The MBA Life June 26, 2009, 12:20AM EST

For Pro Athletes, Business School Is No Game

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The program, which has seen 487 players pass through since it was instituted five years ago, is made up of two three-day segments at Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, or Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg Full-Time MBA Profile). The programs, which teach a variety of business skills, are designed to equip players with the tools to make smart business decisions, as well as the wherewithal to avoid bad ones.

Chris Henry, director of player development for the NFL, says participation in these courses has led to a "small spike" in players pursuing MBAs. Among program participants now getting their MBAs are former Tennessee Titans defensive end Bryce Fisher, who is attending the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth Full-Time MBA Profile) and Minnesota Vikings tight end Jeff Dugan, who is enrolled at Kellogg. Just this week, six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle La'Roi Glover announced his retirement, and he is now studying for the GMAT. Schools say most of the NFL players who are now enrolled got the idea through one of these courses. But the league, which has had to turn players away from these rigorous programs, has no plans to expand beyond the roughly 100 people per year it currently accommodates.

A DIFFERENT FIELD

"Hey, look how tall he is." "Oh, that's the guy that plays for the Lakers." Mitch Kupchak, now the Lakers' general manager, says he heard that a lot while he was taking MBA classes at UCLA's Anderson school. Kupchak, who graduated with his MBA from the part-time program in 1987, fondly remembers the Thursday night "beer busts" and riding his bike to class. When he didn't, he says, he racked up parking tickets, just like all the other students.

For many athletes, though, the transition from superstar to life after sports can be tough. For one, there's no beaten path to graduate school, as with many other professions, and the sudden loss of celebrity can be jarring for some. "When you leave professional sports, it's a transition period that is so difficult," says Eddie George, a former Tennessee Titans running back. "I don't care if you played 20 years and made $20 million. It's still a transition period that you go through psychologically, physically, emotionally, and financially."

George, who has built something of a cross-industry business empire, has handled it better than most. Before enrolling in the Kellogg EMBA program (Northwestern Kellogg EMBA Profile), the Heisman Trophy winner was able to establish a presence in restaurants, real estate, entertainment, and beyond. But in the beginning, he says, "I took my lumps as far as businesses." Before he took an active interest managing his money and career, he was "pretty much a passive investor," he says.

When he arrived in business school, the information influx was "like drinking out of a fire hydrant," he says. It's already proving useful, George says, and he's revising the business plan of his landscape architecture firm per the advice of his B-school profs.

An MBA, of course, won't make every player a mogul, and it won't prevent every player from making financial mistakes. As the financial crisis has shown, it often doesn't save even the lifelong business executive from blunders and bankruptcy. And it is possible to succeed without an MBA. Says Kupchak: "You don't need an MBA to do what I do." But, then again, a little more education never hurt anyone.

That was the case for Hakan Bas, who was the captain of the Turkish National Swim Team before he gave up his dream of pursuing an Olympic medal to attend Cornell University's undergraduate program and then the Yale School of Management last fall. It was heart-wrenching, he says, to leave the team and see another swimmer take his place. However, at least one of his friends who didn't prioritize education is now considering a career in modeling—hardly a reliable standby for a retired athlete. And though he never made it to the Olympics, Bas says, he did get to swim in the Yale MBA student olympics.

At least in that race he won the gold.

Anne VanderMey is a B-schools writer at BusinessWeek.