Longtime New Orleans Saints player Colston turns UNO teacher
Published 4:11 pm Monday, September 7, 2020
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Saints standout player Marques Colston is taking a turn as a teacher at University of New Orleans where he’s teaching a course about leadership and entrepreneurship.
The online course includes learning about how to transfer personal skills to new projects or how to develop a vision for addressing opportunities in the market. It also includes subjects such as financial management or getting ready for a new career, according to a news release from the university.
“I’m excited to welcome Marques to our faculty in the honors program,” said Chris Surprenant, who directs the school’s Urban Entrepreneurship and Policy Institute. “Everyone knows that he was a superstar on the field for the Saints, but not everyone knows the success he has had off the field the past five years as an entrepreneur.”
Colston was selected out of Hofstra in the seventh and final round of the 2006 draft. He became the Saints’ all-time receiving leader with 711 catches for 9,759 yards in 10 seasons. He had six 1,000-yard seasons and two more that eclipsed 900 yards.
After he retired in 2015, he founded Marques Colston Enterprises which works with “athletes, entrepreneurs and executives to discover, evolve and implement essential tools to better position themselves for sustained success,” according to the news release. He also formed an executive education program at Columbia Business School for professional athletes aiming to be entrepreneurs.
Colston said he wasn’t sure how the students would react to having a former professional football player as their teacher: “To break the ice when I introduced myself, I thanked them for welcoming the rookie into the classroom.”