Briana: Hello, and welcome to Gators on Purpose, where we talk with Allegheny College alumni who show us the power of combining what you love with what challenges you. At Allegheny College, being a Gator on purpose means shaping your own extraordinary path, and those unusual combinations lead to extraordinary outcomes -- meaningful careers, and lives built on purpose. I'm Briana Lewis, Associate Professor of French and Faculty Liaison to the Center for Career and Professional Development, and I'm talking today with Isaac Gittens, Allegheny College class of 2014. Isaac is currently Senior Manager of Football Pipeline Development in the Football Business Strategy Group of the National Football League. Today, we'll hear about how Isaac has followed his passion and embraced the challenges along the way to make a career out of the sport he loved as a student. Isaac, welcome (virtually) back to Allegheny and thank you for joining us for Gators on Purpose.

Isaac Gittens: Thank you for having me.

Briana: So to start off, I'd like to have you take us back to when you were making your college decision. What brought you to Allegheny?

Isaac Gittens: My mom. But I would definitely say football played a big role in that. Throughout the time I was going through and playing high school football, I went through a football camp and had met, at the time, Coach Matlack, who was the head coach at Allegheny while I was there. And I just remember, he came over, and we had a nice conversation and that was kind of it. He sent stuff to the house afterward, when he had my information, but I wasn't—my focus was all over the place and I didn't live at home, because I went to boarding school, so it was in the stack of mail at the house. But my mom read it, and she definitely took a liking to what she saw, and she was like, "Hey, we're going to have a further conversation with this guy." And that really is the catalyst of what led me to Allegheny.

Briana: Yeah. And so you majored, have I got this right, in Economics?

Isaac Gittens: Yeah. So, I don't think the degree exists anymore at the school, but it was Managerial Economics at the time. So, I did that, and I double minored in Communications and Black Studies.

Briana: And what drew you to that combination, especially thinking about the combination as a whole?

Isaac Gittens: Yeah. So, I would say the Management Economics thing was my—I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And so when I started just taking classes my freshman year and kind of looking at it I was like, “This is close to business, and my dad's a businessman, so maybe I should just do that.” So I really didn't have, like, a true thought forward there, but I did know I wanted to—I loved communications and ironically it became my minor for a -- long story -- but I loved communications and I loved learning about Black Studies and those kind of things, so a passion to learn more about myself and others and that space, people that look like me that maybe not just were from the United States of America. So I got to learn that. And then from communications it was like, this is going to serve me in general, being able to communicate, how you communicate, the right ways, persuasion, all those different things from that side. But then the practical like, okay, I want to be a businessman, I think, that's where that came in, and I was like, well, let's just put them all together and make this my major and double minor.

Briana: Yeah. Yeah. We have a Business major now, but it sort of caters to the same set of interests. So that's interesting. So, in terms of your -- in thinking beyond your first year and kind of adjusting to this environment, did you encounter any other challenges that you particularly remember while you were here? What was it like being a student?

Isaac Gittens: I think some hiccups that I may have had were I was trying to do so much and I didn't actually take the time to actually figure out college. Even though I had some experience, but I didn't take the time to figure it out. And so I was taking the -- I think I was taking 16 credits, playing football the whole time, working in the Wise Center, trying to get a job downtown, in local Meadville, and I was just trying to -- I was overextending myself. So I feel like the first thing I learned was hey, you got to be present in what you're doing, number one, you got to focus in. And then, I also was trying to be a community member. So it was like, I needed to narrow down some of my focuses and keep the main thing the main thing. And then I think the other one was just adjustment, broader adjustment. People were different. But what those differences did though, they made me closer, and made me actually find myself a little bit more. Yeah. And so I figured out what I wanted to do, who I wanted to hang around, and so it all came together. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed my first year.

Briana: Yeah, good! So looking back, and especially thinking about where you've been since graduation, what kinds of activities and experiences on campus do you think had the most impact on you? With that hindsight, what are the most important things you did here?

Isaac Gittens: For sure. So I would say the first thing I did, obviously I played -- I was an athlete. I played the whole four years. I focused on it. I wanted to be good, and I wanted to be a community -- a member of the team. So, I wasn't just coming to practice and going straight home. You know, I talked to the team. I talked to the coaches, talked to everybody I could, and just kind of let them know that I didn't have everything figured out, but I knew I wanted to do something in sports, right? But the one thing I learned from being around, being a film guy, and being around the team and being around the coaches so much was I knew I didn't want to coach. So, the first thing that got out of my mind was I don't want to coach hours you guys are doing! So that's the first thing I did, I learned. But the second thing I would say is I because I was talking to everybody. So Bill Ross, I think he's the AD now. Obviously, he wasn't the AD at that point, but he was right under—he was Associate AD or Assistant AD, and I worked in the athletic center all the time. So I was doing the cleaning of the weights, I was manning the front desk, I was doing whatever I could do. But I was doing that so much that he noticed me, right, he saw, he saw my name always on the sheets and all those things so we started, we formed a relationship, we started communicating, and then that's how I actually met my AD Portia, at the time. So Portia, we met, we had a conversation, and she just asked me what I wanted to do like, “You're always here. Bill always says you're always here. You're always, you stay late, you'll pick up shifts. Like, what is it you want to do? Your coaches talk about you.” And I was like, “I don't know. I know I don't want to coach, but I know sports, right? And that's what I really really want to do.” And so she recommended me for another opportunity at Baylor. And while I was there, I just was like, well, this is a big sport, right? So, let me get involved in everything. So, I handed out flyers and promotions and, I was doing anything I could, whether it was football, basketball, I did the field goal nets behind the goal post for all the home games. Like, I was doing everything possible to just keep myself ingratiated in the sport, and learn different things, and then my GA position was showing me the business side of it on the back end. And so what I would say is the different experiences I had where I basically just learned about every possible thing in the avenue of sport. So whether it was marketing, whether it was promotions, how you acquired fans. And so I was just ingratiating myself and just trying to learn, learn, learn. And I did stuff for free. I did stuff for $5, for $20, it didn't matter like I just wanted to learn as much as I could and put myself in positions to talk to people and then from that I was able to get into my career.

Briana: Yeah, and that's a great model. You know, we talk to our students about getting internships, trying to get experiences and do different things. And it doesn't matter, early on, whether it's the thing that you want to do. It's better to get some experience, even if it's experience like you said where you can rule something out, that's also experience, right? And I think that's a really valuable insight. So you mentioned graduate school. What was your next step after Allegheny? 

Isaac Gittens: I got recommended by Portia to go down to Baylor and I—which, thank you for that obviously! -- got the GA at the American Football Coaches Association. So -- my GA position was on the education side -- so, how can we educate and keep coaches informed of ways—both for their progression, but also how they can just get better in general as a coach. And so I learned about how to put together the convention, how we pick speakers, how we keep the content fresh, you know, add different things to the convention to get people to keep coming back and what those different things they’re learning are for, and what they do. And so I spent my whole time doing that as a GA during the day except for when I had to go to class. That really started it, that was my main focus. That was my main priority. Again, school was paid for, so that was like the best thing, you know, and I learned a lot on the back end.

Briana: Yeah. And can I get you to -- for folks who might not know -- to define some of the acronyms there? So, GA stands for…?

Isaac Gittens: Graduate Assistant.

Briana: Okay. And you said AFCA? Can you define that also for our listeners?

Isaac Gittens: Yep. So that's the American Football Coaches Association. So that is like the largest coaches association. They have national members, they actually have international members as well. So basically just coaches, like-minded people with the—they have the thought process to learn and they want to learn to become a better coach and they want to progress in their careers whether that's domestically, internationally, college, high school, even pro coaches are members in some respects. So, just definitely trying to educate coaches. That's what they—that's what their whole motto is. And represent them as well in different things.

Briana: Yeah. So you were a graduate assistant with the AFCA, correct?

Isaac Gittens: Yep. As part of Baylor University's Sport Management program.

Briana: Okay. Okay. And so you completed that program. Tell me about your professional trajectory then from there— give us the narrative between there, and where you are now.

Isaac Gittens: Yeah. And so again that goes back to just doing a lot of different things right and staying on top of the things you were doing. So while I was at AFCA they allowed me, like I said, to work with different things in different departments. So I did that while I was at Baylor. But also I worked with—and these are partners—partners are important. I started working with USA Football. So I worked with them at different camps and clinics and they had like a—I think it was called the World Bowl at the time. So we—I did their operations on the back end for the World Bowl. I also was—I went—met with Glazier Clinics and various different groups that have booths at the AFCA convention, right? And so I would meet with them. I've been to their events and I would just pay attention to Twitter. So that's a big point. I would just pay attention to Twitter, and the EVP of Football Operations actually had put a Tweet out that he was going to be in Denton, Texas at the University of North Texas having a speech with one of his good friends, Michael Irvin. And I saw it and I was like, well, I ain't got nothing to do on this Saturday, so I might as well go.

Briana: Might as well, yep!

Isaac Gittens: And and from that, I was able to go to the event and I was able to have a conversation with the both of them. That was July 2016. And I got hired at the NFL in August of 2016. And so it was a very short interview process. It was a temporary role, but it was getting my foot in the door. The reason why I mentioned those partners earlier is because ironically those partners that I mentioned, USA Football and Glazier and a host of others, they're all partners of the NFL. So, I didn't know what I was doing, but I didn't know that at the time. I was preparing myself unintentionally for the roles I would eventually be in later on.

Briana: Right. And you just sort of make these connections and then serendipitously it leads you to this really interesting place in the end.

Isaac Gittens: For sure.

Briana: Yeah, that's—that's fantastic. So tell me about the work you're doing today in your day-to-day. 

Isaac Gittens: Yeah. So, my day-to-day is rather, not consistent. So I'll tell you the core things and then a host of others, but the core things -- I really spend my time working with numbers and budgeting and data sets. From a pipeline standpoint, we have pipelines for a lot of different things, right? Coaches, officials, we have pipelines of players, front office people. And so, we have various groups that fall under Football Operations and all the pipeline stuff. I kind of work from a strategic standpoint with them. And so day-to-day, it's like working on business planning for those groups or we're looking at making sure they're following their budget numbers or how we're allocating our resources to make sure they have, they're able to be successful. That's like my day-to-day job—supposed to be at least. On the back end of that though, I spent a lot of time working with flag football, which has been very cool and very fun. Definitely seeing that grow over the last five, six years, particularly—I think the college is going to have a team, just throwing it out there! So, seeing that process all the way through. And from the very beginning met with the NCAA, worked with our different partners to help put that stuff together and got that to go through and that's not part of my daily job, right? I would say going out to different meetings with different teams or organizations and learning their processes, whether they're pro teams or not and and kind of understanding what their development processes are, working on international football development and seeing how that space is growing and what we can do there whether it's tackle, whether it's flag, what's the pipeline look like there— so there's a lot of there's a host of other things that I'm definitely have my hand in.

Briana: Are those other things-- you say that they're not sort of part of your day-to-day, but they are in fact part of your job right? You're doing those for work, or-- that's not volunteer work or anything?

Isaac Gittens: Yeah, they're part of my job but they're not, like, technically-- like if you looked at my job description right? But it's fun. It's fun though. I actually enjoy that stuff. It's a lot of different things. A lot of different work. A lot of work. But in the long run, you can say you've been a part of something, right? And I can say my—like one thing I'm very proud of is the work we've done with flag football, and where it's going to go. But now we're—we're creating and formalizing a pathway for-- not only for the progression into the Olympics, which we are there now, 2028, which is definitely exciting. But also a progression for young women, right? And they've always been a part of football and whether they coached or played and been a part of it, but now there's definitely an avenue for their progression as a player where-- It was small, like, you might have had a few hundred, a thousand women that played, or girls that played tackle football, but a lot more that are playing flag. And they can get in the same career pathways and the same things. And that's exciting from my side looking at it. And not saying that flag is just for women, because it's not—it's a sport for all, but we definitely look at that as an opportunity to really engage a new population. So, and definitely exciting in a way, in a different way. So, definitely excited to see how that goes. Hopefully, my daughter will play flag football at some point, right?

Briana: That's great. And are you also involved with football outside of your paid work? Do you also kind of engage with football in some ways in your spare time? Can you talk about that?

Isaac Gittens: Yeah, I do. So, I have a host of family members that play, whether you're playing tackle or flag, I have a host of friends, kids that are playing as well, and so I go out and support, you know, I show up. I do not coach. That's not something --.

Briana: Right, no coaching.

Isaac Gittens: But I do go out. I show up. I support just like, as—as a friend, as a fan. And it's definitely fun to see that because it gives me a different perspective, too. Sometimes you get stuck at the pro level and you don't really go out and look at, okay, well, we talk about this stuff and we see the people playing, but what does it actually look like? And so, I kind of get to see that from a different perspective. I love football in general. And I think it's the ultimate team sport in a lot of different ways. And so, I just love being around it. I keep myself surrounded by— around—surrounded in the game of football.

Briana: Yeah. It's a really clear throughline in your story. I mean, you even mentioned it in middle school and high school, obviously at Allegheny, and then on through your career. Why do you think football is so meaningful to you?

Isaac Gittens: I think football is so meaningful to me because that's where I met the most people in my life, right? And so I started playing football at 5 years old. I think I was probably too young. Actually, I know I was too young to actually carry the ball. That's how young I was. I played the line of scrimmage. Probably too small, too, like as far as weight wise. And so I started playing there and I met a host of people over the years, whether coaches or teammates, and I just love that. And they were people from— that looked like me, didn't look like me, different backgrounds, it didn't matter. And we just all were fighting for the same common goal, and that was to win the game. And so, football means a lot because that's life, right? You're going to be doing that throughout. And I learned a lot of those life lessons, hard life lessons playing football. The game is a tough game, right? So, you learn a lot of tough lessons playing the game. And I never was one of the biggest guys in the world. I'm 5'9”, so I don't really have-- and I'm not not the heaviest guy either. I think when I was at Allegheny I played at 162 like my freshman and sophomore year. So I'm not, like, a physically imposing person, right? But I just love the game and it taught me so much and so-- and I like that I have an opportunity to let other people feel that same passion that I have for the game and in their own way, right? And so you can—each person is going to take whatever they want from it. But I also feel like football is a unique sport in that regardless of what-- who you are, how big you are, how fast you are, what you look like. If you show up to a football team, the football coach will figure out how to get you to play, some way, and you'll have a part to play. Whether you're special teams, whether you're a position player, a lineman, you will figure out a way to contribute to the game. And you can't say that about every sport, right? But so, and that's why I love the game so much.

Briana: Yeah. And like you said, I think that there's a lot—there are a lot of lessons in that, in what you just described, that you can take beyond football into other parts of life. Here we are in this team--let's figure out what everybody's strengths are and get that working for the team. That could be describing a workplace. That could be describing a volunteer group. That could be describing a football team. 

Isaac Gittens: For sure. 

Briana: Yeah. That's interesting. I also noticed that you seem very interested in passing football on to the next generation. You even mentioned your own daughter, you mentioned kind of cultivating opportunities for other folks. That's even—I mean, if I've understood you correctly that's even, when you're doing the budgets and the numbers and the kind of technical stuff it's to support pipeline development right?

Isaac Gittens: Yes.

Briana: Yeah. That seems to be an important part of it for you. 

Isaac Gittens: And I would say the reason why is like—something that was so small—and I'm talking about the football--has impacted my life all over the world at this point. I've been able to travel the world. I've been able to travel the country. I've been to so many places. I've been to Lincoln, Nebraska. I never thought I would step foot in that place, right? I've been to the UK. I've been to Germany. I've been to Mexico. Multiple places in Mexico, Canada. Like, I've just been all over with football, right? And not saying that I couldn't have done that in other professions. I definitely could have or in my own leisure time, right? But I've had the ability to do something that I love, which is football, in different ways, in different perspectives, and get to see things that I've always wanted to see. And I feel other people should have that ability if they want to as well. So Fred Taylor, he has a podcast called The Pivot. And he would say, "Exposure leads to expansion." And so, the biggest thing for me is like every time I've gone someplace, I was exposed to something new. And that exposure led me to think about things a little bit differently. And I think that's been impactful to both my life, my professional life, but my personal life as well. And so I want to pass that on—some of the things I've learned, but also pass on the opportunity that, hey, you can do this, too. And if you have this in your mind, you can visualize it, you can shoot for the stars and go way past wherever I've been. Right? And so I just want to put that carrot out into the world for people that are coming up below me.

Briana: Yeah. I'd also like to explore a little bit more how you navigated your journey. You said something really interesting before we started this interview: you talked about not necessarily having a clear plan or a clear goal, but sort of following your passion and then adapting as you grew. I think that's a really important message for our students, and I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about what that was like, and sort of how you approached doing that.

Isaac Gittens: Yeah. So, my mom and dad were big on goal planning and goal setting as—as kids and and like—what do you want to do? So, my sister, she always wanted to be a doctor, right? My sister is Dr. Genise Gittens. So, very proud of her, because she had that in her mind, and though she's changed it—what type of doctor, you know, what she was going to do, but she was going to get that to that place and she's done that. Me, I wasn't the one that was really doing this the right way. I just wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be—I wanted to make it to the NFL. So my goal is I want to make it to the NFL and make it to the NBA. And I think the coolest thing about that was because I said the words “Make it to the NFL” and “Make it to the NBA,” I was able to take that goal, that was really centered, focused on me being a player, right? But I was able to tweak it.

Briana: Yeah.

Isaac Gittens: Right. So I was able to tweak it and because of my experiences in football and what I was doing and my passion into—and me seeking out different opportunities. I was able to say, "Hey, I made it." When I was 24 years old, was my first day, August 18th, first day stepping into the National Football League as an employee. But I did it, right? So I achieved that ultimate original goal. But I would say is, within that, there were so many things I was doing, unintentionally, preparing myself for it. So, I'm gathering all this data, right? Now, how do I turn this into a career? And then I just took risks. I took opportunities, like I just went and met my EVP at a random event just because I was bored. And I was available and it looked interesting to me. So why not take an opportunity? And so I think it's important that—if you have a goal, you can tweak it, right? You can tweak it a little bit. It's always important to tweak it, but do things that are pushing you towards the goal. And that's what I was doing. And I didn't know what I was doing. I know I was preparing myself for it, but I definitely did it in the pathway.

Briana: Yeah. So without necessarily having this narrow picture of what where you want to end up, but you have a sense of direction, in a way that gets you to a place that you're happy with once you get there, but that you couldn't have predicted ahead of time.

Isaac Gittens: For sure.

Briana: Yeah. So, one final question for you today. What advice would you have for current or future Allegheny students who would like to build successful lives of meaning and purpose?

Isaac Gittens: Number one, I would say cold call. A cold call could also be an email. It could also be a message on LinkedIn. But definitely reach out to people that are doing things that you have an interest in. I think that's very important. And be kind, be thoughtful, learn about what others—learn about who the person is as well. People will love to open up and talk about themselves. But you should also do it where I'm talking—you're talking about yourself as well. So, make genuine connections. That's what I would say in that side. But definitely cold call, cold email. You separate yourself from the followup. You have to follow up, and take the extra step. Don't just always send the email as a follow-up. Get their—get their address. Get their work address. Write them a written note, it'll stand out. And most people don't follow up, I would say that. And then I would say be creative, be thoughtful. Don't always just say I got to do this thing so rigidly. Definitely take opportunities to be creative, and do things differently and think outside the box. You got to do that, because at the end of the day, a lot of people value creative thinking and creative processes and that's how everything moves forward. It has to be creative. It can't be rigid. And then my biggest—my biggest one is: do good work. Like, you have to do good work, and that means in school. That means, when you're in the classroom, do good work in the classroom. That means if you have to stay up a little bit later and study more, do it, right? When you're in the professional environment, do good work. That doesn't just mean the work, the product you're putting on the paper. It also means how you show up. So, you got to do good work there, too. Be on time, be accountable. All those different things all fall into doing good work. And if you do all that, if you follow up, if you do good work, if you present yourself the right way, maybe—and you're putting yourself in the right space -- maybe you'll get to a place where you're satisfied and living out your dream and your goals as well, right? 

Briana: Well, Isaac Gittens, it has been wonderful to talk to you today. Thank you again for the conversation.

Isaac Gittens: No problem. Thank you. Thank you again for having me. I really appreciate it.

Briana: I'd also like to thank all the members of the Allegheny community who help make Gators on Purpose possible, including members of our Alumni Engagement and Marketing and Communications teams. Our Digital Humanities Librarian, Andrew Miller, provides technical support for our recordings. Our music was composed by Dominic Juliana, Allegheny class of 2026, under the mentorship of Professor Michael Dolan, and was performed by piano instructor Wendy Plyer. Editing and mixing are done by me, your host, Briana Lewis. From campus to career, every Gator has a story. that's uniquely their own. Stories of curiosity and unusual combinations of interests fueled by creativity and a supportive community. These stories remind us that Allegheny College doesn't just prepare you for a job, it prepares you for a life lived on purpose.