University of Tennessee Athletics
FROM PRO FOOTBALL TO HARVARD YARD
April 20, 2007 | Football
April 20, 2007
Former Tennessee linebacker Omar Gaither (2002-05), who spent last season as a Philadelphia Eagles rookie, recently completed a three-day classroom session at the Harvard University Business School as part of the league's effort to provide business education to active and former NFL players during the offseason. Two stories on the business education project and its participation by Gaither, who earned his UT bachelor's degree in sport management in 2006, are linked below.
| FROM PRO FOOTBALL TO HARVARD YARD Last season Omar Gaither successfully executed play after play on the football field as a rookie linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles. This morning, chalk in hand, he stands in front of a blackboard at the Harvard Business School, analyzing plays of an entirely different sort. The problem at the moment is where Mr. Gaither will locate parking spaces in his sketch of "503 Cricket Road" - otherwise known as HBS Case Study No. 396001. Already Gaither has drawn an outline of the apartment complex, an entrance, and a walkway from the curb. Professor Arthur Segel has posed the question of where tenants will leave their vehicles. "Normally, the way I've seen it done is one space per unit plus a few extra for guests," says Gaither. Professor Segel nods. Gaither waits, chalk posed. His classmates, 17 other National Football League (NFL) players seated in a tiered U-formation, offer assorted opinions based on their reading of the case study: There should be 28 spaces, two for each unit. The number of units should be increased. Tenants could park on the street. |
| Omar Gaither - BACK TO SCHOOL Only a few weeks after concluding an impressive rookie campaign with the Philadelphia Eagles, Omar Gaither is already planning ahead for life after football. Gaither, who has a promising career on the field to fulfill, spent three days in a classroom last month at the Harvard Business School as part of the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program. "Going into the league a lot of guys tell you that you never know when it's going to be over or when your last day in the NFL is going to be," said Gaither, who became the Eagles' starter at weakside linebacker for the final five games of the regular season and two playoff games. "You play every down like it could be your last because it may be. "So I know I want to be a football player for as long as possible, but I also want to be able to branch out." Gaither was among 116 players enrolled in this year's NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program, which is an ongoing NFL-NFLPA initiative to assist players in preparing for their post-playing careers. Four business schools: Harvard Business School, the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania offer executive education activities in their respective areas of expertise. The Harvard Business School and the Wharton School hold two sessions lasting three days each, while the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Kellogg School of Management run one three-day session. |
