Construction and real estate are not a soft landing for retired athletes. They are where several NFL greats built serious second careers, from a tenant-rep firm that sold for hundreds of millions to a company now helping build an actual NFL stadium. Here are the football legends who traded the end zone for the job site, and why the industry keeps attracting them.
It started as a trivia round on Bricks, Bucks & Bytes: name former NFL players who went into construction. The answers turned out to be a lot more interesting than a bar quiz. Some of these businesses are large, real, and award-winning. One of them is helping build the very stadium its founder used to play in.
The pattern is not an accident. Construction and real estate reward the exact traits a pro career hammers into you: teamwork, discipline, and comfort with a hard deadline. Add a famous name that opens doors and capital that most first-time founders can only dream of, and the crossover makes sense.
Here are four of the most notable examples, and what each one tells you about building outside the game.
Roger Staubach set the blueprint
From Cowboys quarterback to a real estate juggernaut
The Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer founded The Staubach Company in 1977 and spent decades building it into one of the biggest names in corporate real estate, focused on representing the companies that lease and buy space rather than the landlords selling it. He was doing tenant representation before the term was common.
In 2008 he sold the firm to Jones Lang LaSalle for roughly $613 million, a deal that turned a football career into a genuine business empire and made him the reference point every athlete-turned-developer now measures against. Staubach later served as an executive chairman at JLL.
Emmitt Smith went vertically integrated
The all-time rushing leader who builds and owns
The NFL’s all-time leading rusher retired from the Cowboys in 2004 and, mentored by Staubach himself, moved into commercial real estate. His first deal was a handful of Walgreens stores. From there he built a set of connected companies: ESmith Legacy for development, EJ Smith Construction for the actual building work, plus brokerage and capital arms.
His firms develop retail, multifamily, mixed-use, and hospitality projects, and his construction company handles ground-up building and some civil work. Smith runs the whole chain, from finding the site to putting up the structure, which is about as far from a passive celebrity endorsement as it gets.
Thurman Thomas is building the Bills’ new home
34 Group and a full-circle stadium project
Buffalo Bills legend Thurman Thomas, along with his wife Patti, owns a Buffalo commercial construction company called 34 Group. Its most visible job right now is a personal one: 34 Group is part of the general contracting effort on the new Highmark Stadium, working alongside a Gilbane and Turner joint venture.
The new stadium, whose cost has climbed past $2.1 billion, is set to open for the Bills’ 2026 season, replacing the venue where Thomas played for a dozen years. He has used the project to spotlight the skilled tradespeople doing the physical work, which is a rare and welcome message from a former star.
The Holt brothers built through a downturn
Teamwork and discipline, applied to a general contractor
Former NC State and NFL stars Terrence and Torry Holt founded Holt Brothers Construction in Raleigh in 2007, right as a recession hit. Their first contract was a $60,000 renovation for payroll company ADP, a job small enough that both brothers were on site several times a week.
They leaned on the resources their football careers gave them to keep going while competitors folded, and stuck to commercial building rather than residential. The firm has since grown into an award-winning general contractor handling projects from $500,000 up to $450 million, with Terrence as president. Construction, they have said, suits them because it runs on teamwork, precision, and discipline, the same things the field demanded.
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Four football legends and their building businesses
| Player(s) | Business | What they build |
|---|---|---|
| Roger Staubach | The Staubach Company (sold to JLL, 2008) | Corporate and tenant-rep real estate |
| Emmitt Smith | ESmith Legacy, EJ Smith Construction | Development plus ground-up construction |
| Thurman Thomas | 34 Group | Commercial construction, incl. the new Bills stadium |
| Terrence and Torry Holt | Holt Brothers Construction | Commercial general contracting |
Different eras, different cities, but the same lesson: the built environment is a place where discipline and relationships compound. It is also why the industry keeps producing nine-figure outcomes well beyond the field, from these athletes’ firms to construction tech founders like Dustin DeVan, whose $275m BuildingConnected exit and the wider group of founders who explain why valuation discipline is an exit strategy show the same thing from the technology side.
By exit value, Roger Staubach. He founded The Staubach Company in 1977 and sold it to Jones Lang LaSalle in 2008 for roughly $613 million, making it the standout example of a football career turned into a large real estate business. (Source)
Yes. His company, 34 Group, is part of the general contracting effort on the new Highmark Stadium alongside a Gilbane and Turner joint venture. The stadium is set to open for the 2026 season. (Source)
Smith runs several connected firms. EJ Smith Construction is his commercial and civil general contractor, while ESmith Legacy handles real estate development and asset management, backed by brokerage and capital arms. (Source)
The industries reward teamwork, discipline, and delivery under deadline, all skills a pro career builds. A recognizable name opens doors with clients and partners, and early earnings provide capital, which lowers the barrier to entering a notoriously relationship-driven business.
Terrence and Torry Holt founded Holt Brothers Construction in Raleigh in 2007, during a recession. Their first job was a $60,000 renovation for ADP, and they used the resources from their NFL careers to keep building while rivals struggled. (Source)
Sports Illustrated, Thurman Thomas and 34 Group on the new Bills stadium
Holt Brothers Construction, About Us
The Real Deal, how Emmitt Smith became a commercial developer
Commercial Observer, athletes turned real estate pros
D Magazine, JLL’s acquisition of The Staubach Co.
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