Las Vegas Raiders running back Jalen Richard just got a new contract in the offseason. Currently, the veteran’s working on his NFL career while looking forward to life after football.
What does the future hold for the Raiders’ running back?
Richard did not know how to manage his finances early in his career. After just one season in the league, he was broke even though he had made $450,000 the year before. The veteran confided that back then, he had not visualized that amount of money. Thus, he didn’t know how to spend it. By his own admission, he blew the money he had earned in his rookie year. “I ain’t really have too much to show for it, you know what I’m saying?”
At the time, Richard had unnecessary expenses and didn’t know how to budget. For that reason, he had to borrow money. “I had to use loan money from my agents for a month until I got back right. I’ll never ever do that again. The challenges that I had, it wasn’t football, bruh. At all. It wasn’t nothing football.”
At the end, he just trusted the process. “My prayer the whole time was, ‘God, I know you got me. You done brought me this far. Just please take the value out my head so I can play ball. I don’t want to worry about that money. I know you gon’ have me right. I ain’t trippin’ on all that.'”
Eventually, Richard’s hard work and focused payed off. Earlier this year, the running back signed a two-year contract worth $7 million with $3.37 million guaranteed. He finally has financial security after years of uncertainty.
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Working on the Future without Losing Sight of Present Events
Having a new deal was just the next step in Richard’s journey to financial independence. Besides inking a new deal, the Raiders veteran assumed particular ownership of Privé, a marketing company. Tashan Reed of the Athletic recently got in touch with both Richard and his business partner, Rafiyq Cromwell. In regards to his new business endeavors, Richard said, “You got to set yourself up for things that you might want to do and might want to venture off to once you’re done. It’s only going to be a portion of our lives. I got a long life to live, so I’m just doing things and trying to be creative.”
Later in in the article, Cromwell tells Reed about the company’s vision. “The overall focus of Privé is to provide full-service management and marketing solutions.”
“We want to make sure that we leave these guys with nothing to worry about but the game… We want everything to be relationship based and longevity based. We focus on brand partnership, brand management, concierge services, public relations, social media management and growth.”
While Cromwell had known Richard since 2016, it wasn’t until 2019 that Cromwell reached Richard. By then, Cromwell had built the brand and established himself in the business. “I said, ‘Hey, man, let me take over your marketing. Give me a shot. Let me do something for you. You saw what I could do with my name and I’m not a huge name. You already in the NFL, just imagine what I can do for you.'”
Richard accepted and became Privé’s first client, and with that their paired turned their personal relationship into a business one.
“It was a good opportunity to work with a guy who I’d built a relationship with up to this point and to be able to do something that I want to get my hands in, which is marketing and the relationships. Talking to people is one of my gifts, but I just needed to know the language.”
Although Richard conceded Privé is still in development, his business acumen should help him and Cromwell thrive.
The whole article by Reed is worth a look. It expends on the relationship between Cromwell and Richard and Privé’s mission.
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Top Photo: D. Ross Cameron/Associated Press