{"id":2321544,"date":"2026-03-10T15:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2321544"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:08:30","slug":"inside-the-bootcamp-that-transforms-nfl-stars-into-film-industry-pros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/inside-the-bootcamp-that-transforms-nfl-stars-into-film-industry-pros\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Bootcamp That Transforms NFL Stars Into Film Industry Pros"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the first pick in the draft goes Charles \u201cPeanut\u201d Tillman, the Chicago Bears defensive legend who played in the NFL<\/a> for 13 seasons. This may not be the NFL Draft, but it does involve NFL players. <\/p>\n

Tillman was the first selection in a schoolyard pick \u2019em of NFL players past and present being divided into teams, not for a scrimmage or football game, but for an exercise in which Tillman and other NFL stars would be tasked with making a short film<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tillman is one of 26 former and current NFL players who, between March 3 \u2013 6, participated in the NFL & NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour, which helps position pro athletes for jobs in the entertainment industry after they retire from playing. The annual event, now in its fourth year in this iteration, is put on by filmmaker Deon Taylor<\/a> and his indie production banner Hidden Empire<\/a>, and in addition to lectures, panel discussions with industry professionals, tech demos, and tours of studio lots across four days, Taylor also puts the athletes through the paces of making their own movie\u2026 or their version of one.<\/p>\n

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The teams of players were assigned scenes from movies like \u201cTrading Places,\u201d \u201cGet Out,\u201d \u201cSinners,\u201d \u201cCasino,\u201d and Taylor\u2019s own \u201cBlack and Blue.\u201d Someone would be tasked with directing the scene, others with acting, one would be the DP shooting on legit A7M4 and FX2 Sony cameras, and one would even be the producer responsible for calling the \u201cbank\u201d and figuring out how to secure funding for the project, optioning a script, and securing props and locations all with Monopoly money. A team of editors then cuts together the footage and all the shorts are screened for a makeshift awards ceremony, which Taylor has dubbed not the Oscars, but the \u201cTyrones.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kendrick Bourne on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong\/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IndieWire attended one day of the bootcamp, and what\u2019s surprising about the event is how, for all the athletes involved, this is not a hobby or fun showcase, but a serious path to get players started on a career in entertainment after the NFL. <\/p>\n

Taylor and his team have already placed one athlete from last year\u2019s program as a staff writer on the upcoming Hulu series from Dan Fogelman called \u201cThe Land.\u201d Jaylin Holmes, who plays for the Washington Commanders, in January had an episodic pilot make its premiere at Sundance. Others from this year\u2019s class will get to participate in Sundance Labs long after this bootcamp has ended. Players as famous as Cam Heyward, DK Metcalf, and Kyler Murray have participated in prior sessions. And the players at this year\u2019s session are hardly green when it comes to understanding the film industry.<\/p>\n

Hidden Empire\u2019s event fostered a true locker room atmosphere for the players, but all the hulking, well-dressed attendees might also secretly be nerds. They asked intelligent questions about LUTs (look-up tables) during a Sony presentation about the camera equipment they\u2019d be using, they took copious notes as Taylor articulated the difference between handheld and steadicam or showed off his storyboards and visual mood boards for his upcoming film, and some were genuinely starstruck when Taylor introduced \u201cHeat\u201d cinematographer Dante Spinotti<\/a> as one of the session\u2019s mentors.<\/p>\n

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Deon Taylor (right) moderating a panel discussion with former NBA star Trevor Ariza (center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAthletes have a different drive. It doesn\u2019t matter if you play high school baseball or soccer, you\u2019re an athlete, you have a different muscle. There\u2019s something in you that says, I want to go figure this out. That\u2019s why we found success,\u201d Taylor told IndieWire. \u201cThat\u2019s a really big deal for you and in life because it makes you understand, if I do this really really hard or really go at this pace, I can get to where I\u2019m trying to get to. Hard work doesn\u2019t always give you what you want, but it will put you in position, and I think a lot of these athletes are after that. The program is special in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When compared to other incubator programs, it\u2019s hard to deny the energy that\u2019s in the room for this one. Hidden Empire co-CEO Roxanne Taylor argues that because their company is independent, they can prepare the NFL players in the room for every aspect of the film industry in a way studios aren\u2019t equipped to do. And because these are young men who have not had the luxury of film school and are coming in behind the eight ball, they\u2019re able to offer more individual attention and access than they\u2019d be able to receive elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have that energy so they\u2019re locked in and understand what it really takes to do this,\u201d Roxanne Taylor said. \u201cThat speaks to who we are as people, because if you go to any of these other studios, you\u2019re going to be sitting in a room, and there\u2019s going to be talking heads, and there\u2019s no energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe screaming and shit, we\u2019re grabbing microphones, impromptu pulling people up, trailers playing, people talking and asking questions in the middle of the Q&A,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThat\u2019s not normal. Most people, we do the panel and we talk, and then we do this. No man, this is interactive. Fire away. That\u2019s how our brains think as athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NFL stars filming on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong\/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The players who attended this year had desires to be writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, producers, or really just be involved in film in some way. Players had to apply through the NFL and even submitted reels or writing samples, and the league\u2019s player engagement team then selects the most passionate of the bunch. In Taylor and Hidden Empire, the NFL further believed they found a partner who could truly position them for success after their playing careers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we were looking for was somebody who was willing to empower the guys and really give them insight and not hold back on what it\u2019s really like,\u201d said Tracy Perlman, SVP of Player Operations with the NFL. \u201cI feel like a lot of times when people give them information, well, you\u2019re an NFL player, you\u2019re going to be able to do [a lot]. Deon\u2019s like, this is hard. It\u2019s as hard as it was for you to make the team, to break into something new when you transition out. So when we came back and wanted to bring this back, we wanted a partner like Deon who would be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamza Abdullah, a safety who played in the league for six years, told IndieWire about his passion for movies and why, not unlike an NFL team, making a movie is a team sport for which he\u2019s happy to play any role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs football players, we understand the job of every individual on our roster\u2026every single name on the cast and the credits is important and integral to the success of that [film],\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I love about film, because you\u2019re back on the team. You can\u2019t do it alone. I\u2019ve never seen a movie yet where there\u2019s only one name on the cast or the crew. I haven\u2019t seen it yet, and I don\u2019t know how good that movie would be. But they\u2019re definitely not winning an Oscar. So as a football player, we\u2019re always preparing to win the Super Bowl, and I think that\u2019s something that we missed as we transition out of the game \u2026 and that\u2019s what the film industry brings, being able to be on the team again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hamza Abdullah on Thursday, March 5, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong\/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abdullah said it\u2019s not everyday a fan can come into the locker room and get a sense of practice and game planning, and it\u2019s just as unheard of for athletes to be able to see the nuts and bolts process of filmmaking. He touted Taylor as a Mike Tomlin type (Taylor should direct the Tomlin movie with Omar Epps as the former Steelers coach<\/a>, he suggested) that like any great coach he\u2019d run through a brick wall for and who would \u201cchallenge you to be the best version of yourself.\u201d And Abdullah did not mince words about how important a program like this is to him and his peers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the NFL is doing with this program is going to save lives, period, stop right there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s allowing individuals who are in the NFL to have access to the entertainment industry while you\u2019re playing, and then after you\u2019re playing. I\u2019m not saying everyone that comes off the field is going to be in entertainment or acting, but now you get an opportunity. That\u2019s all you want as an athlete is an opportunity. That\u2019s what this awards us is an opportunity, to be able to have producers, writers, directors, music, ADs, you have all these people at every level of the industry, and you\u2019re able to ask them a question. Information is everything. We get an opportunity to hear information and get information from the source. There\u2019s nothing like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Taylor, the moment for these players to get involved and learn about Hollywood is now, and he hopes to instill the idea that to be able to actually make something from your own mind is \u201cartistry\u201d and a \u201cgift from God.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it\u2019s not for the faint of heart, this is a very hard business,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cBut what we\u2019re trying to explain to these people is you\u2019re in a position right now with the NFL where you\u2019re the 1 percent of the 1 percent. You have access right now. Utilize it before you don\u2019t have it.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The full participants of the NFL and NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong\/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.indiewire.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the first pick in the draft goes Charles \u201cPeanut\u201d Tillman, the Chicago Bears defensive legend who played in the NFL for 13 seasons. This may not be the NFL Draft, but it does involve NFL players. Tillman was the first selection in a schoolyard pick \u2019em of NFL players past and present being divided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2321545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[449925,21799,304804],"class_list":["post-2321544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-deon-taylor","tag-film","tag-nfl"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Inside-the-Bootcamp-That-Transforms-NFL-Stars-Into-Film-Industry.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321546,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321544\/revisions\/2321546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2321545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}