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Brad Edwards - CEO, NFL Alumni

Brad Edwards assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of NFL Alumni in October of 2022 and was recently appointed to the NFL Player Care Foundation board of directors. Edwards enjoyed a nine-year NFL career (1988-1996) as a free safety, including a Super Bowl Championship with the then Washington Redskins where he was voted by NFL.com (2016) as recording the #36 best individual performance in Super Bowl history. He was also a first-team USA Today All-Pro selection and a UPI first-team All-NFC selection. Additionally, Edwards was voted as the 1992 South Carolina (Statewide) Male Professional Athlete of the Year, the 1992 Sons of Washington D.C. Downtown Athletic Club Outstanding Redskin of the Year and is a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.

Prior to joining NFL Alumni, Edwards spent the previous 20 plus years in collegiate sports administration, including the past 11 years as an NCAA Division One Athletic Director.

He was most recently the Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics at George Mason University where he oversaw more than $50mil in incremental new business development. This included a 20-year arena naming rights deal with EagleBank, a department-wide shoe and apparel agreement with adidas, a department-wide multi-media rights agreement with Learfield Sports, and the first ever athletic training room service contract with Vivature. Also included were project specific fundraising and licensing initiatives to include a new center hung video board for the arena, new game-day locker rooms for men’s and women’s basketball, a basketball practice facility, and numerous other facility upgrades.

He was a member of the NCAA Division I Sport Competition Committee, served as chair of the Atlantic 10 Conference Sport Competition Committee, as well as served as vice-chair of the NCAA DII Football National Championship Committee.

Additionally, Edwards served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director and CFO at the University of South Carolina where he oversaw all business-related functions of the department, including Williams Brice Stadium with an attendance capacity of 85,000 and the day-to-day oversight of operations of the 18,000 seat Colonial Life Arena. He had co-day-to-day oversight of the design and construction of the Colonial Life Arena, oversaw all multi-media rights, oversaw major gift development, and played a role in all departmental strategic decisions including the hiring of coaches. Edwards also held the roles of Chief Athletics Officer at Jacksonville University and as Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Intercollegiate Athletics at Newberry College.

He also served for 3 years as the Vice President of Recruiting and Training at IMI Resort Holdings, where he led the hiring and training of sales executives and sales managers and where the company sold over $550,000,000 worth of luxury resort real estate during his tenure.

Edwards worked a substantial part of his NFL Career as a financial associate for the Equitable Companies, the Equitable of Iowa, and as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch where he held series 7, 6, 63, and life and health insurance licenses.

Academically, Edwards has a Master of Arts in Education from Michigan State University, a BS in Business Management from the University of South Carolina, an Executive Certificate in Labor Relations from Cornell University, an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from MIT, and an Executive Certificate from the Harvard School of Business in Marketing Management.