“I wanted … to have young readers see a multiethnic character in a lead role,” he said. “I also wanted to spark the thought that families with diverse backgrounds are normal. At times in my childhood, I thought I had to ‘pick a side,’ [but]  I really want young kids to be able to embrace their heritage and be proud of their background.”

Yam was inspired to write his debut book after a trip to a major chain bookstore during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. He found a skimpy few dozen children’s books featuring Asian male lead characters, an example, he felt, of the underrepresentation that persists in other media. 

In the picture book, it’s little Mikey Yam’s fourth birthday, and the menu for his party is causing a bit of a dilemma: Should he serve Chinese or Italian food? He decides he wants to honor both cultures and enlists his grandmothers to help him come up with a new fusion dish: fried rice with marinara sauce. It ends up being the talk of the town and uniting everyone.

This idea of honoring diversity yet coming together is one that Yam has shared before, in a number of op-eds on everything from immigration and racism to charting a path for future Asian American broadcasters.  

Since graduating from Fordham with a degree in communications, Yam, a former SportsCenter anchor on ESPN, has also been an active supporter of students at WFUV, leading workshops, listening to their demo tapes, and helping to connect them with internship and job opportunities.

A few years ago, as a guest on WFUV Sports’ “Off the Air” podcast, Yam told listeners that before he got to Fordham, his plan was to become a pediatrician. Chemistry turned out not to be his “specialty,” though, so he decided to switch gears. He thought back to his first year, when one of his friends got the opportunity to go cover a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden—thanks to his WFUV press credentials. So, Yam walked over to the station and met with Bob Ahrens, then executive producer and sports director at WFUV.

“I joined the radio station. … I’d argue it’s the best training ground in the country if you want to be a sportscaster,” he said. “And there’s some great programs nationally, but my heart’s always in the Bronx.”

“It’s such a unique bunch of guys from all different walks of life, and they’ve gone on to do some incredible things,” Murray said of his former teammates. “And we pride ourselves on staying connected and helping those that have not only come before us but also will come after us as well. It’s a real fraternity there, and the bond is strong.”

Mapping Out a Plan with Family Roots

Sports were a big part of Murray’s childhood in Mahwah, New Jersey, where he lived with his mother, Irish-immigrant father, and brother. His father taught him how to kick a ball before he learned to walk, he said, and he went on to play soccer and Gaelic football, as well as a bit of baseball to “assimilate into the American culture.”

Growing up, Murray said they weren’t just sports crazy in his house, they were family crazy, too. “My [mom’s parents] lived a couple of blocks away from us, and we would be on the phone back to Ireland once every week, or once every two weeks,” he said. His family still visits Ireland regularly, at least once a year (barring a hiatus when COVID-19 paused international travel). During those summer trips as a kid, Murray didn’t just catch up with family and friends; he spent a lot of time training.

“It was funny: I’d get these very interesting looks as a 13-, 14-year-old kid kicking an American football in some of the most famous [Gaelic football] stadiums in Ireland,” he said. The training paid off. Murray enrolled at Don Bosco Preparatory High School, a private, all-boys Roman Catholic school in Ramsey, New Jersey, where he played football.

“We went on to win three state championships, we were nationally ranked every year, playing on ESPN, really getting a lot of great notoriety,” Murray said. Despite his proven skill, Murray was undersized for a football player—”or so a lot of college coaches told” him—so recruitment for college football was “slow to none.” His mother, Linda, a 1986 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate, made a natural suggestion: Why not check out Fordham? The pair visited the Rose Hill campus, Murray introduced himself to the coach, and they “made it happen,” he said.

“Made it happen” may be a bit of an understatement: Now a member of the Fordham University Athletics Hall of Fame, Murray was a consensus All-American placekicker in 2012, his senior year. He holds Fordham’s record for punting average in a season and is ranked fourth on the University’s list for career field goals made.

During the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2019, Joe Sullivan, FCRH ’14, one of Murray’s former teammates, said the kicker “had a big leg,” but he was known for his humility and for overcoming adversity.

“Pat was always good, but he wasn’t an NFL-ready player when he got to Fordham,” Sullivan said. “In fact, during his junior year, he missed a few kicks and the coach decided to bench him … but instead of letting it get to him, he let it drive him. He finished up the rest of that year with one of the greatest punting performances in the history of Fordham football.”

Murray’s senior year, he regained the starting position and “had one of the most prolific kicking seasons in the history of college football,” Sullivan added. “His character was always his greatest attribute.”

Life in the NFL—and Beyond

Shortly after graduating from Fordham with a degree in finance in 2013, Murray got his NFL break. Though he was invited to mini-camp with the Chicago Bears, the team released him in favor of Pro Bowler Robbie Gould, who had been the team’s kicker since 2005. Murray spent the rest of the 2013 season working out “for, gosh, at least one team every week” until the very end of the year, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought him back for a second tryout and signed him.

“In training camp that summer, I was perfect,” he said. “I made all my kicks and I beat out the incumbent and had a fantastic rookie year.” Unfortunately, the 2015 preseason saw Murray receiving his first of two career-shortening injuries and, after shuffling to the Cleveland Browns and back to Tampa Bay again, the kicker decided to “move on with the rest of [his]life” and start looking for jobs.

Cue 2020 and a global pandemic, though, and Murray wasn’t getting the callbacks he wanted. He “was a little downtrodden,” but he wasn’t at a loss: When he joined the National Football League, Murray had adopted a mantra—the NFL, he told himself, also stands for “not for long.” And so he vowed to continue his education. He enrolled in the online MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, taking advantage of a partnership between the school and the NFL Players Association that enables current and former NFL players to pursue a graduate business degree.

“You have access to some incredible faculty, and it’s an opportunity to have an advanced degree paid for because of what you did during your time within the NFL,” he said. “So for me, it was a no-brainer.”

Murray hasn’t completely left professional sports behind. As a client services associate in UBS’ Tampa, Florida, office, he helps to expand the firm’s footprint with athletes and entertainers.

“I believe it’s been a unique career, however, a very rewarding career that has allowed me to gain a lot of different skill sets,” he said.

Ties That Bind

Murray, who lives in Florida with his wife, Sara, and their 1-year-old daughter, Ellie, tries to make it back to Fordham as much as he can. Just this week, he was slated to participate in the 2022 Gridiron Golf Outing in Eastchester, New York, with Fordham football coach Joe Conlin, but the event has been rescheduled for May. Once the Rams football season starts on September 1, Murray plans to make the trek up to attend some games, including perhaps the Homecoming game on Saturday, September 17.

Murray said one of the reasons he comes back to campus is to serve as a resource for current student-athletes. It’s a privilege that he said was afforded to him as a student, and one he’s eager to pay forward.

“My whole life, it hasn’t just been me out there,” he said. “I’ve had help along the way—from a fantastic upbringing by my mother and father to a great training partner in my brother to all of the people that I competed against. And the foundation that was built from those early years of playing baseball or playing Gaelic football or playing soccer, culminating in running out onto the field on Sunday to represent a professional sports organization, I never did it alone.”

And he doesn’t expect Fordham’s up-and-coming athletes to do it alone, either. That’s why, he said, he wants to be there for them. He said players can ask Ed Kull, Fordham’s director of intercollegiate athletics, or any of their coaches for his phone number, and he’ll answer.

Murray added that his open-door policy isn’t just for questions about football or business, it extends to all of life, including mental health issues, which he feels need more attention.

“It’s a topic that needs to be discussed more—not only among men. … Pretty much everybody has something that they’re battling,” he said. “Call me up. We’ll have a chat,” he said he tells student-athletes. “I think if there were more open-door policies, we could help out a lot of people.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
This one is easy. Family. My family means everything to me. They are the reason I strive to be at least 1% better each and every day. My amazing wife and my beautiful daughter have given me so much in life, and I truly cannot imagine my world without them. I am so lucky to be a girl dad!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It’s not happening to you; it’s happening for you. I have had trials and tribulations, just as anyone else has, and the most important lesson I have learned is that feeling bad for yourself does not usually solve the problem. I have learned to take these times of struggle and turn them into learning opportunities, and that has made a huge difference in my life.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
Wow, this is a tough one! In New York City, it would have to be the Bethesda Fountain, which is where I asked my wife to marry me, or the Long Hall pub in midtown. The Long Hall has the best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland, and it is one of my first stops every time I come back!

In the world, it is Ireland. Being Irish is a massive part of who I am. I would not have accomplished the things I have without the Irish influence in my life. From playing Gaelic football as a kid in the Bronx to kicking points in the NFL, Ireland’s culture and history have truly left their mark on me.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I have two: What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack is an easy read and filled with incredible knowledge from one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. And The Choice by Philly McMahon. This book is written by a Gaelic footballer who was born on the “wrong side of the tracks,” shall we say. Through his own heartache of watching his brother suffer with addiction, he learned valuable life lessons that shaped him into one of the best athletes of his time and a budding fitness entrepreneur.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
This may be cliché, but it has to be Vince Lombardi. If you have not had the chance to read When Pride Still Mattered [David Maraniss’ biography of the 1937 Fordham graduate], I highly recommend picking it up. His life, his time at Fordham, his time at West Point, and in the NFL are all incredibly unique and show why he is regarded as one of the best coaches in football history.

What are you optimistic about?
I try to approach each day with a sense of optimism knowing that my actions can cause happiness in others’ lives. I strive to do the right thing and treat people how I would want to be treated and, in turn, I hope I can provide some sense of optimism and happiness to those around me.

“I think it really hit us when the NBA got canceled,” Edmonds says of the moment on March 11 when the NBA suspended its season amid the pandemic, and he—and the rest of the NFL—realized everything would change for them, as well.

After spending most of February and the beginning of March in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Edmonds said goodbye to his 5-year-old daughter, Avery, and left for Arizona to prepare for the uncertain months ahead. Since then, he, his coaches, and his teammates have been adapting to a new kind of football training, one filled with individual workouts and virtual meetings. Organized team activities were canceled in late May, and Edmonds and his closest friend on the team, Christian Kirk, decided to rent a house in Los Angeles for about a month to get a change of scenery.

Now, back in Arizona for training camp, which was allowed to open on July 28, Edmonds and the rest of the Cardinals have finally been able to access the team’s facilities—albeit with a rigorous set of safety protocols that includes frequent deep cleanings of equipment, smartwatches that monitor players’ health and their proximity to others, and strict rules around gatherings.

“It’s just nice to be back, man,” Edmonds says. “Seeing the guys and interacting with each other, because really, everyone has just been kind of doing their own thing. It felt like an eternity.”

Preparing for an NFL Season During COVID-19

As relieved as he is to get back to some semblance of normalcy with his team, Edmonds knows that the upcoming season, scheduled to begin on September 10, is far from certain.

“I would say the players, we’re probably the least optimistic just because we keep it real,” he says. “I mean, you’re touching people every single play, it’s a contact, collision sport. So there’s not really social distancing going on in the game of football. But the coaches and the GMs, they’re probably more optimistic than the players.”

If the season proceeds as planned, the playing environments will be unlike those Edmonds has grown accustomed to in the NFL, like when he ran for three touchdowns in front of 70,000 fans at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last October, leading the Cardinals to victory against the New York Giants.­ While the NFL will allow each team to determine its own rules for fans in stadiums based on local restrictions and guidelines, the league is preparing for a sharp decrease in the number of spectators.

“I think it’s definitely going to be a unique environment just because the fans make the atmosphere,” Edmonds says. “It’s electrifying, man, [when]you’ve got 70,000, 80,000 people watching you and screaming. [This season], it’s probably going to feel like high school ball for a lot of guys.”

A Historic College Football Career

Edmonds’ own high school football career at Harrisburg’s Central Dauphin High School was successful, but he was underrecruited because of his size—at 5-foot-9, he is relatively short for a college football prospect. Fordham’s offensive coordinator at the time, Andrew Breiner, had a connection at Central Dauphin, though: his own high school coach, Bob “Gump” May, was working with the team and tipped him off to Edmonds as a special talent. With several offers in hand, Edmonds ultimately chose Fordham, he says, because of the coaching—the head coach at the time, Joe Moorhead, FCRH ’96, had led the team to great improvement after being hired in 2011—and low roster turnover that would greet him in his first year. Once at Rose Hill, he proceeded to embark on a historic college football career.

Over his four seasons for the Rams, he scored 74 touchdowns and rushed for 5,862 yards, the fifth most in NCAA Football Championship Subdivision history, a number that would have been even higher if it weren’t for an injury that caused him to miss three games his senior year. That dominance made him a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, where the Cardinals were drawn to his speed, strength, and focus. Over his first two seasons with Arizona, Edmonds has rushed for 511 yards and six touchdowns, and is part of an exciting young core under head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who came to the Cardinals in 2019 after six years leading high-powered offenses at Texas Tech University. In addition to the exciting brand of football in Arizona, Edmonds has been won over by the area itself.

“Oh, I love Arizona,” he says. “I mean, outside of the brutal two, three months in the summer, it’s beautiful: 80 degrees and it’s just absolutely amazing. It’s a little more laid back than the East Coast.”

Staying Connected to Family—and RAMily

Edmonds still maintains his roots, though, both in Harrisburg and with Fordham. He has joint custody of his daughter, and before COVID-19, she visited him there frequently. Now, with the risk of travel and her getting ready to start kindergarten in Pennsylvania, he instead has daily video chats with her and looks forward to being able to see her in person regularly once the season is over.

His connections to Fordham remain strong, from the close friends he made at the University to his lasting relationship with his former coaches, including Shane Fogarty, the Rams’ current special teams/safeties coach. He also recently spoke with former Fordham softball player Maria Trivelpiece, FCRH ’19, for the Fordham athletics YouTube segment Catching Up with the RAMily. During that conversation, Edmonds addressed systemic racism and police shootings of Black Americans, telling Trivelpiece, “What we feel as Black athletes is that, all lives matter, but right now, they don’t, because Black lives don’t matter, and if you’re blind enough to not realize that systematic injustice is going on, then you are part of the problem.”

Looking ahead, Edmonds will try to pick up where he left off before his hamstring injury and make a big impact as the second running back on the Cardinals’ depth chart behind Kenyan Drake, who was traded to the team in October 2019.

“I know what I can do,” he says. “I know what I’m capable of. I think I’ve put that on film when I’m healthy. So I’ve just got to go out there, make my plays, and when my number’s called, do what I do. That’s my play.”

Fordham Five

What are you most passionate about?
Right now, it’s got to be football. To work your tail off your whole life for something, especially when you’re doubted, it’s a proud feeling. I’m not usually proud of myself for a lot of things, but then I was drafted into the NFL, and just finally being able to [achieve]my dreams … it’s a proud feeling, and it makes me even want to work harder. And just to put it down for the little guy, for guys that don’t get the recognition they think they deserve, for the guys that always kind of doubted, I kind of take pride in that. I put that chip on my shoulder. I don’t just take this as my job. I love this game. It brings me so much joy. The people I’ve met and the experiences that I’ve been able to already live through … it’s just taught me so much about life.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Two things. One is from my guy Chandler Jones [outside linebacker for the Cardinals]. He told me that you don’t need an explanation as to why you’re telling somebody “no.” And that really stuck with me, just because when I first got to the league and I had a lot of people asking me for money, I think it was hard just to say “no” to certain people. And if I did say “no,” I would try to find a reason, so it didn’t seem like I was being so harsh. But Chandler really taught me that no, you don’t need to explain to somebody why you’re saying “no.” That’s your business.

And then, this is one that’s from my big bro, [Cardinals wide receiver] Larry Fitzgerald. Larry always used to tell us, “No matter how you cut the sandwich, the bread always comes first.” That really hit me. Think with your head, make sure you’re doing things right. And make sure you’re setting yourself up correctly financially.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? What’s your favorite place in the world?
In New York, Maloney & Porcelli. They had this deal where you could get a steak, an appetizer, and all-you-can-drink wine for $80. I went there for my 22nd birthday. It wasn’t too expensive for a college kid, because obviously we couldn’t afford the high end-restaurants and everything like that.

In the world, if we’re talking about a city, I’m going to say Miami. I love Miami. I love the vibes there. At Fordham, every spring break we’d go there. And if I’m just going for any place, it’s my game room. I’m a daytime streamer on Twitch. I love streaming Call of Duty. In the offseason, I can’t count the endless hours I’ll spend on that game.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
Always the Bible. I grew up really just implementing faith and religion, and that’s gotten me through trials and tribulations that I’ve had in my life. The Bible really got me through my senior year at Fordham, just because that was really a low point for me because I was injured. I really couldn’t play, and I felt like my whole world was crashing. And being able to grasp my faith, and the understanding of how things happen for us, not to us … I thought having my [draft]stock fall was going to be the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it just so happened that my mom was planning to move out to Arizona to get closer to my sister who already lived there. And I got drafted here two months after she decided that. So it was just kind of a blessing in disguise, and that’s why I really just rely on the Bible ever since that.

Who’s the Fordham grad or professor that you admire the most?
Probably Judge Robert Holdman [FCRH ’86, LAW ’91]. As I’ve gotten older and as I’ve matured more as a man, Judge has helped me out a lot more than he ever had to. He helped me out when I was at Fordham with my agent process. He would interview agents for me, give me a background on whether they were legit or not. Just because my feet were kind of wet. I didn’t know what was going on in that world. He helped me out with another connection, another Fordham graduate who helped me with finance. Anytime you ever need Judge to help you out with something, he would do his best to truly help you out. That’s a guy that I truly do admire.

Each has involved a very different set of circumstances, but as Mark Conrad, associate professor of law and ethics and the director of the sports business concentration at the Gabelli School of Business, explained at a Fordham at the Forefront event at the University’s Lincoln Center campus on November 19, many of the tensions in the league today are ultimately labor issues.

Pro sports commissioners, Conrad explained, were once all-powerful within their given leagues, but in the age of collective bargaining, that doesn’t have to be the case. “The only check on the power of sports leagues, regarding labor, are unions,” Conrad said. Indeed, pro sports unions “are one of the few private employee unions that have thrived” during a time when the percentage of the American labor force in a union is around 10 percent—and dropping.

But Conrad explained that members of the NFL Players Association, which last negotiated a contract in 2011, are “probably kicking themselves” for allowing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to retain so much power. “They allowed the commissioner to be the judge, jury, and appeals court on various disciplinary matters,” said Conrad. “They allowed it in their last contract negotiation. You know that they don’t want to have that happen again.”

In other words, with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement expiring in 2020: stay tuned.

The Biggest Issues Off the Field

Over the course of the evening, Conrad led a discussion on some of the most pressing issues in the world of sports business today. Along with the talk on governance in the NFL, he covered four other big topics: the professionalization of college sports, ethics and international sports, legalized sports gambling, and the recent NHL concussion settlement, mixing in talk of current trends, relevant court cases, and a dialogue with students and alumni in the audience.

The conversation about the changing state of collegiate sports was a particularly lively one.

“The old model has been breaking down in what I’d call the big money sports,” said Conrad, whose book The Business of Sports, initially published by Routledge in 2006, was released in a third edition last year. He paid special attention to one of the most hotly debated NCAA rules: the one that prohibits student-athletes from receiving compensation beyond cost of attendance at a school. “I think what’s happening is the economics, the business, the pressure, and the law are slowly going against the NCAA’s attempt to do this.”

Conrad gave the example of students at a school like Indiana University, which has both a storied basketball program and a renowned music conservatory. “A music student can do a gig on the weekend with a local orchestra and be paid a hundred bucks. And they do,” said Conrad. “But a student-athlete [who]even gives lessons in what he wants do … that would affect eligibility. That’s gotta go. That really is something that smacks of economic oppression.”

Keeping Up with Industry Trends

Phil Acocella, FCRH ’11, an attendee who worked at WFUV as a student, says he remembers Conrad from his time at the radio station. “He was a frequent guest on WFUV, and he always brought a sense of expertise and knowledge to the broadcast,” said Acocella.

Acocella, who now works at SportsNet New York, said he attended the event because he’s a big sports fan looking to hear about industry trends, and because he was interested in connecting with fellow alumni.

“It’s a great opportunity to not only network but to see what Fordham’s offering in the world of sports,” he said. “Events like this are one of the best things that Fordham offers postgraduation.”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06

The Office of Alumni relations established the Fordham at the Forefront lecture series in 2012 to demonstrate “Fordham’s leadership in areas of universal relevance and concern,” and to deliver “a measure of lifelong learning to alumni, parents, and friends in cities throughout the world.”

“As much as you think your career is going to last forever, eventually one day it’s going to end,” Fox said. “I wanted to be prepared for life after football.” Fox enrolled in an MBA program designed for athletes at the University of Miami and eventually retired from football. He said that the advanced degree provided the foundations for him to become an entrepreneur. “It gave me the tools and network to launch a tech startup,” he added. After a year in the making, Earbuds, his new social music platform, will go live this fall.

A similar version of the MBA program Fox completed is coming to the Gabelli School of Business. The program, which caters to athletes and artists, was introduced at an August 2 event at the Gabelli School, which included panel discussions by top CEOs and athletes-turned-business professionals.

An Opportunity for Reinvention

“Overall, this segment is looking to reinvent themselves and reinvention is often times arduous,” said Associate Dean Francis Petit, who will oversee this niche Executive MBA. “This program will provide the necessary tools.”

The first cohort is expected to begin in winter 2019, following a curriculum similar to the existing Executive MBA program. Modular in format, it will include team projects, career coaching, presentations, and site visits to companies in the New York area, along with a capstone project.

“In essence, they will travel this academic journey together, similar to their team experiences throughout their playing days,” Petit said, adding that the program will eventually include artists, celebrities, and other creative professionals. “Artists and celebrities have, in one sense, a similar profile to other MBA students,” he explained, in that “they have a skillset that makes them thrive in a particular area. However, in order to have a more comprehensive skillset for creating value in today’s economy—the MBA can be that launchpad.”

The new MBA program is the result of a collaboration with Jack Brewer, who launched the Miami program Fox attended after a career in the NFL playing for the Minnesota Vikings, the New York Giants, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Education has always been a priority to Brewer, who said he grew up watching his father teach himself to read. Though Brewer earned a master’s degree before he started playing, he saw many of his former teammates struggling after retirement and realized the need for a specialized program. At the Gabelli School, he will help recruit students and serve as a mentor.

“This program is about taking athletes and artists—people who never thought about getting an MBA—and giving them a support system and teaching them how to excel off the field,” Brewer said in his opening remarks at the launch event, pointing out that athletes and artists often have nontraditional educations and many never even have had to apply to college.

Transition Can Be Difficult

Panelists at the event included Fox News sports analyst Jared Max, sports attorney Steve Silton, and several Fordham alumni—such as William Catucci, FCRH ’58, former CEO of AT&T Canada, Malachy Fallon, GABELLI ’83, ’90, ’15, executive director of the Xavier Society for the Blind, and Mark Celani, GABELLI ’90, president and CEO of FICEL Transport. All discussed the importance of the MBA for career development.

Silton pointed out the assets athletes bring to the business world. “They are so good at recognizing and seizing opportunities,” he said. “That is unique and special. The MBA tempers their enthusiasm to take risks and prepares them to do the full analysis to determine what truly are the best opportunities.”

A second panel discussion revealed insights from athletes themselves about going into business after retiring from sports. Julie Hansson, a former Olympic gymnast from Norway, said she needed to redirect the energy she devoted to intense training throughout her life.

“When you stop, there is an empty space that needs to be filled with something else,” she said. Today, Hansson works for the NBA and her sister Katherine Hansson, also a former Olympic gymnast who spoke on the panel, is an assistant vice president at DNB, a Norwegian bank.

Garrett Klugh, a former Olympic rower, talked about retiring from sports at the age of 29. “The transition from athlete to real life is very difficult,” he said, adding that he returned to school nearly ten years later to earn his MBA. “I didn’t want to be the person in a firm who is a collectible,” he said. “Here’s our Olympian on the shelf.” Klugh felt it was important to separate his athletic background from his business career at a venture capital firm, and the MBA program helped him accomplish that.

Traits that Transfer to the Business World

Serving as a panelist, Fox reiterated that athletes possess many characteristics that, with proper direction, can successfully transfer to the business world. “We are very competitive and forward thinking,” he said, emphasizing the value of working alongside like-minded high achievers in the MBA program. “It created such a great ecosystem. Everyone was willing to collaborate and help each other.”

Gabelli School Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., said the new MBA program exemplifies the Gabelli School’s mission to prepare students for careers in “business with purpose and community.” She also noted Fordham’s long history of educating athletes and artists, including football legend Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, baseball great Frankie Frisch, actor Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, and bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark, FCLC ’79, among others.

“These individuals succeeded because they know the meaning of determination and hard work,” she said. “We’re very excited to help former athletes and artists transition into successful business careers.”

–Claire Curry

But from the time he entered Fordham College at Rose Hill, the Pennsylvania native sought to put together a resume that would lead to a career in the pros. And what a resume it turned out to be, even with the missed time in his final season. Edmonds finished his Fordham career not only as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards, touchdowns, and rushing touchdowns, but also as the Patriot League’s all-time leader in those categories as well.

Edmonds’ body of work didn’t go unnoticed; in April he was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth round of the NFL draft. It’s the highest a Ram had been taken in the draft since 1943 and the first time a Fordham player had been drafted since the Cardinals took quarterback John Skelton in the fifth round in 2010.

As Edmonds tells it, his doubters only served to motivate him.

“Always being considered undersized, it just brings out a chip on your shoulder,” he said. “I think there’s no better feeling than proving people wrong. I love it. I take pride in it.”

At Fordham, the accolades piled up. As a freshman in 2014, he won the Jerry Rice Award as the top NCAA Football Championship Subdivision rookie. The following year, he was named the Patriot League’s offensive player of the year. And in his junior year, he was a consensus first-team All-American and finished fourth in the voting for the Walter Payton Award, given to the top offensive player in the NCAA FCS. He finished his career with 5,862 career rushing yards, the fifth most in NCAA FCS history.

Edmonds continued to impress even after his Fordham career ended: At the annual NFL Scouting Combine earlier this year, he finished first among all running backs in two of seven events, and third in another.

In 2014, Edmonds got big news just days before his first Fordham training camp: He learned he was going to be a father. Now a dad to 3-year-old daughter Avery, he sees similarities to that life-changing period as he embarks on his pro career. “I didn’t have a lot of schools that liked me coming out of high school, but Fordham absolutely loved me and believed in my talents,” he said. “And though I struggled my senior year with injuries, Arizona still loved me, and they made that apparent when I went down to visit them.”

Added Edmonds, “You only need one team to like you, just like you only need one college to like you. Everything so far has panned out. Now I’ve got to put in the work, and continue to make it pan out.”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06

Listen here:

And in this bonus track, we ask Conrad: Which is the best sports league, and which is the worst?

Full transcript below

Mark Conrad: Sports is an entertainment business. An entertainment business is a talent-driven business. Ask just about any sports executive to sum up the sports business, and they say that.

Patrick Verel: The professional sports market in the United States was worth about $60 billion in 2014. And according to Forbes, it’s expected to reach $73 billion by 2019. Chump change it most certainly is not. I’m Patrick Verel. And today, my guest is Mark Conrad, Director of the Sports Business Concentration at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.

This is the first year that Chief Wahoo was absent from the Cleveland Indians uniform. But fans will still be able to buy merchandise with his image at the team’s gift shop. What do you think? Smart move or just delaying the inevitable?

Mark Conrad: Well, it is delaying the inevitable in a certain sense because you’ve seen a gradual transition away from that symbol that was seen on the uniforms in other kinds of stadium type functions. And certainly in the media, you’ve not seen it as you used to see it either, which is a fortunate thing because Native American groups have demonstrated for years against that symbol and the depiction that the symbol seems to infer about Native Americans. And according to them, it was quite offensive. So I think this was a nice or a diplomatic way to segue away from the use of that particular logo. And I suspect in the next few years, it’ll be eliminated entirely. So right now, it can only be sold and bought in merchandise in the Cleveland area. Major League Baseball is not going to handle any merchandise nationwide with that particular symbol.

Patrick Verel: As of this recording, the NCAA’s March Madness is in full swing. And every year, there’s this talk about how athletes are being taken advantage of because they’re technically amateurs. Do you see any movement on this issue?

Mark Conrad: I think there is significant movement on this issue. And I think in the next two to three years, there’ll be more movement on this issue. This is the beginning of a revolution because we’re finally realizing that with all the revenues that the NCAA makes in its men’s basketball tournament, it is really ludicrous to consider these players, who are the labor force for this tournament, the labor force that doesn’t get compensated when the coaches do, the media people do. The television networks pay the NCAA huge rights fees to see that. Advertisers advertise on this, for this particular broadcast and series of broadcasts. So this is really something that is getting to be manifestly unfair because a labor force is paid basically nothing when you’re dealing with elite men’s college basketball.

There have been a number of cases in the courts that have challenged this arrangement on anti-trust grounds. And there’s been some liberalization regarding some of the student compensational ready. And also in the football area, the conferences seem to be taking over control over big time college football. And the NCAA has sort of surrendered that. And it’s surrendered that for many years. Just as an example of how ludicrous this can be is that the University of Central Florida denied eligibility to a student who had a YouTube page and he did various creative projects on YouTube and did get some advertising revenue, which had nothing to do with basketball. And he launched a First Amendment lawsuit against the University of Central Florida, which is a public institution, saying that it violates his free speech rights.

What I think would be the easiest thing to do is allow students to make endorsement deals, allow students to engage in outside activities that could be somewhat sports related. And if the University’s wish were to try to control the money, they could put it in a trust fund. So if the student spends X period of time or even not, X years later it would be available to the student. So let’s say the student really can get an endorsement deal, or the student wants to teach basketball to someone like me, and get paid for it, why shouldn’t the student do that?

A music student has every right to do gigs on the side while that person is a music student in a school. And I know many music students who’ve done that. So why can’t a student athlete do the same thing if indeed there is a market for that? On the other hand, I don’t think paying players outright as employees would be the way to go, simply because it could be very costly and university budgets, athletic budgets often lose money, and you have many other sports that don’t raise those revenues. And second, to treat someone like an employee is very different than treating them like a student athlete or a student. It would pose other kinds of legal issues.

Patrick Verel: Let’s talk a little bit about the NFL. There’s been a real increased awareness of concussion-related injuries. And that’s been leading to a decrease in boys playing tackle football in many parts of the country. Do you think the league’s viability could be affected by a shrinking pool of potential players in the future?

Mark Conrad: Well, the quality of play could and the nature of who the NFL teams could pick could be affected. I don’t foresee the NFL shutting down because the NFL could certainly get enough of a talent pool. Because ultimately, those players could be deemed as high risk, high reward. They are being compensated. In many cases, compensated quite well for what they do, albeit in a very, very short time because the average NFL player only plays about three seasons. And of course, we do know about the serious physical risks that NFL players endure by playing that sport. But I do think that the era of open doors for the NFL to millions of potential kids out there who play in the junior high school or high school level may be receding a little bit. The concussion issue has been a serious issue. Many families are worried about it. And seeing the media reports of these veteran players that many of us know and watched suffering greatly does have a very powerful effect.

Patrick Verel: The NFL has got other challenges to face to. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Mark Conrad: Well, where do we start? The NFL has a problem with its players and its players union. And I suspect there’s a good chance there will be some kind of concerted action after the end of the present collective bargaining agreement, which is a fancy term for either a strike or a lockout. I think that the players want to change the arbitration system that existed, that one could argue burned Tom Brady and others because it is very unusual that the Commissioner can be the arbitrator or the Commissioner can appoint somebody to be the arbitrator when many of us learn that arbitrators should be independent and have no conflict of interest. It’s a very, very bizarre system that came about. I think that the players are really going to want to change that. That’s one thing.

The second of course are the concussion protocols, which are really more for the veteran players. And the NFL settled a lawsuit by thousands of former players regarding medical care for their injuries that arguably resulted from concussions. And that’s been slow to get off the ground. There is a $1 billion fund over many, many years, but apparently it’s been a slow process, and we have to see how indeed that plays out.

Indeed, I think the issue of television rights will be something to watch because the NFL’s main TV deals are expiring in a few years. Although, the recent deal with Fox for Thursday night broadcast of $1 billion over five years is a pretty astounding deal, much higher than the prior deals. So certainly, there’s still broadcasters out there that are willing to pay big bucks for the NFL.

And finally, of course the political issues, the whole “Colin Kaepernick effect” has been controversial and some say has hurt ratings in the NFL, while other say that quality of play this season has hurt ratings in the NFL. I’m not here to judge one way or the other. But I think it cannot be good that a lot of people felt that the game got politicized. On the other hand, I would say that the President exacerbated the situation by bringing up the issue a number of times when indeed it seemed to fading. And I think it’s almost a normal human reaction to say, “Well, you attack us by saying that. Well, we may just continue doing this sort of thing.” But in the long run, it may not be good for anyone because I suspect that the goal that the kneeling issue has sought has already been passed. At this point, we understand the issues. And do you keep doing this or not? And I think that’s something that we’ll have to see what happens the next season.

Patrick Verel: Before we started recording this, we were talking a little bit about the NFL and how about five, six years ago, it seemed like the League was invincible. And you had said that when you teach the class on the subject that your syllabus is often out of date by the end of the semester. Is there something inherent about his business that’s so chaotic?

Mark Conrad: Sports is an entertainment business. An entertainment business is a talent-driven business. Ask just about any sports executive to sum up the sports business, and they’ll say that. It’s a talent-type business that has a lot of similarities to entertainment because you’re dealing with personal services. People are paying money to watch individuals perform. They’re not paying money to buy a chair. It’s a very different kind of arrangement. So in a sense, it’s very fluid because you’re dealing with human beings performing.

Second, it is very technologically-driven and changes in technology, as it is with entertainment, also involve sports. The delivery systems, content providers, dissemination of various kinds of benefits, technologies, become very, very important in sports because there’s a lot of money involved in that. So I suspect that’s also a reason why it’s so dynamic.

And three, there’s often a lot of law that goes into sports because the courts are very, very busy. This is an endeavor that’s followed by tens of millions of people. There’s great interest. And even something like the Supreme Court ruling that in effect sports gambling can be legalized in much of the country, which is possible, can have a big effect starting almost immediately as a number of states may pass laws that will allow sports gambling. At this point, only Nevada has open sports books. That is likely or may very well likely change.

And then you create a very new business. What about gambling at the arenas? How much money do the states take? How much money do the leagues take? Jobs for analytic specialists because gambling is based on analytics and probabilities. So you create a new industry overnight. Another major issue of course are drugs, PEDs, and all the international attention that’s occurred there, and the controversies going on as well as the trials involving FIFA executives or former FIFA executives, which may not end because there are a number of investigations going on regarding the governance of international sports federations. This is an area that is not going to get stale.

Bonus Track

Patrick Verel: From a business perspective, what’s the best run sports organization and what’s the worst run sports organization, in your opinion?

Mark Conrad: In terms of sports leagues, the best run league is the NBA. Under Commissioner Adam Silver, who’s done an amazing job making the owners happy, making the players happy. He handled the Donald Sterling situation, a few years back, brilliantly. And the NBA has a new television contract that’s something like two and a half times the old one. So, things are going really, really well for the NBA. I would say they are the best.

In terms of the worst, I think you have to look internationally. There’s so many bad ones, so many federations are a problematic, but I would simply say at this point, USA Gymnastics probably has the award at this point for what had happened, which is absolutely outrageous. The U.S. Olympic Committee is not on that category because they’ve done some good things, but certainly the lack of aggressive investigation and involvement in this sexual abuse matter is a cause of great concern.

On Jan. 18, the 42-year-old Fordham Law grad was voted NFL Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association.

Roseman has avoided the spotlight since then, calling the award a credit to the entire Eagles organization. But in recent weeks, journalists and fans alike have been singing his praises, referring to him as a “genius” and a “magician,” and crediting him for a series of shrewd, often bold roster moves that have paid off in a big way this year.

The Eagles overcame back-to-back losing seasons and some potentially devastating player injuries to soar to a 13-3 regular-season record and advance to the Super Bowl, thanks in large part to the depth of young and veteran talent Roseman brought together.

“Every one of his free-agent or traded-for acquisitions were successes,” Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane wrote on Jan. 21, after the Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7, to win the NFC championship.

Now the resilient Eagles are set to face the New England Patriots, winners of two of the past three Super Bowls. Philly will be underdogs on Feb. 4, just as they were in their first two playoff games this year. But that’s a role the team and its fans seem to relish. And it’s one that’s long been familiar to Roseman, who overcame long odds just to land a job in the NFL.

Here are five things to know about Howie Roseman before the big game:

1. He’s living his childhood dream.

Roseman was born in Brooklyn but grew up in suburban New Jersey, where he rooted for the New York Jets and dreamed of a career in an NFL team’s front office. He once said that when he was 9 or 10 years old, “people would ask what I was going to do. I’d say, I’m going to be general manager of a National Football League team. They used to laugh.”

2. His persistence is legendary.

In a 2014 interview with Bleacher Report, Roseman estimated that between his senior year of high school and his third year of law school, he wrote more than 1,000 letters to NFL teams (one letter to each team, several times a year) in hopes of landing a job.

He received rejection letters that could be “stacked as high as the ceiling in any room in your house,” he said, and he admitted that he “really didn’t have a backup plan, which, looking back on it really wasn’t so smart.”

3. A Fordham Law degree helped him get his foot in the door.

Roseman received a glimmer of hope during his senior year at the University of Florida. Mike Tannenbaum, who worked in the New York Jets player personnel department at the time, agreed to give Roseman some advice by phone. No team would hire him as a scout, Tannenbaum reportedly said, because Roseman had no football experience. But if he were to earn a law degree, he might be able to sell himself as a salary-cap expert.

So Roseman enrolled at Fordham Law School. Shortly after earning a J.D. in May 2000, he landed his first NFL position: an unpaid summer internship with the Eagles. And he hasn’t forgotten his alma mater. In spring 2011, he returned to Fordham to deliver the keynote address at the annual Fordham Sports Law Symposium.

4. He rose from intern to general manager in just 10 years.

Roseman initially shared a desk with an administrative assistant in the Eagles’ front office, but before long, he was hired full time as staff counsel and began a rapid, steady climb through the corporate ranks—to director of football administration in 2003, vice president of player personnel in 2008, and general manager in 2010. By then, he was 34 years old, the youngest GM in the league at the time. He’s been in his current position as head of football operations since 2015.

5. He’s the latest exemplar of Fordham’s Super Bowl connections.

Fordham’s ties to the big game date back to the very first one. On Jan. 15, 1967, Fordham grad Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, led the Green Bay Packers to victory in what later became known as Super Bowl I. He repeated the feat the following year. After his untimely death in September 1970, the NFL named its championship trophy in his honor.

One of Lombardi’s Fordham classmates, Wellington Mara, FCRH ’37, also had a share in two Super Bowl victories. As longtime co-owner of the New York Giants, he steered the team to the top in 1987 and 1991.

More recently, Wellington’s son John Mara—a 1979 Fordham Law grad and the Giants’ current president, CEO, and co-owner—has hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice, in 2008 and 2012. In both games, the odds were against his team, and in both games, the Giants defeated the New England Patriots.

No doubt Roseman will be looking to extend that Fordham underdog tradition on Super Bowl Sunday.

Update (Feb. 5): The Eagles defeated the Patriots, 41-33, to win the Super Bowl 52. After the game, Roseman told NBC Sports Philadelphia, “It’s hard to win a world championship. Everything has to go right. And not everything went right for us. … [But] we’re world champions forever. This group is a special group.”