This NFLPA exec’s passion is helping players prepare for life after the NFL

At the NFL Players Association office in Washington, D.C., Dior Ginyard spends his time helping players reach their full potential after they leave the game. Because the transition isn’t always smooth, the 29-year-old player development manager believes it’s his mission to help others develop the readiness skills for their second act.

Ginyard finds passion in this role because the young executive believes it is his fate. He’d had aspirations to play professional football, but that dream was stalled after a life-threatening brain injury.

It was on Dec. 3, 2006, that his life changed completely. The 18-year-old freshman at Frostburg State University in Maryland participated in a flag football game with some teammates the day the season was over. He hadn’t played all year. He was rehabbing from a thorny shoulder.

Then the unthinkable happened. Ginyard, admittedly playing too aggressively, viciously collided head-on with another player. The next thing he can remember was waking up in a helicopter not even knowing what day it was.

“I fractured my skull, and it’s like breaking glass. It breaks into pieces,” Ginyard said. “My skull pierced my brain and was causing my brain to swell up. That’s how you’re supposed to go brain-dead. I was flown to a hospital in Pennsylvania, where I had brain surgery.”

He suffered some memory loss, and it was hard to concentrate on things he was used to doing daily without a moment’s thought. During his rehabilitation process, which included physical therapy and counseling, he decided to transfer to Bowie State University, where he majored in communications.

“I was still dealing with the ramifications of my head injury, so I dealt with the depression, the anger, all the things that come with losing something that I thought was going to happen, big dreams,” he said. “So I spent a couple years figuring out what else I wanted to do.”

Ginyard said writing helped him cope with his transition and he figured out his passion. Eight filled journals later he knew he wanted to become a communicator and use his innate, previously undiscovered ability to help others in sports.

He graduated from Bowie State on Dec. 16, 2011, and landed an internship at Lockheed Martin in the communications department. After one year, Ginyard was hired full time and also pursued a master’s degree in marketing management from the University of Maryland University College.

He then decided it was time to make his presence known in professional sports. The Prince George’s County, Maryland, native researched jobs in the D.C. area and noted the NFLPA as an option. Scouring the organization’s website for opportunities, he saw a lone position for a player development manager.

“The first sentence said, ‘This role helps players transition to life after football,’ ” Ginyard recalled.

He believed he’d found the perfect match.

“I’m like, Wow. Now I have a position that helps players transition, and I had to deal with a transition of hitting rock bottom, and then dealing with the aftereffects of depression and anger, the trials and tribulations in trying to get back on my feet. I thought, ‘I can help from an experience perspective.’ ”

Ginyard has been with the players association for three years, overseeing its externship program that provides players with internship opportunities.

“I’m helping guys go back to school to finish their degrees and pursue secondary education,” he said. “It’s helping guys develop off the field, professionally. I love it, just the relationships. I’ve been able to build with these guys. I’m not working with the Tom Bradys and the Odell Beckhams; I’m working with the guy that’s going to need a second career. I’m one person in their ecosystem of friends and managers and agents. I want to give them something.”

Ginyard said the hardest part of his journey has been overcoming some challenges he’s faced.

“I had to learn how to deal with those emotions, not growing up with having a father there, not really knowing what to do with my anger and depression. I’m still managing that, and finding out what was going to replace the passion I had of playing football,” Ginyard said.

After his father left, he grew up with his mother and two siblings. Football was his outlet.

“I would say the biggest challenge for me is like, [understanding] what is this stereotype about a black man that had a brain injury, that his father’s not in his life, that was raised by a single mom, that went to HBCU [historically black college or university]? What does the world say about a person like that?

“Instead of harping on it, I use it as a chip on my shoulder. I want to prove everybody wrong because I know what society says about somebody like me. I want to be that person that stands up for other young black kids in my community and says, ‘Hey, you can make it without playing in the NFL.’ ”

Ginyard was recently featured as part of this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30.

“I’m honored to be on that list for a role that’s nonrevenue-generating. I’m not in sales, I’m not in business development, I’m not an agent, I’m not an athlete. I work in professional development. I think I’m glad I can be a representation for what we’re doing for our players and our members.”

He’s also raising his 3-year-old son, Carter.