THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021 Page 7 Jarick Walker describes rise to success in NFL By Christopher Roberson J arick Walker recently shared the path that took him from playing a handful of college football games to becoming the talent and marketing manager for the NFL. Growing up in Hyde Park, Walker spent two years as a linebacker for Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury. Following high school, he went on to play football for Boston College. Although he only played in six games, Walker still valued the experience of competing on the collegiate level. “When I was there, I walked onto the football team, which was crazy,” he said during a May 13 question and answer session sponsored by Everett High School. After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in human development, Walker was unsure about his plans for the future. “I was a young 20-something and had no idea what life had to offer,” he said. However, he found a home with Boston Scholar Athletes and remained with the organization for four years. “From there, I took a risk,” he said, adding that he wanted to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. SACHEM | FROM PAGE 5 he was designated MVP when the Redbirds won their first PCL title. Pujols played eleven seasons in St. Louis, batting champion in 2003, and had a large part of the club in winning three National League championships (2004, 2006, 2011) and two World Series titles (2006 and 2011). In February of 2004 Albert signed a seven-year contract with the Cardinals, and the team got their money back many fold. He was a National League AllStar ten times, a world Series champion twice, three times National League Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year in 2001, two Golden Gloves, five Fielding Bible Awards, six Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, the NL batting championship in 2003, NL home run leader twice, and the NL RBI leader in 2010. On October 22, 2011, game three of the World Series, he had five hits that included three home runs, four runs scored and six runs batted in. Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols are the only playLos Angeles. However, life in southern California was much different than life in Boston. “It was a night and day experience,” said Walker. During his two years with Nike LA, Walker organized a road race in Inglewood, California, a community that was still recovering from a crack cocaine epidemic which struck during the 1980s. “We shut down a freeway to have a race,” he said. Although Walker had the opJarick Walker Therefore, he started working at the Nike Store on Newbury Street in Boston to save enough money for his move to southern California. However, something unexpected began to transpire. “What ended up happening was I began climbing the ranks at Nike,” he said. Eventually, Walker was transferred out of the retail division and took a marketing position at Nike’s Boston office. Despite his success in Boston, Walker had not forgotten about the West Coast. Therefore, he would periodically travel to Nike LA to pitch ideas for marketing campaigns. Three years later, his efforts paid off when Nike offered him the opportunity to go to ers to hit three home runs in a single World Series game. As the 2011 season ended Pujols became a free agent, and was pushed by three clubs, the Cardinals, Miami Marlins and SACHEM | SEE PAGE 14 portunity to take a position at Nike’s corporate office in Oregon, he opted to go work for the NFL, where he has remained for the past year and a half. As the league’s talent and marketing manager, Walker said, one of his primary responsibilities is to attract younger fans. “It’s definitely hard; it’s an uphill battle,” he said. “A lot of people think the NBA is the biggest league in the country – the NFL far outpaces what the NBA is doing.” He has also worked with a number of celebrities in this capacity, including Kevin Hart, Cole Bennett, Lil Wayne, Desi Banks and Lil Baby. Although the NFL has a much greater corporate culture than Nike, Walker said, he has always tested the boundaries and strived to find different ways of doing things. “Every day when I go to work, I feel like I’m on this mission to change the narrative,” he said. Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the league’s CFO, Joseph Siclare, offered to speak with any employee who needed to talk. Walker was one of the few who took Siclare up on his offer. “I shared how we need to be bold; you can’t tiptoe around this topic,” said Walker. “I broke down in tears afterward. I felt that he listened.”
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