Passing Through

A few years ago, the professional football career of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Chris Redman wasn’t going too well. Redman started his career with the Baltimore Ravens. He played 10 games in four years but then he got hurt — shoulder and back problems. From 2004 through 2006, he was cut by the New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals.

Redman learned the hard way that football is a tough business.

But he stayed in shape and in touch and eventually got another chance to make it in the NFL when the Falcons hired Bobby Petrino as coach prior to last season. Redman has made the most of the opportunity.

To hear Redman tell it, it’s a good thing the Falcons came calling because his interim career wasn’t going very well.

Before getting the call from the Falcons, Redman worked as an insurance agent at the independent agency Garrett Stotz Co., of Louisville, Ky., for several months, trying to sell property and casualty insurance to businesses. He says it was a tougher job than starting in the NFL.

“I thought the NFL was a cutthroat business,” he joked to the Associated Press, talking about his insurance experience. “Let me tell you, the insurance business is just as cutthroat.”

For Redman, the insurance sales process that independent agents know well was not much fun:

“Cold calls, they’re known as. You’re walking up, you don’t even know who you’re going to be talking to and you’re trying to get their business.”

Playing his NFL card only helped a bit:

“I could tell them I used to be an NFL player, but you’ve got to work, too. I wasn’t the best at it. I had been playing football my whole life. Football is what I’m best at. It was definitely an eye opener.”

Redman may be too hard on himself. Perhaps that’s why professional athletes excel — they’re never happy with their performance; they always feel they could have done better. Actually, that sounds a lot like successful insurance agents.

Redman’s former boss, Don Mucci, of the Garrett Stolz agency, who has what it takes to succeed in insurance, has a more positive evaluation of Redman’s insurance career. “Chris is the nicest guy in the world,” says Mucci. “He just wasn’t in it long enough. I think he could have done very well.”

For sure, success in the insurance agency business doesn’t come in just a few months or in a football season.

Mucci says if Redman ever wants to give insurance another shot, he’s welcome back at the agency.

Seems unlikely. Redman’s a lot happier taking cold snaps than making cold calls.