Robert T. Green is known as “#ThePlayerRep,” and it's a title that he's more than earned as an advocate for athletes of all ages. And it's a role he's always played both during his time as an athlete and after retirement.
“When coaches or organizations said or did things that were inappropriate, I already read all the fine lines,” he told me, “It wasn't something I was pushed to do.”
Today, college athletes can benefit from his expertise, as someone who has been in their shoes. Green, who is currently the CEO of his Sports Business Management & Consultant firm and creator of the PrePostGame NIL Sports Business Academy, was once an athlete himself. He played college football and eventually went pro in the now-defunct Arena Football League. When the league folded, his instinct for fine points and advocacy formed the basis of his business, and educating and empowering athletes has always been a passion of his.
“I started as a kid,” he explained. “As I got older, a lot of former teammates and friends of mine started asking for business advice and they'd tell me things based on what their agent said. I kept getting those calls and I said ‘screw that, I'm going to start a business.'”
PrePostGame was founded in 2015 with the purpose of educating, empowering, and protecting athletes in their business affairs. In an ever-changing NIL landscape, athletes of all ages can benefit from sports consultancy, and Green's services to athletes start at 6th grade and run through retirement. To Green, sports is first and foremost a business endeavor for athletes.
“I formulated a company based on business,” he explained. “If you're going to invest in something, but not understand what you're getting into, that's where you're going to have issues.”
Green is right. We're nearly three months into the NIL era for college athletes and we've already seen some snags. From athletic departments having to scramble to draft their own NIL policies in late June, to athletes signing with companies that violate state laws, there's a lot of gray area in the uncharted terrain of NIL. This is where Green steps in—he believes that many stakeholders reaching out to athletes will only tell them partial truths in hopes of cashing in on them, and it's a situation he created his company and services to prevent.
“Nobody's out to protect the athletes,” he said. “They're just telling them what they want to hear, but PrePostGame is going to tell them what they need to know.”
Something athletes should be aware of is the fact that sports business isn't as glamorous as many may believe. According to Green, entertainment is the third-largest industry in America, and Green says that the athletes, in spite of making sports possible, “get little-to-nothing in return.” Many of them go broke because they don't understand the industry.
“You can't trust the process that's built off of you on behalf of someone else,” Green said. “It's not going to end well #TrustTheFacts.”
That's why PrePostGame audits, vets, and monitors service providers, and keeps tabs on the industry. They offer the only digital database built by athletes for athletes pertaining to athlete education and athlete development for athletes' best interests on and off the athletic platform. Additionally, Green's business provides transition/succession planning, athletic skill evaluations, recruiting assessments, and program evaluations, all with an emphasis on developing athletes holistically. Athletes interested in any of these services can reach out to Green and his team on his website: Pre-Postgame.com. It's worth looking around—few people look out for athletes like Green does.
“We're going to educate you,” he said. “We're going to empower you, we're going to protect you and make no apologies about it.”
* Originally published on September 8, 2021, by Katie Lever, Ph. D
