by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Even though the Jacksonville Jaguars have been preparing all week for their game Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs at Alltel Stadium, many players are already planning for life after professional football.
When it comes to post-football plans, some Jags have their futures covered like a wide receiver in triple coverage.
Linebacker Greg Favors already has his future up and running. Favors and his brother currently own and operate a mortgage company in Orlando called Divine Consumer Financing.
“We do everything from refinancing to mortgage to first-owner home loans,” he said.
Favors said he hopes to expand his business in the future to include commercial and residential real estate deals. Besides his business ventures, Favors said he just wants to “continue serving the man upstairs and do what I have been called to do.”
Cornerback Chris Thompson said he is also looking to possibly become a businessman after hanging up his pads.
“I’m not really sure, but I think I might open up some kind of business,” he said.
And because he majored in business administration at Nicholls State, Thompson might be on the right track.
Though his family is in New Orleans, Thompson said he plans on opening his business in Jacksonville and will continue to live here after his football career ends.
“I have family in New Orleans but I think I like it here better,” he said.
Other players, such as cornerback and hometown favorite Rashean Mathis, also want to put their college degrees to work after the NFL. Mathis, a mass communications major at Bethune-Cookman, wants to get into sports broadcasting, but doesn’t want that to happen too soon.
“This is only my second year and hopefully I will have longevity in the NFL,” he said. “At least 10 years.”
Nevertheless, Mathis is already preparing for a post-football career in television by working with Ch. 4’s “The End Zone” program. He enjoys being on camera and the experience is preparing him for future broadcast positions.
Mathis also plans on owning a couple of youth centers designed for underprivileged children. He would like to start his youth center project before he gets out of the NFL.
“I want to have somewhere for them to go after school so they just aren’t out running the streets,”
he said.
Guard Vince Manuwai said he
also would like to devote much of his time to helping children after he retires from the NFL.
“I would like to do some coaching and would like to work with kids in schools,” said Manuwai, who spends much of the offseason in his native Hawaii and will probably move there when his playing days are done. “Since I grew up in the projects, I think working with kids is important and something I know I want
to do.”
Kicker Josh Scobee has plans for his future but said it’s hard to
see that far down the road as
a rookie.
“Being that it is my first year, it is kind of hard to think about that realistically right now,” he said. “But actually I want to open
my own indoor soccer arena wherever I live and start youth programs there.”