NFL player takes Wall Street job while living on 15 percent of salary

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Brandon Copeland is preparing for the future.

During the NFL season, he’s a defensive end for the Detroit Lions. But in the off-season, Copeland took a job at Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers as a spring analyst, not only for a job during his downtime but something to prepare him for his future after football. While he focuses on his team fully during the season, he has the chance to return if he decides to.

In an interview with ESPN, Ron Darnowski, a trader in the IPO and valuation division of the company, said of Copeland’s position in the company:

He’s part of the process and he works for our firm and with me because he contributes to the process and makes our team better. This isn’t, ‘Oh, let’s help out Brandon and teach him some stuff and give him some work to do.’ He’s doing work and adding to our process here. But the flip side of that is like anybody who is very new and green and learning the business, their contribution is going to be relatively small, but it is material. He’s part of the team.

While Copeland has created a solid job for himself in the NFL and with his work at Weiss, he still remembers bagging groceries in Wal-Mart and is incredibly careful with his money, living on about 15 percent of his salary.

“I’ve literally hoarded money,” Copeland said. “I’m literally stacking, stacking, stacking. Anything I can get into an account and just let sit, I’ve got to a point where I have enough, where if football is over today, I have more than enough to take care of me for a while.

“I don’t have to go right into the work world. Now, it’s time to put some money to work.”