National Football League
Celebs help NFL players in business
National Football League

Celebs help NFL players in business

Published Mar. 4, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

The New York Knicks’ most visible courtside fan recently took some time to help NFL players.

Acclaimed film director and producer Spike Lee addressed 20 current and former players who attended the league’s four-day Business of Music Boot Camp last week at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Lee spoke Tuesday at a seminar titled "Music in Today’s Film, TV, and Advertising."

“He was an incredible instructor,” former Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Chukky Okobi told me and co-host Randy Cross on Sirius XM NFL Radio. “He really was able to explain to us some of the choices he’s made over the years in some of the movies we know and love and how the music plays such a big part in telling the story — as big a part as any of the cinematography, the script and the stars of the film.

“To have that knowledge really lets you know how music can affect us and touch people. That’s how some artists, including him, are able to communicate to the rest of the world.”

Torry Holt, Brandon Lloyd, Antoine Bethea, Bryant McKinnie and Al Harris were among the other participants in the clinic, which was created for players who have interest in entering the music and entertainment business. The seminars were an offshoot of the NFL’s Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program attended by more than 700 current and former players since 2005.

Becoming involved in the music business has become financially hazardous for players who enter without realizing the expenses involved and other pitfalls they might not be savvy enough to avoid.

“The ‘Counting Your Pennies’ seminar was huge and probably a bit of an eye-opener for some guys,” said Okobi, who released "Buc Town," an unofficial hip-hop theme song for the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates, under his Chuk Wun stage name. “Just because you have enough money to throw at it doesn’t guarantee success. You have to approach it like a business. Just because you play and automatically think that you’re going to be embraced in that (music) community, it’s a fallacy. You’re delusional.”

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