NFL alum Greg Olsen thought he was just going to have a post-retirement workout and reunion with fellow tight end George Kittle in 2021 when he received an invitation to visit Kittle at his off-season home in Nashville.
Olsen had just retired after a 14-year career with the Bears, Panthers and Seahawks. The three-time Pro Bowler had 742 career receptions, including 60 touchdowns, during a very productive career. He became so well known around the NFL community that Fox Sports signed him to be a game commentator during his bye weeks while he still was an active player. Fox eventually hired him to his current fulltime announcing in the TV booth.
Olsen’s initial visit to Nashville turned out to be more that just a hospitality call. Olsen and Kittle decided to invite another 15 tight ends to join them for workouts but the number of collegiate and pro players who showed up was double in size. It was the start of what now is called “Tight End University”, which will have its fifth reunion later this month at Vanderbilt University. The number of attendees this time has been capped at 80.
“We get very much into the weeds,” Olsen recently told Sports Business Journal. “It can be run blocking, route running or just how to read defenses. The neat thing is the mix: it could be a rookie right next to a rookie free agent or a practice squad guy next to an All-Pro. Everyone there is just trying to move the next step up the ladder.”
The Chiefs’ Travis Kelce now has joined the two co-founders to help bring the tight end community together for the three-day program. The young players in attendance also help give back to the Tennessee community through a variety of charitable initiatives. With help from the program’s sponsors, money is raised, and all proceeds are donated to selected non-profit organizations at the end of the event.
“There’s a humility to the tight end position,” Olsen explains. “It can be a blue collar, dirty work kind of job one week and a fun, flashy highlights on ‘Sports Channel’ position the next. There are superstars who play the position and there are guys who are just great blockers. We will have guys this month trying to make a practice squad or trying to make another Pro Bowl. It’s developed into a cool thing for the position to bond in the off-season and just not have a quick visit or handshake before or after a game.”
We at NFL Alumni hope the tight end personnel have a fun, beneficial time in Nashville this month. Their counterparts on the other side of the ball will be waiting to see what new tricks they have learned once the season starts for real this fall.
