Meet Drew Pearson - NFL Hall of Fame Member, Successful Black Entrepreneur, and Hometown Hero
“I can be on any level because I’ve been on every level. I’ve come from nothing and been on Park Avenue, talked to presidents, sat with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, been to the Capitol, done deals with Disney and Warner Brothers.” -Drew Pearson
The American legend Drew Pearson, hailing from South River, New Jersey, has had an incredible career that shows no signs of slowing down. Just last month he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame after a much earned and well deserved career on and off of the football field. After accepting a football scholarship to play for the University of Tulsa, he had an incredible 11 year career with the Dallas Cowboys, which included 3 Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl win in 1978, and went on to being a widely respected businessman and entrepreneur. In 1994, his company, DPC was selected as Black Enterprise magazine's 1994 company of the year becoming the 15th largest black-owned industrial-service business in the country.
He also happens to be my cousin and a key role model in my life, teaching me that anything is possible on the field, in business, and in life. I hope that you read our conversation below and feel as inspired by his tenacity and lust for achieving greatness as I do. Thank you Drew Pearson for chatting with myself for Recreational Habits, and congratulations on your Hall of Fame induction. It was well deserved.
Drew Pearson With His DPC Products
What was it like when you received that phone call as a free agent to become a Dallas Cowboy? It was a very special moment, and it came at just the right time because I was pretty dejected at that point. This was back when the NFL draft had 17 rounds and roughly 450 players. I was coming out of my senior year at Tulsa University on a football scholarship and I hadn’t gotten called up yet. The first day of the draft came and went. Then the second day, rounds 7 through 17 came and went. My wife at the time and I were very disappointed and felt heartbroken. It was my dream to be a professional football player, it was what I worked so hard for all my life, but I knew I had received a great education from Tulsa to fall back on should I not have the opportunity to ever step on the field again, but then the phone began to ring and I got a call from the Green Bay Packers, from the Pittsburgh Steelers and the last call I got was from the Dallas Cowboys.
What ultimately led you to signing with the Dallas Cowboys? Dallas Cowboys management was in Tulsa to see me and to sign me, so when I got that call and heard that they were in my town to see me, that showed me that they really wanted me, and it meant a lot. Since I didn’t get my big draft moment, this phone call meant everything. They told me to come down to the Camelot Hotel to sign my contract that exact day, but I had to sober up a bit as I was drowning my sorrows and they signed me as a free agent that exact day! You just never know when you are going to get the phone call that changes your life. My first-year salary was going to be $14,500 with a $150 signing bonus, not $150,000 like the athletes get now.
What went through your mind when you heard those numbers? I wasn’t going to hold out for 15k or a $200 signing bonus, I just asked if they could pay my signing bonus in cash. So, I got seven 20’s. Coach Landry used to say that money is not important unless you have no money, and I didn’t have any so that $150 meant a lot and was important to me. It wasn’t about the money to me, I just wanted to play.
Do you remember how you used that first $150? The first thing I used it on was for gas money to get back to my college apartment. I had been offered more money by the other teams but it truly wasn’t about the money to me, it was about the opportunity to play for what I thought was the greatest team of all time, the Dallas Cowboys, to play for the greatest coaches in NFL history and to play with some of the greatest players such as Roger Stauback, Rayfield Wright, Bob Hayes, and many others. So, after school was let out for the year, my wife and I packed up our car and moved our lives to Dallas.
What happened once you were in Dallas? Once I arrived, I tried to do whatever I could to make the Dallas Cowboy football team. I worked endlessly, I worked tirelessly, I worked relentlessly because that is how badly I wanted it. I was only 160 pounds and the other teammates in the locker room I am sure looked at me and thought I wouldn’t survive one week in training camp. I had something to prove and having something to prove gave me the motivation to go out and prove it.
How did you maintain your discipline, focus, and edge once you made it onto the field? Because it wasn’t enough just to make the Dallas Cowboys for me; I wanted to be one of the best Dallas Cowboys and that is saying a lot because we were a team stacked with great players. As a rookie I was in a huddle with Bob Hayes, a gold medal winner for the US, the world’s fastest human. Once you see, feel, and understand that you want that, you want to rise to the occasion. You don’t want someone else to come in and take your job from you, your place on the team so you must stay focused and motivated. I did that for 11 seasons in the NFL. Coach Tom Landry always used to say, ‘the longer you stay in the league the harder you have to work to stay in the league. It is harder to maintain a level of success once you have achieved success.
What were some key lessons that you learned in those 11 years with the Dallas Cowboys? So many things but a big lesson was that since I was a part of the Dallas Cowboy organization, I was doing more than just playing football. I tried to learn and absorb as much information as I could about how they ran their business. I knew that the money we made playing wasn’t going to be enough to live off of for the rest of our lives, so I tried to prepare along the way. I would watch and observe how the Dallas Cowboys did business and I learned all my business acumen from them. 11 years of sitting in on meetings and being around the organization was priceless in terms of my development as a businessman.
What did you do once you walked off the field after 11 years? I tried coaching the Cowboys for one year but realized that wasn’t my calling. I also tried out broadcasting but ultimately, I went back to business, because I had basically come out of the best business school ever. I had two men approach me to start an athletic apparel company and I had brushed them off and eventually we did meet up and decided to go into business together and it was run just like the Cowboys’ organization successfully for over 20 years.
Let’s talk about your business post football, what stands out to you? When I was doing licensed business apparel, I sat in boardrooms and did presentations where I was the only black man but being in those rooms was an opportunity and you come out with an opportunity to do business with them. I developed relationships with all the professional sports teams, which in large part was made possible because of the name recognition of the Dallas Cowboys. We were America’s team, we were nationally televised, people recognized us so for the most part I was welcomed, and I thank the Dallas Cowboys organization for affording me that luxury to be let into rooms I otherwise might not have been welcomed into.
What would presenting to those teams feel like? Being a Dallas Cowboy opened the door to the conversation but when you sat down to talk business you had to know what you were talking about. I knew I wasn’t going to get that business based on being a Cowboy, I was going to get it based on my business acumen. You have to remember, as players we were not getting paid like the players do now, so I had to continue to make a living and a life for myself post football.
When you were playing for the cowboys, you received 2 educations. The first, being on the field. The second, learning the business side off the field, which elongated your career and success long after you stepped off the field. That says a lot about who you are and illustrates the power of exposure. What challenges did you have to face when proving yourself as an entrepreneur after you were able to get into the door and sit in those meetings? Once I was in the door, I was no longer competing with myself. As a licensor I was then up against giants such as Nike, Reebok, Puma, Adidas, it was incredibly competitive. We had to fight for shelf space and meeting our quotas to continue to have a foot in the game in the beginning was challenging. We had to prove ourselves every year to keep our licensing rights and agreements for them to carry on to the following year. Each contract was a one-year agreement, so we fought for every year we had.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Was there anyone specifically that really helped you in the beginning in attaining those contracts? Yes! Reverend Jesse Jackson. He had started a committee called The Fairness in Athletics Committee and I joined it. Reverend Jesse Jackson started this committee after one of the former owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Al Campanis, came out with negative statements about African Americans. He said that they can play the game but that they will never be successful off the field. I mentioned to Reverend Jesse Jackson that the leagues do not do any business with any minority companies, the NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, none of them did any business with people of color or women owned businesses. We had a large press conference in Chicago, and I had 6 minutes to give a presentation about how these leagues must change now and do something. Once the press conference was over, my phone started to ring off the hook.
What piece of apparel did you start with? We had to start with golf caps because even though the leagues wanted to work with us, they didn’t give us full reign, they gave us a sliver. The NFL gave us the rights to produce golf caps with the team logos on them with the leather back strap. We did so well that our competitors who had far more money than we did complained to the NFL and the NFL wanted to take back our contract. They offered us a new contract to sell to the lower scale stores such as Walmart, versus Footlocker, and we knew, although the leagues didn’t know, that it would be a huge play for us, and we wouldn’t have to compete with Nike and the big guys. So, we were thrilled to take those contracts and blow it out! By 1994, we were the black owned company of the year! The volume that we were selling was astronomical.
In your life now, you have had many successes and with life comes peaks and valleys. Today, what continues to push and drive you? Opportunities! I cannot turn down the incredible opportunities that I am so fortunate keep coming my way. Now that I have been inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame, I feel like I skyrocketed into a whole new stratosphere of opportunities. There is even a Drew Pearson day in New Jersey, my home state, and in Tulsa! I can be on any level because I’ve been on every level. I’ve come from nothing and been on Park Avenue, talked to presidents, sat with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, been to the Capitol, done deals with Disney and Warner Brothers. That right there gives me the drive to keep seeing what else I can achieve during my life.
What are you passionate about right now? The Professional Football Hall of Fame and I have been advocating for people, especially people of color to get vaccinated against COVID-19. I’ve traveled all around our country preaching about the importance of getting the vaccine. Aside from that, I am so excited about upcoming endorsement deals and conversations that are being had behind the scenes that I can’t wait to talk about.
You have obviously had an incredibly successful career in apparel, what does fashion mean to you? Listen, anyone I work with knows that when I show up, or represent an organization or cause, I show up looking clean and fly. I truly think that has been a large factor in my success after stepping off the field. How I dress and show up, shows that I am serious and should be taken seriously and treated with respect because I had enough respect for them to show up looking sharp. I also believe that the art of engagement is incredibly important. I am approachable and want to and will talk with you and really enjoy that moment. Family is the other main thing that keeps me going, my kids and grandchildren. Two of my grandchildren are playing football in college and I love watching all my grandchildren doing what they love to do, on or off the sports field.
What advice can you give to the youth as someone who has been successful in life, sports, and business? Slow down. Don’t try and make everything happen all at once. We live in a microwave society, where with a push of a button things heat up but slow down and think before you make sudden movements because you never know how they will affect you down the line. Let things come to you, find out what your God given talent is because we all have one, take the time to develop that talent, use the tools available to you, and then make that talent work for you. Jeremiah 29:11; “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'” We are on God’s time and when it is meant to be, if you are on your path and practice patience, it will happen when it is time.
Lastly, what are your current recreational habits? Getting up every day and wanting to do something. I want to sweat every day, some form of cardio that gets the juices flowing. I jog, play basketball in the backyard, and pump some iron to keep the guns right. I’m single too, so I’m playing the field and want to look great for the ladies.