Brian Westbrook knows how dangerous professional football can be, so when he retired as an NFL player, he chose a career looking for technology that will improve the sport.
The retired Philadelphia Eagles running back now works at SeventySix Capital seeking new technology to improve football.
Westbrook played eight seasons as a running back with the Philadelphia Eagles and one with the San Francisco 49ers. He earned two Pro Bowl selections during his time in Philadelphia, and has the third highest rushing yards in the team’s history (5,995 yards). He was inducted to the Eagles Hall of Fame in 2015, Sports Techie reported.
It was during his final season with the Eagles in 2009 that Westbrook sustained two serious concussions. “I thought I took enough time off to rest and recuperate. I thought I was healed completely,” Westbrook said in a 2013 interview, according to the Associated Press. “But I got hit, I got my bell rung. I was out for another few weeks with another concussion.”
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 49: Jamilah Lemieux
Part 1: Jamarlin talks to digital media executive, activist and author Jamilah Lemieux. They discuss her article, “The Power And Fragility Of Working In Black Media” in the Columbia Journalism Review and Lamont Hill being fired by CNN for his comments on Palestine. They also discuss whether Michelle Obama’s words on Rev. Jeremiah Wright in her book “Becoming” were a false equivalence.
By 2012 Westbrook had retired and become part of the Athlete’s Venture Group at SeventySix Capital.
He’s interested in exploring technology that could have protected him from concussions and making football a safer and more time-efficient sport, Sports Techie reported.
“The guys playing now have a much better grasp on entrepreneurship and on business than I had back [during my career],” Westbrook said. “I spent an awful amount of time trying to perfect my craft, and at the time that was professional football. I didn’t really spend much time trying to better myself in the sports tech space. My interest started basically after my playing career was over.”
SeventySix has invested in companies including Diamond Kinetics, N3rd Street gamers, ShotTracker, Swish Analytics.
“It’s not one company for me that’s the reason why I invested,” he said. “It’s the group of companies and the ability to be around these independent thinkers that are right at the head of the sports tech community. So that was the biggest goal for me, to just be in the same space as those type of people.”
