms of what you're actually making, then that's where you should be able to also get aggressive with that 20 percent.
35:47If you're making rookie minimum 750 grand, you may not need to be spending 20 percent of your money on your your your living expenses today.
35:56You may be able to live off of 10 percent and then take the other 10 percent and add it to that savings and investing bucket.
36:03But as much as you can save and invest as you come into the NFL and throughout your entire career as a pro athlete,
36:11you're you're never going to look back and say, man, I saved too much money.
36:15Right. Right. And so that's the biggest thing that you want to do when you come into a pro athlete.
36:21Yeah. 30 percent. I wish I could save that amount. Student loans be kicking me.
36:26Hey, man, some last minute questions about rapid reaction stuff as we look ahead and close.
36:30And I appreciate the time and thank you so much. We can get into this stuff all day.
36:34But twenty twenty five is here. What is Brandon Copeland? Twenty twenty five. Twenty twenty four now.
36:39Twenty twenty five ahead. What is Brandon Copeland looking at as we move ahead to twenty twenty five?
36:44Still got a lot to go in twenty twenty four, including a presidential election.
36:47But I'm generally I know your index funds. What are you looking at this twenty twenty five?
36:52Yeah, I'm looking at one the election.
36:54Obviously, that's going to have a big determinant factor on what happens in the markets here on out.
36:59Right. To AI. AI is is an interesting beast. It's beautiful.
37:04It's going to help make some efficiencies. It's also, as we all know, it's scary.
37:10We see a lot of movies that that start like this. Right.
37:13And so I'm really trying to understand where there are opportunities in AI and opportunities for the long haul.
37:21Not just the, you know, it's new, it's a fad. And, you know, similar to NFTs years ago and things of that nature.
37:29So AI is definitely going to be something that I'll be studying up on.
37:33Most definitely. I think I know how you made your first million playing something called the NFL.
37:37I think so. How did you spend it? Anything you would do different? Oh, how did I spend it?
37:42Well, I wouldn't be day trading. I think that that was the biggest lesson that I learned.
37:46To not day trade. To not day trade. Yeah. Day trading, one, it takes your consciousness from what you were actually,
37:54what I was actually there to do, which was playing football because I'd be in meetings, you know,
37:58I'd be buying Nike call options and I'd see guys rocking an Under Armour and I'm like, oh snap, I got to coach.
38:03I got to go to the bathroom. I got to I got to handle something real quick. Right.
38:06So it distracted me. But I also wasn't thinking with a long term, broad mindset.
38:12Right. And so for me, the biggest lesson I learned was was how to diversify my portfolio,
38:19but also how to assess risk in my portfolio to make sure that I wasn't over leveraged in one place or another.
38:29You lost a million dollars in investing. No, I didn't lose a million.
38:32OK, I was going to say, how did you spend it? But it was day trading, buying, buying.
38:35Yeah, that was the lesson. OK, but you didn't lose a million. No, I won't take that.
38:40Hey, listen, I'm taking this one to the crowd. Right.
38:43You know, Forbes be OK. A great community that we have at Forbes.
38:46And one of our members, Brittany, she said, you know, what has been your most lucrative business slash real estate decision to date?
38:54Oh, most lucrative business decision. You know what?
38:59I'm going to venture capital investment thing. There's this company called Status Pro.
39:06This is a little course. Andrew Hawkins up here.
39:09Well, there you go. Hawking Troy. Yeah. And so Troy is actually the godfather of my second child.
39:15Beautiful. His father is my trainer as well, too, since high school, all the way through the NFL.
39:20World class training, one of the best in the world.
39:22And so I'm I'm going to use that one because, one, they've done a phenomenal job of growing the company,
39:31making their investors happy as they grow and bring us along for the ride.
39:36But two, it's also just like a personal thing to be able to, you know, him come over the house, kick it.
39:42We grill and we go have dinner a couple of days from now and to be able to invest in the company of somebody that you actually grew up with and watch him win and help him win with intros and things of that nature.
39:54Again, it's just it's different. Yeah.
39:56Hawks has that similar relationship with the roller coaster in his career and still was able to make some of it.
40:00But I played that game in the Oculus. It is pretty dope.
40:04I can't front, but Status Pro, definitely a good company.
40:08Get you out of here on this, man. Good to great. And I think I'll stay on the field for you, man.
40:12And I ask people in honor of Jim Collins's book, Good to Great.
40:16What's the difference between a good linebacker and a great.
40:20Oh, man. I think it's the leadership capability at that point.
40:25Right. If you make it to the NFL, everybody is elite wherever they come.
40:30You don't. When I was with the Baltimore Ravens the first day, the defensive coordinator came in and said, you don't make it in this room unless you are a stone cold killer assassin on the field.
40:40But now what will separate you, whether you make this team or not, is can you take what we do in here and can you take it to the football field?
40:48But then can you adjust in the middle of the game when Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are calling checks and audibles and things are flying?
40:53Can you keep everybody composed? Can you when people look in your eyes, do they feel comfort or are they like, oh, snap, we might as well quit right now.
41:01Right. And so I think that that's is that leadership capability, because that's what I mean.
41:07We talk about the best linebackers in the game, the Roquan Smiths of the world, the Ray Lewis's of the world.
41:13You also are talking about not only their play, but that leadership that they brought to the field.
41:20Yeah, most definitely, man. Listen, your career is almost I know you say roller coaster and resilient, but it's almost full circle.
41:25And you started in Baltimore. Right. He signed you to that, you know, three year deal, one point four million deal.
41:30And then in twenty, twenty three, you end your career. The last thing you play for technically Baltimore Ravens.
41:35Exactly. So full circle, man. Brandon Copeland here at the NASDAQ, Jabari Young.
41:39Definitely appreciate you watching. Happy Black Business Month and go to this man's Web site for more Instagram and all that.
41:44He got all these good financial tips. I couldn't get them all out now, but the next time. Appreciate you watching.