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Speaker 1: Welcome to playmakers. Everyone. I'm Haley Ellwood and as we

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Speaker 1: wrap up March and wrap up Women's History Month, we

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Speaker 1: wanted to introduce you to one of the newest members

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Speaker 1: of the Chargers family, and that is Katie Sylvan, who

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Speaker 1: is the Chargers Director of Football Administration. Katie is on

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Speaker 1: the football ops side and she is here to tell

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Speaker 1: us a bit about her path and also what she's

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Speaker 1: doing now with the Bolts. Katie, welcome in. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for having me. Yeah, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: coming on. Now. I'm going to kind of start here

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Speaker 1: and just what made you want to get into working

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Speaker 1: in football? So honestly, you know, it wasn't something that

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Speaker 1: I knew that I could do growing up. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know that there was a path for me on the

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Speaker 1: football in the football world, and in in college, I

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Speaker 1: saw other people going into banking and consulting, and I

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Speaker 1: knew that wasn't something that I wanted to do. And

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Speaker 1: after some self reflection, I kind of started thinking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, what I liked and what I wanted to

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Speaker 1: be doing. And I love football. I actually grew up

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Speaker 1: a Chargers fan. I grew up in San Diego, so

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Speaker 1: so I ended up googling NFL entry level positions and

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Speaker 1: I found the Junior Rotational Program, which I ended up

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Speaker 1: getting into and kind of starting off my career at

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Speaker 1: the NFL. So for those who may not know, I

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Speaker 1: know that the Junior Rotational Program is a great opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get in. I spoke with Kimmy Checks who now

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Speaker 1: works at NFL Network and she started in that same program.

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Speaker 1: But like I said, for those who may not know,

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Speaker 1: how would you describe it? So basically, the Junior Rotational

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Speaker 1: Program is a two year rotational program for recent college

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Speaker 1: graduates to come in out of school experience different sides

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Speaker 1: of the NFL and its business in order to kind

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Speaker 1: of understand the inner workings of a sports league. And

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Speaker 1: so I came in and I rotated through broadcasting where

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Speaker 1: they deal with network partnerships and schedule making, and then

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Speaker 1: ended up in labor finance where they set salary cap

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Speaker 1: each year, and the ultimately, you know, for my full

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Speaker 1: time role, I ended up in the management council at

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Speaker 1: the NFL, where we're responsible once the salary cap is

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Speaker 1: set for kind of administering that on a day to

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Speaker 1: day basis and managing that. And so I was dealing

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Speaker 1: with the teams on day to day basis, contracts and

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Speaker 1: the salary cap. You ended up spending about nine years

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Speaker 1: at the league office. Just overall, what was that experience

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Speaker 1: like and when you kind of go back to thinking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe it wasn't something you first anticipated doing.

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Speaker 1: Having had the experience, how much has it helped you

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Speaker 1: now too? Yeah, I mean it was an invaluable experience

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Speaker 1: to me. I know that I would not be where

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Speaker 1: I am today without that experience. And you know, certainly

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Speaker 1: my time and the management Council and having had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to work on you know, the Collective Bargaining Agreement

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Speaker 1: that we signed in twenty twenty, to really understand understand

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Speaker 1: the inner workings of that document, to be able to

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Speaker 1: form relationships with UM club personnel all around the league

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Speaker 1: and really understand what their player contracts look like, and

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Speaker 1: understand how the salary cap operates. You know, I think

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Speaker 1: it was an amazing experience. So you've gone from the

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Speaker 1: NFL level, you're now here with us at the Chargers.

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Speaker 1: Give us sort of just the high level explanation of

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Speaker 1: what it is that you're doing now in the front

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Speaker 1: office here. So I am working with Ed McGuire, who's

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Speaker 1: our EVP of Football administrat player Finance UM, and I'm

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Speaker 1: working with him on all things, uh player contracts and

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Speaker 1: the salary cap um and and really just all things football.

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Speaker 1: You have not been busy at all recently. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: it's been a it's been a good few weeks as

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Speaker 1: we take this at the end of March. I know

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Speaker 1: you and I The backstory here is we connected earlier

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Speaker 1: this month that a free agency happened. It's been absolutely crazy,

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Speaker 1: but but a good kind of crazy. If. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be a really exciting season and I I'm

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Speaker 1: glad to be here. We're happy to have you. When

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Speaker 1: it comes to just kind of working in football OPS

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Speaker 1: and doing what you do, what's your favorite part about it?

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Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, I think that being part of a

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Speaker 1: team and feeling like, you know, the work that you

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Speaker 1: do UM has has an effect on the team and

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Speaker 1: impacts the team and in a positive way. UM. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think everybody grew up playing team sports and having

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Speaker 1: that be something they love UM And to me kind

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Speaker 1: of feeling like I'm able to come onto the club

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Speaker 1: side of things and feel like I'm part of a

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Speaker 1: team again in a real way as an adult is

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Speaker 1: pretty cool. There are a lot of young women who

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Speaker 1: obviously want to get involved in an NFL club, maybe

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Speaker 1: at the league level in some capacity, and I think

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Speaker 1: your job really shines a light on maybe an industry

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Speaker 1: like you said that wasn't as prevalent years ago, but

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Speaker 1: now certainly is. What kind of advice do you have

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Speaker 1: for maybe young women who'd want to get into a

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Speaker 1: role like yours. I mean, I guess my advice is

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Speaker 1: that there's no right way to do it or right

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Speaker 1: way to go about it. I think that people people

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Speaker 1: think that, you know, there's they need to do X,

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Speaker 1: Y and z in college and growing up and intern

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Speaker 1: and you know whatever. I didn't have that path, and

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Speaker 1: so so I guess I would just say that, you know,

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Speaker 1: there is no right way to do it. So if

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Speaker 1: it's something that you're interested in doing, just try to

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Speaker 1: try your and try to make those connections and try

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Speaker 1: to get your foot in the door. How many math

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Speaker 1: classes did you have to take in college though, or

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Speaker 1: do you love or just how would you explain maybe

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Speaker 1: your love of math if you will, If I'm being

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Speaker 1: totally honest, I was in East Asian studies major in college, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I was very much. I very much had a liberal

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Speaker 1: arts background. I think I took one math class because

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Speaker 1: I had to. Um, I had never I never opened

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Speaker 1: in Excel document until I until I got to the

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Speaker 1: league office. UM So it's very much something that UM

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Speaker 1: I picked up after college. And you know, I love

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Speaker 1: it and I love what I do. But I do

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Speaker 1: think that there's there's just something to be said about

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Speaker 1: having just a well rounded background and just get your

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Speaker 1: get your feet wet afterwards. Yeah, when you mentioned kind

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Speaker 1: of there's no one path, I mean for me personally

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Speaker 1: and those who have listened to this podcast, I note

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Speaker 1: I worked at a dance studio for ten years and

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Speaker 1: went to school obviously and did some stuff on the side.

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Speaker 1: But it all ends up working out though in Yeah

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Speaker 1: for sure. And then lastly, Katie, the NFL just held

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Speaker 1: its sixth annual Women's Careers in Football Forum. When you

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Speaker 1: kind of look at that, just how good is it

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Speaker 1: to have an opportunity like that for women to have

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Speaker 1: them and have the league provide access for them to

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Speaker 1: get in front of those who hire at clubs when

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Speaker 1: they never normally didn't really have that access. A few

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Speaker 1: years ago. Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important,

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Speaker 1: and you know, not just for women, but for all

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Speaker 1: underrepresented groups. And I know that the League has been

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Speaker 1: making a lot of efforts to try to improve in

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Speaker 1: those areas and just kind of having the ability to

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Speaker 1: make those connections and to meet people in positions of

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Speaker 1: power who have the ability to hire because networking is

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Speaker 1: big and it is you know, forming those connections does

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Speaker 1: create opportunities for people, So that's really important, Katie. I

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Speaker 1: know it has been such a busy time, as we said,

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Speaker 1: for you, so thank you so much for taking the

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Speaker 1: time out of your week and your day to come

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Speaker 1: speak with us, chat with us, and welcome to the Bolts.

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Speaker 1: We're so excited to have you. Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited to be here.