Brandon Graham, Jaelan Phillips among athletes working with organization to prepare for post-playing career
Pro Athlete Community is an organization dedicated to supporting professional athletes across all sports as they transition into careers when their playing days are over.
It’s common advice, Brandon Graham said, to plan out what you’re going to do after you retire while you’re still playing pro sports.
You never know when your career will be over, the Eagles defensive end said. Just take it from him — Graham retired at the end of the 2024 season, then decided to come back midway through the 2025 campaign.
But it’s easier said than done to plan for later while you’re still in the game. Being a professional athlete takes up a massive amount of time and mental energy, and their bubble is often made up primarily of people who play their sport.
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Enter Pro Athlete Community, an organization dedicated to supporting professional athletes across all sports as they transition into post-playing careers. Graham, 37, got involved with the organization in its early stages in 2018, just after the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII win.
“When we won, when I finally got out of that label, I started to really take it seriously and try to make sure that I have something to look forward to when I’m done, so that I won’t be behind the eight ball on that,” Graham said.
PAC claims to be like “the locker room outside the locker room.” Through group conferences and networking events, it connects active and retired pro athletes with business leaders and career fields that are interested in bringing pro athletes into the fold.
One of the discussions that resonated most with Graham was on real estate investing, and finding a way to continue to generate income without working a 9-to-5 job. Through PAC, he has started making connections with people who make their money through investments, and learning about how to manage those opportunities.
“For me, I don’t want to be locked up in a job,” Graham said. “I’ve been locked up in the job for a long time. It’s been a good job, don’t get me wrong, playing, but it’s stressful, too, and then on top of that, I’ve got kids, so I want to be available to them.”
Eagles pass rusher Jaelan Phillips has been involved with PAC since his rookie season. He played for the Miami Dolphins when the Dolphins Business Combine expanded beyond the organization to become what is now PAC in 2022.
Getting involved with the organization so early was key for Phillips, 26, because PAC was not only useful for him to learn about what comes after football but for what he does off the field during his NFL career.
When Phillips suffered a torn ACL in 2024, he spent the recovery period doing a business fellowship with PAC, working to organize events and engage more athletes.
“It’s really cool to be able to go to these combines and see and hear athletes that you’ve heard of,” Phillips said. “Maybe you know them personally, maybe you don’t, but you might, after 20 minutes, [you] figure out that, ‘Man, I have a lot in common with this guy.’”
From there, Phillips said, he has made new friends and business connections. Retired athletes, like former NFL players and twins Devin and Jason McCourty, who are on the board of the organization, regularly share their paths and provide support for PAC members.
And because of the unique skill set of pro athletes, business leaders are especially excited about the prospect of bringing them in.
“It’s not just like this conceptual idea of, ‘Oh, go to PAC and learn a bunch of things,” Phillips said. “I’ve actually seen it firsthand, where people start to take action and start to do some really cool things based on the information and the people they’ve met at PAC.”