On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former fullback Chris Hetherington joins Roman and Peanut. Chris explains how he transitioned from a college quarterback to an NFL fullback, why he got his MBA after he retired, and how he ended up running a Japanese basketball team. Chris talks about become the CEO of Fathead, how they’re trying to increase fan engagement, and how he leverages his relationships in the business world. He also shares the story of his family’s evacuation from the Palisades Fire and how they are dealing with the fallout.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My wife and I were home at ten thirty in
the morning when those fires started, and we never thought
our house was going to burn down. At one point
it was traveling five football fields a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Peanut Tillman and this is the NFL Player's Second
Acts podcast and with me as always.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
My guy Roaman Opera.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
What's up? What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Man?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
It's been a great day. You got all the energy
this morning.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
I feel like this is going to be another fantastic
podcast sit down just because of our guest, highly, highly
intriguing person that's been very successful in life. And I
don't think everybody knows as much as they need to
know about this man.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well that's why we got this podcast, and we're finn
to dive into that eleven NFL seasons. He's a Yell graduate,
worked in finance, owned a Japanese basketball team. Now he's
a current CEO of Fathead Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Please welcome to the pod. Chris Heatherington.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Great to be here. I appreciate you having.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Me appreciate shit.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I feel like every time I've seen you in an interview,
you always got like a hat on your hair, like
that's just like the stoic look, like it's just.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So well so well that I'm bald.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So we weren't noble because you got the hat. But
it's a good look for you though. It's a dobe
look for you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Chris, At what point in time do you say, you
know what? Because everybody has to make that decision as
a bald brother, you know what I mean, Like when
do you let it go?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's funny, you know, I had long hair towards the
tail end of my career, and you can see my
hairliner's just seating a little bit. I never forget. I
was in practice one day and Eric Davis, who's one
of my former teammate's deep back. You guys know him,
and he's like Heatherington, Man, I don't know you're I
think you're done. So I made the decision to shave
my head in two thousand and seven. And look, I
(01:46):
just I try to be myself, right, Like I have
a certain look. I wear all black a lot, you know,
I wear suits with Jordan's and a hat and it
just it works for me, you know. I want to
be myself. And obviously there's certain circumstances I can't wear
a hat, but generally I gotta lit on twenty four seven.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So you were one of the bigger backs when you played,
you were about what two forty five? All stought he
was like two forty eight, Lorenzo Neil two fifty five.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Now these are fullbacks during Chris's time. Yeah, where fullback
was prevalent in the league.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Did you have fun just like destroying casts at that size?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's funny, man, I ranged typically what you know, whatever
offense I was running. Yeah, I was anywhere from two
forty to two sixty. I was two sixty when I
was at the Raiders. I was a quarterback in college.
I went to Yale, played quarterbacks, so they moved me
to fall back my rookie year. You know, made my
living on special teams first couple of years, and then
you know, learn how to become a goon and uh,
(02:45):
you know, I like to consider myself an athletic fallback.
But you know, when you're blocking Bruce Smith and Reggie
White and all these big cats off the edge or
Levon Kirklan in the middle, like the law of physics
is not your favorite. So you got to you gotta
beef up. So I enjoyed it, man, a really great time.
You know, had an unbelievable experience in eleven years, played
for some great organizations, you know, never never made it
(03:06):
deep in the playoffs, but super grateful for my career.
Met a lot of wonderful people and and still keeping
contact with a lot of the lot of the resources
I have. So it's it's been great.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
So you and I have a lot in common versus
this guy right here. You never played special teams in college,
never but major living playing special teams in the league.
Right I did the same thing like I played d
I was a starter for the thirteen years, but I
played special teams all thirteen years. Yeah, this dude just
div o over here, this Alabama diva never played special teams.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Like he has no idea what it's like in them
real trenches of playing on special team.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He called it specifically, I became a goon dayset of
a special team.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, you got to have a choice.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, it's it's crazy on them special teams because cats
is fighting to start and spot and I was still
fighting on sposal teams Like it was straight goons out there.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's changed, right, the rules have changed a little bit.
Kickoff it's not as big a.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Just not kickoff.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Everything else is still Goonville like you pump pum return
like you can.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You can still get it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Special field goal block like, oh yeah, you can still
get it. It goes down in the trenches.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I don't think it's a skill you can pick up
later in your career. That's all I'm saying, Like, you
need to be a special teamser early, then kind of
work your way out of it. You could always go back,
but you have to have a taste or flavor of
it early. And I never got that. So for me
year nine ten, they're like, dude, you gotta go run on.
I'm like, bro, oh, romill go out there and block
(04:43):
like you're trying to get somebody destroyed. Because I can't
do that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You never did like a hands team like I would
did hands team, but I would line up.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
For hands team, right and I would be counting who
I have to block, like one, two, three, And I
was always like on the front line.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I just remember saying, like Jesus Christ, this is gonna
why am I I'm I on this team?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I remember screaming right as I got ready to kick,
and I was just like, let's go. Let's trying to
sock myself up because I was like looking at the numbers,
like these are all big dudes in about like the
two sixties, and I was like two hunters. I was like, yeah,
it's gonna hurt. I'm gonna try to blog to do
but like I can't run. I kind of have to
sit here and just take it like straight.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Goon was on the other side of the ball. What
was your welcome to the NFL, oh Man.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You know, my rookie year, I had an interesting first place.
So I very first play, very first play. I'd originally
started in Cincinnati, so I was an undrafted for agent,
went to Cincinnati, thought that was the best place to,
you know, try to make the team. I tore my
hamstring on my second pro day, so I pretty much
missed all of the all of the off season. Luckily
it came back for training camp. They put me on
(05:46):
practice squad. Week eight of my rookie year, Indianapolis fullback
starting football got hurt, so they picked me up and
so I played for special teams. My first game and
my first assignment was the up back on kickoff return
could to form the wedge and the kicker kicked the
ball to me. So my first play ever, I catched
the ball as a kickoff returner, you know, took it up,
(06:08):
broke one tackle, saw nothing but greenngraft thought I was
going They got blasted from the side, but like you know,
gained like twenty three yards. Yeah, and that was my
kind of welcome to the NFL. And then the special
teams coach Hank Coolman, who I became really good friends with,
I was like, look, man, put me on kickoff. I'll
I want to barrass you. And so put me on
kickoff in the opening kickoff of the second half and
(06:30):
blew up the wedge and made a tackle and that
was it. I just I you know, I felt as
though I had established an identity I was. The odds
were stacked against me. I was an undrafted rookie free
agent quarterback at Yale, you know, trying to trying to
become a fullback never blocked anybody in my life, and
so I knew that if I wanted to make the
team and survive in the league, I would have played
(06:51):
wherever they wanted me to play. And so really made
a living like I said, on special teams for my
first couple of years and then went to Carolina where
we ran a West Coast offense, you know, started at
full back and still play special teams. But yeah, that
was my kind of welcome to the party, you know,
catching the catching the return and thinking I was going
and blasted on the side.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That was actually a pretty good one. Though most of
the stories were here.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It was always someone that got they got hit hard,
or they had like stand up on the table and
sing a song. It was something that was kind of embarrassing.
But you you caught a kick off, got twenty three yards, like,
that's kind of a good one.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We played the only the only off season I played,
and so we played in the playoffs my rookie year
versus Pittsburgh. They had a kid, Orpheus Roy who was
a d lineman from from Florida State who ran was
a wedge breaker right ran. He was like four to
six guy at three hundred pounds. And so for the
the opening kickoff of that game, this best team coach
I put me on the front line and I kind
(07:44):
of snuck him and caught him, and so unfortunately he
put me on the wedge you know, in the next
kickoff return in Orpheus Roy it just absolutely decleted me.
It was like, undoubtedly the hardest hit I've ever had
in my life. Don't remember any of the rest of
the game, Yeah, just you know at the all off
season and recover. But yeah, I mean there was a
(08:04):
lot of collisions back in the day. Yeah, you know, obviously,
like I said, with the role change, have become a
little more tolerant. But it was fun. Man, I enjoyed it.
I love running down there.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Like, explain what the wedge buster is to those listening
who don't really know the game of football or what
a wage is.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Explained that real quick.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah. So back in the day, you would have a wedge.
So wedge is comprised of typically a couple offensive linemen,
maybe a defensive line, maybe a goon fall back, and
your job was to basically be the lead blockers for
the returner. And so the job of a wedge breaker
is to come and just literally do that, to break
up the wedge and be a kamakazi. And so it
(08:43):
was rough being in the wedge, where, like I said,
the law of physics not in your favor. You got
cats running down sixty yards full speed, you know, and
you're standing still or I have a two step edge
head start. But I loved it, man.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
It was that was also the times where the off
team could get as big as of a head start
on the run. I said, what we had guys fifteen
twenty yards behind to time up the snap. They were like, dude,
we don't care how far you go. You go forty
yards if you want, as long as you hit by
time the kickers kicking the ball off side, you're not outside.
You can be hand start. And so that was also
(09:18):
another thing that made guys way faster because they were
hitting on the run. So by the time they got
to twenty five yards, they had already been running forty.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Well, what you.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Spoke about earlier, your playoffs, timing is everything, and so
for you, timing was not always on your side in football.
In nineteen ninety six, your rookie year, that was your
only winning season in the eleven years of football. That's
tough to deal with, all right. In two thousand and
one you played for the Panthers. You guys went one
(09:48):
in fifteen under George Seaffert. They still talk about that bad,
how bad Seaford was it the Carolina even though he's
great at forty nine ers? But two years later they
went to the super Bowl. So you missed that, he said,
Well he did. And then in two thousand and two
you went to the Rams and you guys were seven
and nine under Mike Martz. But the previous year they
(10:11):
went to the super Bowl, the greatest show on turf.
And then in two thousand and three you were with
the Raiders. You guys went four and twelve on the
coach Bill Callahan, and the previous season they had just
went to Super Bowl too. So your timing, like is
that realmant or lack of luck? Like, how do you
look back at all that and just say, like, man,
how was that just one year off?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah? Look, it's you guys know, it's a league of opportunity,
and it's also you know, timing matters. I think I was,
you know, you don't realize that everything, you guys, know,
everything happened so fast. And your job in the NFL
is to become, you know, become the best pro you
can be and then be the best player you can
be and best teammate you can be. And I went
into every game thinking it was gonna be my last
(10:54):
game every single year, and always trying to bring in
younger guys, cheaper guys to replace you. And so you know,
for me, I just I tried to be the best
bro I can be. You know, sometimes it's especially be
a fullback, right, Like, not a lot of teams use
the fullback, as you guys know, and so I was
always trying to trying to find the right system for
me to kind of utilize the talent I had, and
(11:18):
sometimes you're not a fit in specific offenses, you know.
So it was interesting in two thousand and two with
Saint Louis, they had a very good fullback, Jame Hodgens,
who was a like a fire edgeant. It was a
very good fullback. So I was going to be that
f tight end, you know, kind of a motion tight end,
which I think could have been, you know, a really
good move for my career. And then in the third
(11:40):
preseason game, Hodgens broke his broke his ankle. So I
became a starting fullback, and you know that had an
effect in my career obviously, and I tore my groin
in Week eight and missed the rest of the year.
But but yeah, man, I'm reminded of that, not often,
but but pretty often. And I would say, you know,
learning from those losses, learning from that adversity, understanding you
(12:04):
know why I think certain now why I think certain
organizations and the and the cultures of certain organizations really matter,
you know. And so that's had a pretty profound impact
in my business career. Where team matters, culture matters, and
also setting that culture from the top down, you know,
really really matters. And I would say, in full transparency,
(12:26):
some of those coaches I had weren't the best leaders
in the world, you know, very bright individuals and called
great offensive games or defensive games, but I would say,
weren't the greatest, greatest communicators, and weren't the greatest leaders.
And so I've really reflected on my career and try
to learn from those you know, examples or learned from
those experiences I had to to, you know, create an
(12:49):
environment where you allow people to thrive, and you create
this winning culture that that really matters.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Not only that, but to have it consistently, because you
were always a year or two off, and so the
culture had to be right at some point. But then
how do you do that consistently? Is that what you're
saying that you've probably learned the most.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Absolutely. Yeah, look at the New England Patriots, right, they
had a system where guys really bought into it and
knew their roles and responsibilities. Their roles and responsibilities could change,
you have injuries, people stepping up, but that system was
very sound and that you see a lot of these
veterans late in their career go they are Randy Moss's
(13:31):
I played at Randy and Oakland where it's like, look,
you either buy into this system or you're not going
to it's not going to work out for you here.
So that's you know, I have a lot of respect
for that. And Belichick was a very old school guy.
You know. I went on a free age and visit there,
I think in two thousand and five. But yeah, I
think you're exactly right. It's just it's all about consistency, right,
(13:51):
consistency in sports and consistent in business. And there's a
lot of overlaps.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Was there ever a system that you like besides like
one that you were specifically involved in all that you
got an idea or something that you learn from from
one of those coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
For me, it's it's communication and how you treat people.
You know, if you look at some of the organizations
I played for, and uh, you know, whether it's Jerry
Richardson in in in Carolina, Jerry was a gentleman when
I was there. He was very great to the players,
very great to the families. He's riding around his golf
cart saying hi to fans before the game. You know,
(14:26):
just treated people well and treated people with respect. And
and then some of the organizations other organizations I played for,
it it was just a little different, you know, from
the top down, whether the owner wasn't very involved or
whether the owner was too involved. You know, I e
the Raiders and you're look at what happened with Snyder.
You know, they had a profound turnaround there in one
year because they had a culture reset. You know, So
(14:48):
I think it matters.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So you have this great season and now it's time
to transition outside of football and get into.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
The real world. Uh.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
You went to the Wharton.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Business School, Wharton Harvard Business School, and you got your NBA.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Right executive NBA.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I'm trying to get him to do that.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Like this he was an unbelievable experience. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
See, let's do this talk about that.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I want to hear a little bit more about that
experience and how it helped you to what you're doing
currently now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, you know, I tried to play a twelfth year
and couldn't work out a deal and uh. And you
guys know, I mean, the transition from being a pro
athlete to the real world is is tough. Yeah. And
and no matter how much money you made or didn't make,
or how famous or not famous, it's hard, right.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
What made it a specifically tough for you?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Just trying to figure out what I wanted to pour
all of my energy and passion and discipline into and
and and what I'd have fun and enjoy doing. And uh,
I was lucky enough to get a good education at Yale.
And you know, I've been out of school twelve years
and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
I think a lot of people expecting me to go
work on Wall Street and be an investment banker or
(16:09):
being private wealth and and and so I took that
time to really, you know, one, get back in school,
and you know, meet some great people. I met some
really great people at Harvard and at Warden and still
keep in contact with some of the professors, and there
was other NFL athletes there, and we still you know,
communicate about business to this day. But it was really
(16:29):
getting back into you know, trying to figure out what
I wanted to do the rest of my life, or
trying to figure out what would do with the next
chapter of my life. And so I had some offers
to go to New York and go on Wall Street.
I decided to go into this headfund called Evolution Capital,
and it was started by a former Princeton football player
who historically hired a lot of x IVY League athletes
(16:52):
that were you know, work hard, play hard type people
men and women. And I felt as though it was
it was an easier transition for me because I found
on my next locker room, you know, I found my
next team, you know, of a bunch of other like
minded individuals, come from similar backgrounds, and we grinded. But
like I didn't even know what an option was. I
(17:13):
was I was a trader, you know, trading futures and options,
and didn't even know what an option was. And so
I'm like, all right, well, I'm going to work twice
as hard as the next person. I'm going to stay
up and study the European markets at night and record
every trade that I made and try to learn and
just grind, you know. And so I was a trader
for a couple of years, and then we inherited a
(17:33):
professional basketball team in Tokyo called the Tokyo Apache, and
so I became the president's CEO of that basketball team.
And Kobe Bryant's dad was the coach before I got there.
We didn't retain him, but kept him as an advisor.
We hired a four time NBA head coach, Bob Hill,
brought over his son Casey to be the assistant coach,
and brought over nine NBA cheerleaders, five American players, and
(17:56):
it was awesome. It was It was one of the
best years of my life. You know. We essentially we
built an NBA franchise from scratch, and our thesis was
to take the US or NBA style of basketball entertainment
bring it to Tokyo. We were the number one commissioned
hedge fund at the time, so leverage all our big
banking relationships and by courtside seats and VIP sponsorships and
(18:17):
it was awesome. We were playing in a government arena.
We had Lakers uniforms. But about eighty percent way through
our season was a big earthquake and tsunami in twenty eleven,
which was nuts. It was a nine point zero, the
biggest one in history, and I'm responsible for seventy five limited.
We were on the fifteenth floor of a fifty two
story building. The building was going like this. It was insane.
(18:38):
It lasted about four and a half minutes. You know,
I'd been in California for the last four years of
my career and for the first four years of my
career at this hedge fund, and had felt some earthquakes
and you know, they last ten seconds or that was crazy.
This lasted like four and a half minutes, and it
was a nine point zero. And so I'll never forget.
I had studied before I got there. I studied, you know,
(19:00):
about earthquakes and how the buildings were, you know, on
on wheels and built it withstand this And so I said,
everybody's scurrying down the stairway and they're going you know,
everybody's got hard hats on. Elevators are shut down. So
I said, look, let's stay here for twenty minutes, let's
not get trampled in the stairway, and we'll go out
in about twenty minutes. So we did that. We went outside.
(19:20):
It was like two thousand people. This was in Japan.
I mean, the people are most discipline pletely you ever
meet in your life. They're like in single file lines.
We're in New York or LA. They'd be looting. They
go crazy, And so we got We were out there
for about two hours. There were seven thousand people out there,
and we got clear to go back in about two
hours later. And then there was another seven point zero
about thirty minutes later, so I sent everybody home. We
(19:42):
flew everybody out from the US that were from the
US back to the US, and I flew out about
two days later. But it was it was a crazy,
crazy experience to have to go through that, and then
came back, launched a co invest fun underneath the hedge
front umbrella. We worked there that strategy about five years,
and then got more involved in the private decareventure capital
side of a business. So I had a couple of
(20:04):
CEO roles of companies we invested in and then was
fortunate to be the right place at the right time
to have an opportunity to put a group together by
fathead in at the end of twenty twenty three. And
it's been it's been fun. Man. It's been great to
be back in sports again and leverage these relationships I
built over the last twenty five years. And you have
licenses with all the major sports leagues and players associations.
(20:26):
We have licenses with some of the most epic ip
and entertainment. So, you know, my career has kind of
been all over the place, but I would say, you know,
the things I've learned, you know, obviously in my time
at the NFL. You know, the things I've learned from
from succeeding in business and failing in business have been
really helpful, you know, with this opportunity to fat in.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
So when you're leveraging all these deals or these relationships
and you're with your friends and like Roman and I
were having this conversation, Hey, man, I think we should
go get fatter. You should be Are they like saying
like I think you should be CEO? Or is it
like how does how does that work? Because you sound
like you've been to seover a couple You've been to
see over a.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, in a short period of time. So you know,
it's experience, right, it's having the reps. Uh, you know,
a really great team, right. Jen Beaver, you guys know,
is our chief Partnership and livening office. She's she's the best.
She's done an amazing job of these partnerships. She's an
amazing relationship person. She works her butt off. You know.
Jason Turner is our COO. He's been you know, building
(21:27):
and growing businesses for the last twenty five years. You know,
we have Evan Green on marketing side. We got designers
that have been there, you know, Denny's been there seventeen years.
Nick's been there twelve years. So it's just you know,
when you're starting a company as opposed to a buying
a company, it's it's trying to put together the best
team possible and then trying to get people that have
you know, functional experience and expertise and reps in these
(21:51):
certain kind of areas of the business, whether it's you know, sales,
whether it's marketing operations, you name it, right, and then
as somebody has to be the leader. But the way
I like to do things is like it's it's it's
lead by committee. Right, We're a great team. We're communicating,
we're making decisions collaboratively, We're making data driven decisions every day.
(22:11):
And so yeah, team culture is very important. I would say,
you know, with these with these communication tools, these days
of Slack and all this stuff, it becomes a lot easier.
You know a lot of teams are remote these days.
But but yeah, I answer your question directly, it's it's
understanding what the what the best team possible we can
put together? You know what's each in each individual skill
(22:33):
sets are. And then there's different philosophies. Right, it's it's
for me, it's hiring really great people that can wear
multiple hats and it could be utility players. And if
you hire great people that are hard workers and are
smart and have growth mindsets, you'll find a place for
them in the organization.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Tell me this when you when I'm a player, I
know my individual goals and I know I ultimately my
individual goals will have to fit with the team goals.
When you are a CEO of the company, what is
your goal?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, I think you know you have goals individually and
you have goals collectively. I think, you know, we we
wake up every day and try to hit our KPIs
every day and.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Break that down indicators.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, your goals, your key performance.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Indicators, key performance indicators. Okay, we both did the same thing.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I was like, I'm not a finance I do not
know what that means.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Oh good, got it.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, my goal is to be the best leader
I can be, right, and to hire the best team
I can hire, and then make sure the culture is
super dialed in right, make sure everybody's communicating well, everybody's
waking up and and and and marching to the same
beat of what we're trying to accomplish as a team.
You know, I've been focusing a lot of time raising money, right,
(23:50):
A lot of a lot of responsibility to CEO is
to raise capital and get the capital, you know, get
the company well capitalized, and then it's and it's going
out leveraging my relationships since or it's an entertainment to
promote the brand and to really grow the brand, you know,
open up new opportunities, whether it's expanding distribution or you know, uh,
forming key partnerships with other companies that can really help
(24:13):
us grow and we can help them grow. So would say,
you know, in all it's it's you know, raising money
is key, being a leader is key, and then always
focusing on having the right team. Right.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
What has been the coolest thing about now being CEO
and ownership of fat Hit.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'll tell you man, I've been involved in it, as
you know, in a couple of different businesses, and this
business is very unique in that it's so rewarding to
put smiles on people's faces when you see videos of
people opening up their fat head of their favorite hero,
whether it's a an athlete or an entertainer or or
On the custom side, right, the custom are our custom
(24:54):
side of the business is phenomenal. Right, you can fatt
age yourself or fatted your you know, capture these moments
that are happening. My ten year old son was literally championship,
wants to capture that moment. We sell a lot of pets.
People want to want to fat head their pets. It's insane.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Yeah, we on each one of my kids door it's
a fathead to when they were a baby, like oh
this is London's room, London baby picture, Sydney, same as that.
So yeah, we were on the custom.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Side and then yeah, I don't have any customs I wanted.
What I want to know is what's your best selling
fat hit football? Is there one person in particular Mahomes,
We've been selling.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
A lot of Barkleay's that that backwards backwards uh jump
hurdle that he did. Yeah, Patrick mahone has been pretty
consistent Saquon Barkley. But the NFL is our biggest license,
and as you guys know, our biggest relationship. The custom
side of the business does very, very well, but the
NFL is our biggest license. The NBA is a great
relationship of ours, The NHL is a great relationship of ours.
(25:50):
MLB is a great relationship. And so the way that
works in the licensed business, you have licenses with the leagues,
you know, so you pay royalties to the league, and
then you have licenses with the players Association, so you
you pay royalties see the players Association, which in turn
pays the players. And then if you want to do
individual deals with players, you deal with them directly. But yeah,
Patrick Mahomes been up there pretty consistently over the last
(26:13):
seven years for obvious reasons.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
Okay, And so when you have a company like Fathead
who's been around even before you came in, and you
guys took them over and bought them out. What does
the future look like because it's been around kind of
went dormit where it kind of seemed to stay the same.
So how do you continue to build upon the success
going forward?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, it's an eighteen
year old pretty iconic, you know, And I would say
most people twenty and above know what fat ad is.
Either they had a fat head or their friends out
of fat at or they wanted a fat ad. So
there's a lot of brand equity and brand awareness, which
is in today's world, everything right, like building a brand
is very difficult, and so I felt as though when
(26:56):
we bought the company, we were kind of starting on
third base. We had this amazing brand with amazing brand
awareness and brand equity. We have epic products, all these
licenses the custom side of the business, and they did
a really good job of building brand back in the
day where they were spending pretty big money on TV
commercials and Super Bowl ads and it was everywhere right
the Clay Matthews and Richard Sherman and Benn Roethlisberger and
(27:19):
so in today's world, it's changed a little bit. Right.
People focus on performance marketing, which is this bottom of
the funnel media buying, meta, Google, etc. And what we
noticed was there's a lot of emphasis on performance marketing
bottom of the funnel. But we have to get back
to investing in brand right, investing in making this brand
culturally relevant again, making this brand be everywhere in culture
(27:42):
and entertainment, in sports, etc. So for US, we spent
a lot of time investing in in infrastructure and technology.
We bought the business, we had to do a significant
amount of cleanup. We had to clean up the products,
clean up the data, clean up the licenses, clean up
the unit economics. So sort of really lay the foundation
for growth. And so for US, twenty twenty five is
all about growth, expanding distribution, getting into new categories like
(28:06):
music and gaming, license expansion opportunities. We're, you know, pretty
far along the process with UFC and Formula one and
then kind of nailing that playbook here domestically and then
starting to run that playbook globally. Fat it has been
a very North American business historically, US and a little
bit of Canada, so Premier League soccer as.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Soccer, and they don't even know, like, and it's easy.
What you guys do, travels anywhere anywhere. Like you know,
you hear about TAM total addressable market. Our total addressable
market is almost overwhelming. Right, So our kind of mancha
around fat it is either hell yes or not yet.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right. There's a lot of low hanging fruit to this business,
a lot of opportunities for us. But you got to
stay focused, you know, you got to stay focused on
executing your game plan and hitting your KPIs. But but
now to your point, Roman, it's all about growth. It's
all about intentional growth and making really good data driven decisions.
We've invested in technology. You know, our goal is to
(29:04):
really take this iconic decal business and then you know,
eventually build a fan engagement platform utilizing technology. And so
that's on our roadmap into twenty twenty five. We've been
in New York meeting with the NFL and BA, NHL
and the Jets. I'm picking a pilot partner for that,
for that technology and that fan engagement platform. So it's
been fun. It's it's been.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
What type of fan engagement? Like?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, so right now we have these amazing physical products, right,
like Christian McCaffrey is in my son's wall in his room,
or you know, somebody's pet is in their room, or
they bring a big head to the stadium and cheer
their heroes on. Now, what we're doing is kind of
combining the physical with the digital, right so now these
decals can come to life and and and trigger content
(29:51):
and trigger action. So picture me scanning, you know, your
your fat head on my wall. With our with our technology,
with AR and A, we can get in the metaverse.
We can get a blockchain eventually. But that that decal
triggers content and so whether that's Patrick mahomes, you know,
to trigger an AR menu and you can see as highlights,
(30:11):
as stats, links to the team store to buy merchandise,
or as jersey. You know, there could be subscription business
to that. It could be micro transactions, there could be
sponsorships and advertising, but essentially it's having a having a
more you know, kind of robust engagement with your fans and.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Player one type stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Yes, I like that, that's what we're going with it. Yeah, yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
That's why I was like, that's the fan engagement because
now it's not just on the wall anymore, which is
what Traditionally what we see fat ad is and now
you're saying, no, we're going next level knowledge it on
the wall. But now I can get you naturally pulled in,
get you to the website, I can draw you to
where I want to try, and I can point you
in the direction I want to lead you to.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It's just having better relationship with your customers, and your
customers having a more engagementship with their heroes or their
you know, the athletes, et cetera. And so yeah, for us,
it's it's been a lot of fun. We're kind of
bread crumbing that technology out to the market because you know,
there's a lot of opportunity with the core decal business.
But uh, you know, traditionally this business has been a
very seasonal business. Q four has really been about sixty
(31:18):
percent of the revenue. That's NFL and holidays. You know,
it is a gifting business, right, so we want people
to we want to turn this from an average order
value business to a lifetime value business. We want people
you know, when when when somebody's mom orders, you know,
their son of Christian McCaffrey decal, they probably didn't know
we had a Disney decal for her for her daughter. Right,
(31:38):
So it's all about you know, brand awareness, it's all
about education and uh, you know, being top of mind
not only when somebody has a birthday party, but but
in any event, in any any moment in time, and
any moment in culture. So yeah, for us, it's been exciting.
I think the technology really adds an interesting layered it
to fat head And uh, there's so many opportunity unities
(32:00):
with with you know, the relationships we have now and
fear the relationships as well.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We'll be back in a minute. You and Peyton were
teammates and Indie. Yeah, and you guys go on and
you have Omaha productions, And I would assume you guys
were great friends and had a really good relationship. Talk
about how in your career like leveraging those relationships that
(32:27):
help you into the business world.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, it's it's it's a good point. I think business
is all about relationships and trust. And so, you know,
Peyton was a great teamate of mind. I was fortunate
enough to play with them one year that was his
rookie year when we know we had a we had
a little bit of a challenging year, but he was
one of those guys he just knew he was gonna
be great, and uh, you know, from his work ethic
(32:52):
to his football IQ just the way he carried himself.
And so he's done an unbelievable job of leveraging those
those skills and that personality and that you know, his
dynamic personality to be really successful in business. And so
we've been fortunate enough to work with Omaha Productions. You know,
they're going to start doing some short and long form
content for us, and we've been you know, integrated in
(33:15):
some of the shows that they've been doing, and so
it's been awesome. Man. He's got a really great team,
you know, really really smart people, and Peyton and eal
I have become really funny.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It's the content that they produce is pretty epic. And
so it was just kind of right down the fairway
for us to to you know, kind of establish a
relationship and then work on growing that relationship. And so
it's going to be a lot of fun in the future.
We're just getting going and and we're really looking forward
to that partnership.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
And you guys with the Omaha Productions, you guys were
involved in the Pro Bowl recently as well. I think
the Pro Bowl was a big time success this year,
especially according to my kids, because they couldn't change the talent.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, I think, you know, anytime we can get the
brand out there with a great group like them at
a great event like the Pro you know, we'd love
to be involved in NFL Flag. We'd love to do
some bigger stuff at the Super Bowl. There's so many
temple events that that fat that it can be a
part of, whether it's NBA Finals or March Madness or
Little League World Series. We're going to start really integrating
(34:17):
it to you sports in a big way and work
with some of the best organizations in U sports to
kind of capture that younger demographic and bring this brand
back to top of mind. But yeah, like I said,
there's so many temples we can we can be involved in,
and there's no better team to do it with than
Omaha Productions. So you know, our job was pretty simple
in this initiative, which just a supply product and let
(34:37):
them do their thing. But there's so many fun things
we can do, you know, with those guys going forward
at like I said, all these great events in sports
and culture.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
What was the one thing that's been consistent that you say,
no matter what it has been, this is always tried
and true. From playing football at Yale to being in
the NFL for eleven years, taking over Japanese basketball team,
now being CEO of Fat Hit.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
What is the one element that.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Has allowed Chris to be so successful in all these
different realms but has been tried and true that you
would say, through it all, this is where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Grid and discipline by far, you know, for me, I've
always I've always been a very disciplined guy. You know,
to this day, I still wake up before thirty, I'm
in the coplunch, I'm in the sauna, and I meditate
every day. I still train like a professional athlete, because
I think an entrepreneurs is a lot like an athlete.
Take care of your body and take care of your
mind and grind and so look, business is hard, man,
(35:37):
especially starting businesses is very difficult. Being an entrepreneur could
be lonely at times, and especially when you're the CEO.
But I think just consistency and everything you do, you know,
having discipline, making sacrifices, you know, back in the day,
and you know, playing football and party in the offseason.
I was always the guy who was up at at
(35:57):
six the next morning and getting IVS or a massage.
You know, it's just it's just trying to be a pro.
And that's not only in sports, but it's in business.
And so the access to information right now is with
the internet is phenomenal. So I've been We've always try
to have a growth mindset, learn from a you know,
whether it be a mentor mentors, or learn from people
I respect. Gary Vee has been a great resource of
(36:20):
mine and and helping out outside of fat Head and
and so I think you know the answer your question directly,
it's grit, It's discipline, and then consistency. For sure.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I got excited because you said you wake up at
full thirty, and I'll be telling them my wake up
that early, and they'd be like why, but why, Like
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I read a little bit, meditate, pray, go work out,
so you should do it. So you should start doing that.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Who are you talking to? I'm looking at you.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I know, but I'm like, we should, we should
do that. We should get up at full thirty, and
we should. We got to go back, We got to
go get our NBA. But every former player.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Has got an NBA I have one. I just don't
have the I don't. I have a master's agree, but
I don't have the NBA.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So we got to get one. I'm trying to get him.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
He ain't.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
He ain't for it.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
For me, man, it's just waking up and getting wins
in the morning is key for me. You know, Like
I hate getting in that cult up every day at
four thirty, but I do it because I know it's
a win for me. Yeah, you know, sauna, the dada
on sauna. As far as it affecting your health, it's
it's you know, like nothing else. And so and then training,
I you know, granted I'm vain, but like I train
(37:29):
because I want to feel good and I want to perform,
you know, And so if I don't work out, I
feel horrible. So for me, it's just being consistent everything
I do. And just you know, I get up early
and get all my stuff done before my kids get
up at seven thirty, and so I'll get to enjoy
that time. And then when when the kids are in school,
I'm grinding.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I hear that.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
So, h Mount Rushmore, if you had your own personal
Mount Rushmore. People that have helped you get to where
you are right now. Who those four people be.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Great question? My father, my brother? Okay, I would say
my whole family. My mom has been an unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Is this one? Are you like giving them three spots?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm giving them three spots.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah. My dad's had been an amazing influence on my life.
And my brother was ten years older. My brother played
football at Princeton, so kind of you always looked at
to my brother. And my brother has been very successful
in business. Been with Merrill Lynchince nineteen eighty six, and
so you know, can call him whatever. He's that guy
I can call when when when you know, my house
burns down in Palisades a couple of weeks ago and
(38:37):
need some advice or you know, some of an event
to uh. So, I would say my close family has
been has been, you know my Mount Rushmore other than that,
you know I had, I had a really good influence
in my career. I told you about Michael Lurch, who
was the h He was the owner of the of
the Hedge Fund, and really just I learned so much
from that guy. Whether it's you meet someone and you
(38:59):
send him a handwritten note or you know, how to
conduct yourself in business, how to conduct yourself and negotiations.
And then I would say, final kind of four and
a half is this guy Scott McGregor. I belonged to
this group called the Outlier Project and it's you know,
basically the executives from around the world that come together
and and don't want to be ordinary. And so I've
(39:21):
learned so much from this guy, Scott McGregor about sending
people gifts just because you know, or sending people a
note or an email just telling him you appreciate them
or you've been thinking about them. Just real thoughtful things
that I've learned from that guy that have have had
a real positive impact in my life. And so, yeah,
hopefully that was a good answer, But my family's been
(39:42):
everything to me.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Great answer, since you brought it up. Let's talk about though,
how's how are you doing? You're the first person I
met personally that had to deal with the fires out
there in the Palisades, And how's the recovery process and
what's next?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, it's been it's been a it's been really challenging.
Three weeks, say the least, you know, we were we
were home, my wife and I were home at ten
thirty in the morning when when those fires started, and
we never thought our house was going to burn down.
I mean, at one point it was traveling five football
fields a minute. It was, you know, winds were eighty
miles an hour. So we we scrambled to go get
(40:21):
our kids at school, our kids, you know, luckily the
school was only two blocks away. So we ran up there,
grabbed our kids, sent them to the nannies place, and
and we're like, all right, you know, what are we
gonna do here? And so we knew we had to evacuate.
We did knew we didn't have a lot of time.
Traffic was starting to, you know, get crazy, and so
literally the only things I grabbed are my son's baseball
(40:42):
stuff and like all these ringsies won were like travel baseball.
That was it. I didn't have a change of underwear,
I didn't have a change of clothes. I thought it'd
be back, right. I thought it'd be the fire would
be contained. I'd be back the next day, you know,
back in my house. And you know, traffic was a nightmare.
I luckily got out of there. I found an escape
out to get out of the traffic, and so we
went to my buddy Scott CON's house in Laurel Canyon,
(41:05):
and then we got evacuated from there the next day.
So we went to Coronado, which is you know, by
San Diego, and we were just kind of, you know,
monitoring from afar and we heard, you know, the next day,
on Wednesday, our house burned down. And it was tough,
you know, like not only eleven years in my NFL memories,
but more importantly my kids stuff. Right, I got two kids,
(41:27):
six and ten, All their stuff has gone. They just
love that community, they love their friends in that community.
You know, our school burned down, our church burned down,
you know, the sports facilities burned down, and so it's
been challenging. And so, you know, during these emotional times,
I thought it was important to like really kind of
(41:48):
climb above the situation and make really good short term
decisions like all right, let's not make a crazy emotional
decision like get out of Dodge, move to you know,
my wife's in Minnesota where it's freezing. We wanted to
create some kind of sense of normalcy for the kids.
And so a lot of people from la were moving
to Manhattan Beach. A lot we're moving to Orange County,
(42:09):
and so we were lucky enough to find a good
spot in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach. We locked
down a lease for five months and so got the
kids in a really good public school, got them signed
up for sports again, and trying to create some sense
of normalcy. And the good thing was there's a lot
of people from Palisades down there, including some of my
my ten year old friends who we played sports with.
And so it's been good, man, it's been. It's been
(42:31):
a battle, dealing with not only just a massive amount
of loss and dislocation, but just a lot of sadness
and a lot of sorrow and just a lot of loss.
And so, you know, trying to be strong for my kids.
My wife's been unbelievable throughout this process, just trying to
be super present with the kids as much as we can.
And I think we settled on a good spot that's
(42:53):
a really good community, and just you know, and then
I would say, in three or four months, make a
decision do we want to get out of cal California?
You know, where do we want? Where do we think
the next community is for our kids. I think a
lot of the decisions around our kids and wanted to
raise them in a good environment. And you know, Pacific
Policies was an amazing place. It was kind of this
(43:13):
bubble that you know, no homeless people and not no
crime and the community was just a lot of benevolent
people and it was a very very special you know,
Will I go back, I don't know. I'd like to
be part of the rebuilding process. Who knows how long
that's going to take. There's a lot of uncertainty right now.
But it's just really sad man. I mean, we went
(43:35):
back and hazmat suits and you know, my poor son,
my poor ten year old, was like that, if you
can find anything of mine, it would mean so much
to me, and like it was just all rubble and ash. Yeah,
and then I don't sure if you saw the picture
I found my two face masks, you know, of the
whatever eight helmets. I had two charred face masks for
the only thing I could find. So it was sad, man,
(43:57):
But like, look, these things have happen in life. And
I think as a as a parent, uh, you got
to really be strong and be there for your kids.
But it's just really unfortunate for my kids, and you know,
and kids in general in California go through COVID and
then I have to go through this. It's it's a
lot of loss for kids and experience in a short
period of time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Way, I appreciate you coming out man with thank telling
that story and you've given us an hour of your time.
So we really do appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
I appreciate you guys having you guys do a great job.
Really love a.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Showpis Man, appreciate that. Thank you, thanks for sharing with
that man.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
UH and hopefully Man, we'll keep prayers up for you
and everybody be praying for everybody out there in California.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
It's been good though. We've been participating in the relief efforts.
We've partnered with UH with two eleven l a A
which is a five O one ced nonprofit providing you know,
resources and information to to you know, people that are
affected by the fires. We're partnering getting support with from
the Rams, from the Chargers and and from the Lakers.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Good.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
So we're gonna do some good partnerships with those guys.
And it's been good. It's you know, we want to
give back as an organization, and like I said earlier,
it's been a lot of loss. Or if we can
bring some kind of temporary joy to kids' lives, that
would be be really special for us.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
I forgot about the whole school aspect too. Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Totally different thing that I just see all the houses
and the damage. You think about the dollars you like, Dude,
what about the kids that actually have to like now
we got a new no school?
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Right?
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Well? Man, all right, well Chris you're going I know
you're gonna handle it. Bro, you got you. Appreciate it,
and thank you guys for always tuning in. Peanut, good
job today.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Man, Thanks you too.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Man, that was very inspiring, inspiring performance by you.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
All right, But to all our viewers and listeners out
there wherever you pick up your podcast was Apple podcasts.
iHeartRadio podcasts, and also check us out on the NFL's you.
Speaker 4 (45:44):
Knew Newer You Dotube channel. Yeah, I spit it out.
I keep trying to say new newer, but just know
it's there. Thank you, Peanuts, I got you. Since you kid,
my damn knee, I'm doing go ahead. Hey I'm Peanut.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
That's wrong, that's us And this is the NFL Player's
second AX podcast.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
We out appreciate Chuck
My wife and I were home at ten thirty in
the morning when those fires started, and we never thought
our house was going to burn down. At one point
it was traveling five football fields a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Peanut Tillman and this is the NFL Player's Second
Acts podcast and with me as always.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
My guy Roaman Opera.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
What's up? What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Man?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
It's been a great day. You got all the energy
this morning.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
I feel like this is going to be another fantastic
podcast sit down just because of our guest, highly, highly
intriguing person that's been very successful in life. And I
don't think everybody knows as much as they need to
know about this man.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well that's why we got this podcast, and we're finn
to dive into that eleven NFL seasons. He's a Yell graduate,
worked in finance, owned a Japanese basketball team. Now he's
a current CEO of Fathead Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Please welcome to the pod. Chris Heatherington.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Great to be here. I appreciate you having.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Me appreciate shit.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I feel like every time I've seen you in an interview,
you always got like a hat on your hair, like
that's just like the stoic look, like it's just.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So well so well that I'm bald.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So we weren't noble because you got the hat. But
it's a good look for you though. It's a dobe
look for you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Chris, At what point in time do you say, you
know what? Because everybody has to make that decision as
a bald brother, you know what I mean, Like when
do you let it go?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's funny, you know, I had long hair towards the
tail end of my career, and you can see my
hairliner's just seating a little bit. I never forget. I
was in practice one day and Eric Davis, who's one
of my former teammate's deep back. You guys know him,
and he's like Heatherington, Man, I don't know you're I
think you're done. So I made the decision to shave
my head in two thousand and seven. And look, I
(01:46):
just I try to be myself, right, Like I have
a certain look. I wear all black a lot, you know,
I wear suits with Jordan's and a hat and it
just it works for me, you know. I want to
be myself. And obviously there's certain circumstances I can't wear
a hat, but generally I gotta lit on twenty four seven.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So you were one of the bigger backs when you played,
you were about what two forty five? All stought he
was like two forty eight, Lorenzo Neil two fifty five.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Now these are fullbacks during Chris's time. Yeah, where fullback
was prevalent in the league.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Did you have fun just like destroying casts at that size?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's funny, man, I ranged typically what you know, whatever
offense I was running. Yeah, I was anywhere from two
forty to two sixty. I was two sixty when I
was at the Raiders. I was a quarterback in college.
I went to Yale, played quarterbacks, so they moved me
to fall back my rookie year. You know, made my
living on special teams first couple of years, and then
you know, learn how to become a goon and uh,
(02:45):
you know, I like to consider myself an athletic fallback.
But you know, when you're blocking Bruce Smith and Reggie
White and all these big cats off the edge or
Levon Kirklan in the middle, like the law of physics
is not your favorite. So you got to you gotta
beef up. So I enjoyed it, man, a really great time.
You know, had an unbelievable experience in eleven years, played
for some great organizations, you know, never never made it
(03:06):
deep in the playoffs, but super grateful for my career.
Met a lot of wonderful people and and still keeping
contact with a lot of the lot of the resources
I have. So it's it's been great.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
So you and I have a lot in common versus
this guy right here. You never played special teams in college,
never but major living playing special teams in the league.
Right I did the same thing like I played d
I was a starter for the thirteen years, but I
played special teams all thirteen years. Yeah, this dude just
div o over here, this Alabama diva never played special teams.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Like he has no idea what it's like in them
real trenches of playing on special team.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He called it specifically, I became a goon dayset of
a special team.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yes, you got to have a choice.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, it's it's crazy on them special teams because cats
is fighting to start and spot and I was still
fighting on sposal teams Like it was straight goons out there.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's changed, right, the rules have changed a little bit.
Kickoff it's not as big a.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Just not kickoff.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Everything else is still Goonville like you pump pum return
like you can.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You can still get it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Special field goal block like, oh yeah, you can still
get it. It goes down in the trenches.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
I don't think it's a skill you can pick up
later in your career. That's all I'm saying, Like, you
need to be a special teamser early, then kind of
work your way out of it. You could always go back,
but you have to have a taste or flavor of
it early. And I never got that. So for me
year nine ten, they're like, dude, you gotta go run on.
I'm like, bro, oh, romill go out there and block
(04:43):
like you're trying to get somebody destroyed. Because I can't
do that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You never did like a hands team like I would
did hands team, but I would line up.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
For hands team, right and I would be counting who
I have to block, like one, two, three, And I
was always like on the front line.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I just remember saying, like Jesus Christ, this is gonna
why am I I'm I on this team?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I remember screaming right as I got ready to kick,
and I was just like, let's go. Let's trying to
sock myself up because I was like looking at the numbers,
like these are all big dudes in about like the
two sixties, and I was like two hunters. I was like, yeah,
it's gonna hurt. I'm gonna try to blog to do
but like I can't run. I kind of have to
sit here and just take it like straight.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Goon was on the other side of the ball. What
was your welcome to the NFL, oh Man.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You know, my rookie year, I had an interesting first place.
So I very first play, very first play. I'd originally
started in Cincinnati, so I was an undrafted for agent,
went to Cincinnati, thought that was the best place to,
you know, try to make the team. I tore my
hamstring on my second pro day, so I pretty much
missed all of the all of the off season. Luckily
it came back for training camp. They put me on
(05:46):
practice squad. Week eight of my rookie year, Indianapolis fullback
starting football got hurt, so they picked me up and
so I played for special teams. My first game and
my first assignment was the up back on kickoff return
could to form the wedge and the kicker kicked the
ball to me. So my first play ever, I catched
the ball as a kickoff returner, you know, took it up,
(06:08):
broke one tackle, saw nothing but greenngraft thought I was
going They got blasted from the side, but like you know,
gained like twenty three yards. Yeah, and that was my
kind of welcome to the NFL. And then the special
teams coach Hank Coolman, who I became really good friends with,
I was like, look, man, put me on kickoff. I'll
I want to barrass you. And so put me on
kickoff in the opening kickoff of the second half and
(06:30):
blew up the wedge and made a tackle and that
was it. I just I you know, I felt as
though I had established an identity I was. The odds
were stacked against me. I was an undrafted rookie free
agent quarterback at Yale, you know, trying to trying to
become a fullback never blocked anybody in my life, and
so I knew that if I wanted to make the
team and survive in the league, I would have played
(06:51):
wherever they wanted me to play. And so really made
a living like I said, on special teams for my
first couple of years and then went to Carolina where
we ran a West Coast offense, you know, started at
full back and still play special teams. But yeah, that
was my kind of welcome to the party, you know,
catching the catching the return and thinking I was going
and blasted on the side.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That was actually a pretty good one. Though most of
the stories were here.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It was always someone that got they got hit hard,
or they had like stand up on the table and
sing a song. It was something that was kind of embarrassing.
But you you caught a kick off, got twenty three yards, like,
that's kind of a good one.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
We played the only the only off season I played,
and so we played in the playoffs my rookie year
versus Pittsburgh. They had a kid, Orpheus Roy who was
a d lineman from from Florida State who ran was
a wedge breaker right ran. He was like four to
six guy at three hundred pounds. And so for the
the opening kickoff of that game, this best team coach
I put me on the front line and I kind
(07:44):
of snuck him and caught him, and so unfortunately he
put me on the wedge you know, in the next
kickoff return in Orpheus Roy it just absolutely decleted me.
It was like, undoubtedly the hardest hit I've ever had
in my life. Don't remember any of the rest of
the game, Yeah, just you know at the all off
season and recover. But yeah, I mean there was a
(08:04):
lot of collisions back in the day. Yeah, you know, obviously,
like I said, with the role change, have become a
little more tolerant. But it was fun. Man, I enjoyed it.
I love running down there.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Like, explain what the wedge buster is to those listening
who don't really know the game of football or what
a wage is.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Explained that real quick.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah. So back in the day, you would have a wedge.
So wedge is comprised of typically a couple offensive linemen,
maybe a defensive line, maybe a goon fall back, and
your job was to basically be the lead blockers for
the returner. And so the job of a wedge breaker
is to come and just literally do that, to break
up the wedge and be a kamakazi. And so it
(08:43):
was rough being in the wedge, where, like I said,
the law of physics not in your favor. You got
cats running down sixty yards full speed, you know, and
you're standing still or I have a two step edge
head start. But I loved it, man.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
It was that was also the times where the off
team could get as big as of a head start
on the run. I said, what we had guys fifteen
twenty yards behind to time up the snap. They were like, dude,
we don't care how far you go. You go forty
yards if you want, as long as you hit by
time the kickers kicking the ball off side, you're not outside.
You can be hand start. And so that was also
(09:18):
another thing that made guys way faster because they were
hitting on the run. So by the time they got
to twenty five yards, they had already been running forty.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Well, what you.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Spoke about earlier, your playoffs, timing is everything, and so
for you, timing was not always on your side in football.
In nineteen ninety six, your rookie year, that was your
only winning season in the eleven years of football. That's
tough to deal with, all right. In two thousand and
one you played for the Panthers. You guys went one
(09:48):
in fifteen under George Seaffert. They still talk about that bad,
how bad Seaford was it the Carolina even though he's
great at forty nine ers? But two years later they
went to the super Bowl. So you missed that, he said,
Well he did. And then in two thousand and two
you went to the Rams and you guys were seven
and nine under Mike Martz. But the previous year they
(10:11):
went to the super Bowl, the greatest show on turf.
And then in two thousand and three you were with
the Raiders. You guys went four and twelve on the
coach Bill Callahan, and the previous season they had just
went to Super Bowl too. So your timing, like is
that realmant or lack of luck? Like, how do you
look back at all that and just say, like, man,
how was that just one year off?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah? Look, it's you guys know, it's a league of opportunity,
and it's also you know, timing matters. I think I was,
you know, you don't realize that everything, you guys, know,
everything happened so fast. And your job in the NFL
is to become, you know, become the best pro you
can be and then be the best player you can
be and best teammate you can be. And I went
into every game thinking it was gonna be my last
(10:54):
game every single year, and always trying to bring in
younger guys, cheaper guys to replace you. And so you know,
for me, I just I tried to be the best
bro I can be. You know, sometimes it's especially be
a fullback, right, Like, not a lot of teams use
the fullback, as you guys know, and so I was
always trying to trying to find the right system for
me to kind of utilize the talent I had, and
(11:18):
sometimes you're not a fit in specific offenses, you know.
So it was interesting in two thousand and two with
Saint Louis, they had a very good fullback, Jame Hodgens,
who was a like a fire edgeant. It was a
very good fullback. So I was going to be that
f tight end, you know, kind of a motion tight end,
which I think could have been, you know, a really
good move for my career. And then in the third
(11:40):
preseason game, Hodgens broke his broke his ankle. So I
became a starting fullback, and you know that had an
effect in my career obviously, and I tore my groin
in Week eight and missed the rest of the year.
But but yeah, man, I'm reminded of that, not often,
but but pretty often. And I would say, you know,
learning from those losses, learning from that adversity, understanding you
(12:04):
know why I think certain now why I think certain
organizations and the and the cultures of certain organizations really matter,
you know. And so that's had a pretty profound impact
in my business career. Where team matters, culture matters, and
also setting that culture from the top down, you know,
really really matters. And I would say, in full transparency,
(12:26):
some of those coaches I had weren't the best leaders
in the world, you know, very bright individuals and called
great offensive games or defensive games, but I would say,
weren't the greatest, greatest communicators, and weren't the greatest leaders.
And so I've really reflected on my career and try
to learn from those you know, examples or learned from
those experiences I had to to, you know, create an
(12:49):
environment where you allow people to thrive, and you create
this winning culture that that really matters.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Not only that, but to have it consistently, because you
were always a year or two off, and so the
culture had to be right at some point. But then
how do you do that consistently? Is that what you're
saying that you've probably learned the most.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Absolutely. Yeah, look at the New England Patriots, right, they
had a system where guys really bought into it and
knew their roles and responsibilities. Their roles and responsibilities could change,
you have injuries, people stepping up, but that system was
very sound and that you see a lot of these
veterans late in their career go they are Randy Moss's
(13:31):
I played at Randy and Oakland where it's like, look,
you either buy into this system or you're not going
to it's not going to work out for you here.
So that's you know, I have a lot of respect
for that. And Belichick was a very old school guy.
You know. I went on a free age and visit there,
I think in two thousand and five. But yeah, I
think you're exactly right. It's just it's all about consistency, right,
(13:51):
consistency in sports and consistent in business. And there's a
lot of overlaps.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Was there ever a system that you like besides like
one that you were specifically involved in all that you
got an idea or something that you learn from from
one of those coaches.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
For me, it's it's communication and how you treat people.
You know, if you look at some of the organizations
I played for, and uh, you know, whether it's Jerry
Richardson in in in Carolina, Jerry was a gentleman when
I was there. He was very great to the players,
very great to the families. He's riding around his golf
cart saying hi to fans before the game. You know,
(14:26):
just treated people well and treated people with respect. And
and then some of the organizations other organizations I played for,
it it was just a little different, you know, from
the top down, whether the owner wasn't very involved or
whether the owner was too involved. You know, I e
the Raiders and you're look at what happened with Snyder.
You know, they had a profound turnaround there in one
year because they had a culture reset. You know, So
(14:48):
I think it matters.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So you have this great season and now it's time
to transition outside of football and get into.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
The real world. Uh.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
You went to the Wharton.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Business School, Wharton Harvard Business School, and you got your NBA.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Right executive NBA.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I'm trying to get him to do that.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Like this he was an unbelievable experience. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
See, let's do this talk about that.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I want to hear a little bit more about that
experience and how it helped you to what you're doing
currently now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, you know, I tried to play a twelfth year
and couldn't work out a deal and uh. And you
guys know, I mean, the transition from being a pro
athlete to the real world is is tough. Yeah. And
and no matter how much money you made or didn't make,
or how famous or not famous, it's hard, right.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
What made it a specifically tough for you?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Just trying to figure out what I wanted to pour
all of my energy and passion and discipline into and
and and what I'd have fun and enjoy doing. And uh,
I was lucky enough to get a good education at Yale.
And you know, I've been out of school twelve years
and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
I think a lot of people expecting me to go
work on Wall Street and be an investment banker or
(16:09):
being private wealth and and and so I took that
time to really, you know, one, get back in school,
and you know, meet some great people. I met some
really great people at Harvard and at Warden and still
keep in contact with some of the professors, and there
was other NFL athletes there, and we still you know,
communicate about business to this day. But it was really
(16:29):
getting back into you know, trying to figure out what
I wanted to do the rest of my life, or
trying to figure out what would do with the next
chapter of my life. And so I had some offers
to go to New York and go on Wall Street.
I decided to go into this headfund called Evolution Capital,
and it was started by a former Princeton football player
who historically hired a lot of x IVY League athletes
(16:52):
that were you know, work hard, play hard type people
men and women. And I felt as though it was
it was an easier transition for me because I found
on my next locker room, you know, I found my
next team, you know, of a bunch of other like
minded individuals, come from similar backgrounds, and we grinded. But
like I didn't even know what an option was. I
(17:13):
was I was a trader, you know, trading futures and options,
and didn't even know what an option was. And so
I'm like, all right, well, I'm going to work twice
as hard as the next person. I'm going to stay
up and study the European markets at night and record
every trade that I made and try to learn and
just grind, you know. And so I was a trader
for a couple of years, and then we inherited a
(17:33):
professional basketball team in Tokyo called the Tokyo Apache, and
so I became the president's CEO of that basketball team.
And Kobe Bryant's dad was the coach before I got there.
We didn't retain him, but kept him as an advisor.
We hired a four time NBA head coach, Bob Hill,
brought over his son Casey to be the assistant coach,
and brought over nine NBA cheerleaders, five American players, and
(17:56):
it was awesome. It was It was one of the
best years of my life. You know. We essentially we
built an NBA franchise from scratch, and our thesis was
to take the US or NBA style of basketball entertainment
bring it to Tokyo. We were the number one commissioned
hedge fund at the time, so leverage all our big
banking relationships and by courtside seats and VIP sponsorships and
(18:17):
it was awesome. We were playing in a government arena.
We had Lakers uniforms. But about eighty percent way through
our season was a big earthquake and tsunami in twenty eleven,
which was nuts. It was a nine point zero, the
biggest one in history, and I'm responsible for seventy five limited.
We were on the fifteenth floor of a fifty two
story building. The building was going like this. It was insane.
(18:38):
It lasted about four and a half minutes. You know,
I'd been in California for the last four years of
my career and for the first four years of my
career at this hedge fund, and had felt some earthquakes
and you know, they last ten seconds or that was crazy.
This lasted like four and a half minutes, and it
was a nine point zero. And so I'll never forget.
I had studied before I got there. I studied, you know,
(19:00):
about earthquakes and how the buildings were, you know, on
on wheels and built it withstand this And so I said,
everybody's scurrying down the stairway and they're going you know,
everybody's got hard hats on. Elevators are shut down. So
I said, look, let's stay here for twenty minutes, let's
not get trampled in the stairway, and we'll go out
in about twenty minutes. So we did that. We went outside.
(19:20):
It was like two thousand people. This was in Japan.
I mean, the people are most discipline pletely you ever
meet in your life. They're like in single file lines.
We're in New York or LA. They'd be looting. They
go crazy, And so we got We were out there
for about two hours. There were seven thousand people out there,
and we got clear to go back in about two
hours later. And then there was another seven point zero
about thirty minutes later, so I sent everybody home. We
(19:42):
flew everybody out from the US that were from the
US back to the US, and I flew out about
two days later. But it was it was a crazy,
crazy experience to have to go through that, and then
came back, launched a co invest fun underneath the hedge
front umbrella. We worked there that strategy about five years,
and then got more involved in the private decareventure capital
side of a business. So I had a couple of
(20:04):
CEO roles of companies we invested in and then was
fortunate to be the right place at the right time
to have an opportunity to put a group together by
fathead in at the end of twenty twenty three. And
it's been it's been fun. Man. It's been great to
be back in sports again and leverage these relationships I
built over the last twenty five years. And you have
licenses with all the major sports leagues and players associations.
(20:26):
We have licenses with some of the most epic ip
and entertainment. So, you know, my career has kind of
been all over the place, but I would say, you know,
the things I've learned, you know, obviously in my time
at the NFL. You know, the things I've learned from
from succeeding in business and failing in business have been
really helpful, you know, with this opportunity to fat in.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
So when you're leveraging all these deals or these relationships
and you're with your friends and like Roman and I
were having this conversation, Hey, man, I think we should
go get fatter. You should be Are they like saying
like I think you should be CEO? Or is it
like how does how does that work? Because you sound
like you've been to seover a couple You've been to
see over a.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, in a short period of time. So you know,
it's experience, right, it's having the reps. Uh, you know,
a really great team, right. Jen Beaver, you guys know,
is our chief Partnership and livening office. She's she's the best.
She's done an amazing job of these partnerships. She's an
amazing relationship person. She works her butt off. You know.
Jason Turner is our COO. He's been you know, building
(21:27):
and growing businesses for the last twenty five years. You know,
we have Evan Green on marketing side. We got designers
that have been there, you know, Denny's been there seventeen years.
Nick's been there twelve years. So it's just you know,
when you're starting a company as opposed to a buying
a company, it's it's trying to put together the best
team possible and then trying to get people that have
you know, functional experience and expertise and reps in these
(21:51):
certain kind of areas of the business, whether it's you know, sales,
whether it's marketing operations, you name it, right, and then
as somebody has to be the leader. But the way
I like to do things is like it's it's it's
lead by committee. Right, We're a great team. We're communicating,
we're making decisions collaboratively, We're making data driven decisions every day.
(22:11):
And so yeah, team culture is very important. I would say,
you know, with these with these communication tools, these days
of Slack and all this stuff, it becomes a lot easier.
You know a lot of teams are remote these days.
But but yeah, I answer your question directly, it's it's
understanding what the what the best team possible we can
put together? You know what's each in each individual skill
(22:33):
sets are. And then there's different philosophies. Right, it's it's
for me, it's hiring really great people that can wear
multiple hats and it could be utility players. And if
you hire great people that are hard workers and are
smart and have growth mindsets, you'll find a place for
them in the organization.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Tell me this when you when I'm a player, I
know my individual goals and I know I ultimately my
individual goals will have to fit with the team goals.
When you are a CEO of the company, what is
your goal?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, I think you know you have goals individually and
you have goals collectively. I think, you know, we we
wake up every day and try to hit our KPIs
every day and.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Break that down indicators.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, your goals, your key performance.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Indicators, key performance indicators. Okay, we both did the same thing.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
I was like, I'm not a finance I do not
know what that means.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Oh good, got it.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, my goal is to be the best leader
I can be, right, and to hire the best team
I can hire, and then make sure the culture is
super dialed in right, make sure everybody's communicating well, everybody's
waking up and and and and marching to the same
beat of what we're trying to accomplish as a team.
You know, I've been focusing a lot of time raising money, right,
(23:50):
A lot of a lot of responsibility to CEO is
to raise capital and get the capital, you know, get
the company well capitalized, and then it's and it's going
out leveraging my relationships since or it's an entertainment to
promote the brand and to really grow the brand, you know,
open up new opportunities, whether it's expanding distribution or you know, uh,
forming key partnerships with other companies that can really help
(24:13):
us grow and we can help them grow. So would say,
you know, in all it's it's you know, raising money
is key, being a leader is key, and then always
focusing on having the right team. Right.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
What has been the coolest thing about now being CEO
and ownership of fat Hit.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'll tell you man, I've been involved in it, as
you know, in a couple of different businesses, and this
business is very unique in that it's so rewarding to
put smiles on people's faces when you see videos of
people opening up their fat head of their favorite hero,
whether it's a an athlete or an entertainer or or
On the custom side, right, the custom are our custom
(24:54):
side of the business is phenomenal. Right, you can fatt
age yourself or fatted your you know, capture these moments
that are happening. My ten year old son was literally championship,
wants to capture that moment. We sell a lot of pets.
People want to want to fat head their pets. It's insane.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Yeah, we on each one of my kids door it's
a fathead to when they were a baby, like oh
this is London's room, London baby picture, Sydney, same as that.
So yeah, we were on the custom.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Side and then yeah, I don't have any customs I wanted.
What I want to know is what's your best selling
fat hit football? Is there one person in particular Mahomes,
We've been selling.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
A lot of Barkleay's that that backwards backwards uh jump
hurdle that he did. Yeah, Patrick mahone has been pretty
consistent Saquon Barkley. But the NFL is our biggest license,
and as you guys know, our biggest relationship. The custom
side of the business does very, very well, but the
NFL is our biggest license. The NBA is a great
relationship of ours, The NHL is a great relationship of ours.
(25:50):
MLB is a great relationship. And so the way that
works in the licensed business, you have licenses with the leagues,
you know, so you pay royalties to the league, and
then you have licenses with the players Association, so you
you pay royalties see the players Association, which in turn
pays the players. And then if you want to do
individual deals with players, you deal with them directly. But yeah,
Patrick Mahomes been up there pretty consistently over the last
(26:13):
seven years for obvious reasons.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
Okay, And so when you have a company like Fathead
who's been around even before you came in, and you
guys took them over and bought them out. What does
the future look like because it's been around kind of
went dormit where it kind of seemed to stay the same.
So how do you continue to build upon the success
going forward?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, it's an eighteen
year old pretty iconic, you know, And I would say
most people twenty and above know what fat ad is.
Either they had a fat head or their friends out
of fat at or they wanted a fat ad. So
there's a lot of brand equity and brand awareness, which
is in today's world, everything right, like building a brand
is very difficult, and so I felt as though when
(26:56):
we bought the company, we were kind of starting on
third base. We had this amazing brand with amazing brand
awareness and brand equity. We have epic products, all these
licenses the custom side of the business, and they did
a really good job of building brand back in the
day where they were spending pretty big money on TV
commercials and Super Bowl ads and it was everywhere right
the Clay Matthews and Richard Sherman and Benn Roethlisberger and
(27:19):
so in today's world, it's changed a little bit. Right.
People focus on performance marketing, which is this bottom of
the funnel media buying, meta, Google, etc. And what we
noticed was there's a lot of emphasis on performance marketing
bottom of the funnel. But we have to get back
to investing in brand right, investing in making this brand
culturally relevant again, making this brand be everywhere in culture
(27:42):
and entertainment, in sports, etc. So for US, we spent
a lot of time investing in in infrastructure and technology.
We bought the business, we had to do a significant
amount of cleanup. We had to clean up the products,
clean up the data, clean up the licenses, clean up
the unit economics. So sort of really lay the foundation
for growth. And so for US, twenty twenty five is
all about growth, expanding distribution, getting into new categories like
(28:06):
music and gaming, license expansion opportunities. We're, you know, pretty
far along the process with UFC and Formula one and
then kind of nailing that playbook here domestically and then
starting to run that playbook globally. Fat it has been
a very North American business historically, US and a little
bit of Canada, so Premier League soccer as.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Soccer, and they don't even know, like, and it's easy.
What you guys do, travels anywhere anywhere. Like you know,
you hear about TAM total addressable market. Our total addressable
market is almost overwhelming. Right, So our kind of mancha
around fat it is either hell yes or not yet.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right. There's a lot of low hanging fruit to this business,
a lot of opportunities for us. But you got to
stay focused, you know, you got to stay focused on
executing your game plan and hitting your KPIs. But but
now to your point, Roman, it's all about growth. It's
all about intentional growth and making really good data driven decisions.
We've invested in technology. You know, our goal is to
(29:04):
really take this iconic decal business and then you know,
eventually build a fan engagement platform utilizing technology. And so
that's on our roadmap into twenty twenty five. We've been
in New York meeting with the NFL and BA, NHL
and the Jets. I'm picking a pilot partner for that,
for that technology and that fan engagement platform. So it's
been fun. It's it's been.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
What type of fan engagement? Like?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, so right now we have these amazing physical products, right,
like Christian McCaffrey is in my son's wall in his room,
or you know, somebody's pet is in their room, or
they bring a big head to the stadium and cheer
their heroes on. Now, what we're doing is kind of
combining the physical with the digital, right so now these
decals can come to life and and and trigger content
(29:51):
and trigger action. So picture me scanning, you know, your
your fat head on my wall. With our with our technology,
with AR and A, we can get in the metaverse.
We can get a blockchain eventually. But that that decal
triggers content and so whether that's Patrick mahomes, you know,
to trigger an AR menu and you can see as highlights,
(30:11):
as stats, links to the team store to buy merchandise,
or as jersey. You know, there could be subscription business
to that. It could be micro transactions, there could be
sponsorships and advertising, but essentially it's having a having a
more you know, kind of robust engagement with your fans and.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Player one type stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Yes, I like that, that's what we're going with it. Yeah, yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
That's why I was like, that's the fan engagement because
now it's not just on the wall anymore, which is
what Traditionally what we see fat ad is and now
you're saying, no, we're going next level knowledge it on
the wall. But now I can get you naturally pulled in,
get you to the website, I can draw you to
where I want to try, and I can point you
in the direction I want to lead you to.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It's just having better relationship with your customers, and your
customers having a more engagementship with their heroes or their
you know, the athletes, et cetera. And so yeah, for us,
it's it's been a lot of fun. We're kind of
bread crumbing that technology out to the market because you know,
there's a lot of opportunity with the core decal business.
But uh, you know, traditionally this business has been a
very seasonal business. Q four has really been about sixty
(31:18):
percent of the revenue. That's NFL and holidays. You know,
it is a gifting business, right, so we want people
to we want to turn this from an average order
value business to a lifetime value business. We want people
you know, when when when somebody's mom orders, you know,
their son of Christian McCaffrey decal, they probably didn't know
we had a Disney decal for her for her daughter. Right,
(31:38):
So it's all about you know, brand awareness, it's all
about education and uh, you know, being top of mind
not only when somebody has a birthday party, but but
in any event, in any any moment in time, and
any moment in culture. So yeah, for us, it's been exciting.
I think the technology really adds an interesting layered it
to fat head And uh, there's so many opportunity unities
(32:00):
with with you know, the relationships we have now and
fear the relationships as well.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We'll be back in a minute. You and Peyton were
teammates and Indie. Yeah, and you guys go on and
you have Omaha productions, And I would assume you guys
were great friends and had a really good relationship. Talk
about how in your career like leveraging those relationships that
(32:27):
help you into the business world.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, it's it's it's a good point. I think business
is all about relationships and trust. And so, you know,
Peyton was a great teamate of mind. I was fortunate
enough to play with them one year that was his
rookie year when we know we had a we had
a little bit of a challenging year, but he was
one of those guys he just knew he was gonna
be great, and uh, you know, from his work ethic
(32:52):
to his football IQ just the way he carried himself.
And so he's done an unbelievable job of leveraging those
those skills and that personality and that you know, his
dynamic personality to be really successful in business. And so
we've been fortunate enough to work with Omaha Productions. You know,
they're going to start doing some short and long form
content for us, and we've been you know, integrated in
(33:15):
some of the shows that they've been doing, and so
it's been awesome. Man. He's got a really great team,
you know, really really smart people, and Peyton and eal
I have become really funny.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It's the content that they produce is pretty epic. And
so it was just kind of right down the fairway
for us to to you know, kind of establish a
relationship and then work on growing that relationship. And so
it's going to be a lot of fun in the future.
We're just getting going and and we're really looking forward
to that partnership.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
And you guys with the Omaha Productions, you guys were
involved in the Pro Bowl recently as well. I think
the Pro Bowl was a big time success this year,
especially according to my kids, because they couldn't change the talent.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, I think, you know, anytime we can get the
brand out there with a great group like them at
a great event like the Pro you know, we'd love
to be involved in NFL Flag. We'd love to do
some bigger stuff at the Super Bowl. There's so many
temple events that that fat that it can be a
part of, whether it's NBA Finals or March Madness or
Little League World Series. We're going to start really integrating
(34:17):
it to you sports in a big way and work
with some of the best organizations in U sports to
kind of capture that younger demographic and bring this brand
back to top of mind. But yeah, like I said,
there's so many temples we can we can be involved in,
and there's no better team to do it with than
Omaha Productions. So you know, our job was pretty simple
in this initiative, which just a supply product and let
(34:37):
them do their thing. But there's so many fun things
we can do, you know, with those guys going forward
at like I said, all these great events in sports
and culture.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
What was the one thing that's been consistent that you say,
no matter what it has been, this is always tried
and true. From playing football at Yale to being in
the NFL for eleven years, taking over Japanese basketball team,
now being CEO of Fat Hit.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
What is the one element that.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Has allowed Chris to be so successful in all these
different realms but has been tried and true that you
would say, through it all, this is where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Grid and discipline by far, you know, for me, I've
always I've always been a very disciplined guy. You know,
to this day, I still wake up before thirty, I'm
in the coplunch, I'm in the sauna, and I meditate
every day. I still train like a professional athlete, because
I think an entrepreneurs is a lot like an athlete.
Take care of your body and take care of your
mind and grind and so look, business is hard, man,
(35:37):
especially starting businesses is very difficult. Being an entrepreneur could
be lonely at times, and especially when you're the CEO.
But I think just consistency and everything you do, you know,
having discipline, making sacrifices, you know, back in the day,
and you know, playing football and party in the offseason.
I was always the guy who was up at at
(35:57):
six the next morning and getting IVS or a massage.
You know, it's just it's just trying to be a pro.
And that's not only in sports, but it's in business.
And so the access to information right now is with
the internet is phenomenal. So I've been We've always try
to have a growth mindset, learn from a you know,
whether it be a mentor mentors, or learn from people
I respect. Gary Vee has been a great resource of
(36:20):
mine and and helping out outside of fat Head and
and so I think you know the answer your question directly,
it's grit, It's discipline, and then consistency. For sure.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I got excited because you said you wake up at
full thirty, and I'll be telling them my wake up
that early, and they'd be like why, but why, Like
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I read a little bit, meditate, pray, go work out,
so you should do it. So you should start doing that.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
Who are you talking to? I'm looking at you.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I know, but I'm like, we should, we should
do that. We should get up at full thirty, and
we should. We got to go back, We got to
go get our NBA. But every former player.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Has got an NBA I have one. I just don't
have the I don't. I have a master's agree, but
I don't have the NBA.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So we got to get one. I'm trying to get him.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
He ain't.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
He ain't for it.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
For me, man, it's just waking up and getting wins
in the morning is key for me. You know, Like
I hate getting in that cult up every day at
four thirty, but I do it because I know it's
a win for me. Yeah, you know, sauna, the dada
on sauna. As far as it affecting your health, it's
it's you know, like nothing else. And so and then training,
I you know, granted I'm vain, but like I train
(37:29):
because I want to feel good and I want to perform,
you know, And so if I don't work out, I
feel horrible. So for me, it's just being consistent everything
I do. And just you know, I get up early
and get all my stuff done before my kids get
up at seven thirty, and so I'll get to enjoy
that time. And then when when the kids are in school,
I'm grinding.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I hear that.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
So, h Mount Rushmore, if you had your own personal
Mount Rushmore. People that have helped you get to where
you are right now. Who those four people be.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Great question? My father, my brother? Okay, I would say
my whole family. My mom has been an unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Is this one? Are you like giving them three spots?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm giving them three spots.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah. My dad's had been an amazing influence on my life.
And my brother was ten years older. My brother played
football at Princeton, so kind of you always looked at
to my brother. And my brother has been very successful
in business. Been with Merrill Lynchince nineteen eighty six, and
so you know, can call him whatever. He's that guy
I can call when when when you know, my house
burns down in Palisades a couple of weeks ago and
(38:37):
need some advice or you know, some of an event
to uh. So, I would say my close family has
been has been, you know my Mount Rushmore other than that,
you know I had, I had a really good influence
in my career. I told you about Michael Lurch, who
was the h He was the owner of the of
the Hedge Fund, and really just I learned so much
from that guy. Whether it's you meet someone and you
(38:59):
send him a handwritten note or you know, how to
conduct yourself in business, how to conduct yourself and negotiations.
And then I would say, final kind of four and
a half is this guy Scott McGregor. I belonged to
this group called the Outlier Project and it's you know,
basically the executives from around the world that come together
and and don't want to be ordinary. And so I've
(39:21):
learned so much from this guy, Scott McGregor about sending
people gifts just because you know, or sending people a
note or an email just telling him you appreciate them
or you've been thinking about them. Just real thoughtful things
that I've learned from that guy that have have had
a real positive impact in my life. And so, yeah,
hopefully that was a good answer, But my family's been
(39:42):
everything to me.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Great answer, since you brought it up. Let's talk about though,
how's how are you doing? You're the first person I
met personally that had to deal with the fires out
there in the Palisades, And how's the recovery process and
what's next?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, it's been it's been a it's been really challenging.
Three weeks, say the least, you know, we were we
were home, my wife and I were home at ten
thirty in the morning when when those fires started, and
we never thought our house was going to burn down.
I mean, at one point it was traveling five football
fields a minute. It was, you know, winds were eighty
miles an hour. So we we scrambled to go get
(40:21):
our kids at school, our kids, you know, luckily the
school was only two blocks away. So we ran up there,
grabbed our kids, sent them to the nannies place, and
and we're like, all right, you know, what are we
gonna do here? And so we knew we had to evacuate.
We did knew we didn't have a lot of time.
Traffic was starting to, you know, get crazy, and so
literally the only things I grabbed are my son's baseball
(40:42):
stuff and like all these ringsies won were like travel baseball.
That was it. I didn't have a change of underwear,
I didn't have a change of clothes. I thought it'd
be back, right. I thought it'd be the fire would
be contained. I'd be back the next day, you know,
back in my house. And you know, traffic was a nightmare.
I luckily got out of there. I found an escape
out to get out of the traffic, and so we
went to my buddy Scott CON's house in Laurel Canyon,
(41:05):
and then we got evacuated from there the next day.
So we went to Coronado, which is you know, by
San Diego, and we were just kind of, you know,
monitoring from afar and we heard, you know, the next day,
on Wednesday, our house burned down. And it was tough,
you know, like not only eleven years in my NFL memories,
but more importantly my kids stuff. Right, I got two kids,
(41:27):
six and ten, All their stuff has gone. They just
love that community, they love their friends in that community.
You know, our school burned down, our church burned down,
you know, the sports facilities burned down, and so it's
been challenging. And so, you know, during these emotional times,
I thought it was important to like really kind of
(41:48):
climb above the situation and make really good short term
decisions like all right, let's not make a crazy emotional
decision like get out of Dodge, move to you know,
my wife's in Minnesota where it's freezing. We wanted to
create some kind of sense of normalcy for the kids.
And so a lot of people from la were moving
to Manhattan Beach. A lot we're moving to Orange County,
(42:09):
and so we were lucky enough to find a good
spot in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach. We locked
down a lease for five months and so got the
kids in a really good public school, got them signed
up for sports again, and trying to create some sense
of normalcy. And the good thing was there's a lot
of people from Palisades down there, including some of my
my ten year old friends who we played sports with.
And so it's been good, man, it's been. It's been
(42:31):
a battle, dealing with not only just a massive amount
of loss and dislocation, but just a lot of sadness
and a lot of sorrow and just a lot of loss.
And so, you know, trying to be strong for my kids.
My wife's been unbelievable throughout this process, just trying to
be super present with the kids as much as we can.
And I think we settled on a good spot that's
(42:53):
a really good community, and just you know, and then
I would say, in three or four months, make a
decision do we want to get out of cal California?
You know, where do we want? Where do we think
the next community is for our kids. I think a
lot of the decisions around our kids and wanted to
raise them in a good environment. And you know, Pacific
Policies was an amazing place. It was kind of this
(43:13):
bubble that you know, no homeless people and not no
crime and the community was just a lot of benevolent
people and it was a very very special you know,
Will I go back, I don't know. I'd like to
be part of the rebuilding process. Who knows how long
that's going to take. There's a lot of uncertainty right now.
But it's just really sad man. I mean, we went
(43:35):
back and hazmat suits and you know, my poor son,
my poor ten year old, was like that, if you
can find anything of mine, it would mean so much
to me, and like it was just all rubble and ash. Yeah,
and then I don't sure if you saw the picture
I found my two face masks, you know, of the
whatever eight helmets. I had two charred face masks for
the only thing I could find. So it was sad, man,
(43:57):
But like, look, these things have happen in life. And
I think as a as a parent, uh, you got
to really be strong and be there for your kids.
But it's just really unfortunate for my kids, and you know,
and kids in general in California go through COVID and
then I have to go through this. It's it's a
lot of loss for kids and experience in a short
period of time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Way, I appreciate you coming out man with thank telling
that story and you've given us an hour of your time.
So we really do appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
I appreciate you guys having you guys do a great job.
Really love a.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Showpis Man, appreciate that. Thank you, thanks for sharing with
that man.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
UH and hopefully Man, we'll keep prayers up for you
and everybody be praying for everybody out there in California.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
It's been good though. We've been participating in the relief efforts.
We've partnered with UH with two eleven l a A
which is a five O one ced nonprofit providing you know,
resources and information to to you know, people that are
affected by the fires. We're partnering getting support with from
the Rams, from the Chargers and and from the Lakers.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Good.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
So we're gonna do some good partnerships with those guys.
And it's been good. It's you know, we want to
give back as an organization, and like I said earlier,
it's been a lot of loss. Or if we can
bring some kind of temporary joy to kids' lives, that
would be be really special for us.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
I forgot about the whole school aspect too. Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Totally different thing that I just see all the houses
and the damage. You think about the dollars you like, Dude,
what about the kids that actually have to like now
we got a new no school?
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Right?
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Well? Man, all right, well Chris you're going I know
you're gonna handle it. Bro, you got you. Appreciate it,
and thank you guys for always tuning in. Peanut, good
job today.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Man, Thanks you too.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Man, that was very inspiring, inspiring performance by you.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
All right, But to all our viewers and listeners out
there wherever you pick up your podcast was Apple podcasts.
iHeartRadio podcasts, and also check us out on the NFL's you.
Speaker 4 (45:44):
Knew Newer You Dotube channel. Yeah, I spit it out.
I keep trying to say new newer, but just know
it's there. Thank you, Peanuts, I got you. Since you kid,
my damn knee, I'm doing go ahead. Hey I'm Peanut.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
That's wrong, that's us And this is the NFL Player's
second AX podcast.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
We out appreciate Chuck
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