The 9th Edition of the PGP Newsletter features former decathlete, college football player at Air Force / Villanova, former state trooper, franchise owner, entrepreneur, and Founder of 42U, Stephen Bienko.
Stephen has had anything but a linear career path, but it’s led him to founding 42U, where he’s empowering student-athletes to navigate the evolving world of NIL through branding building / marketing strategies, content creation, and helping athletes with their brands for life after sports.
Here are a few of the top takeaways from the conversation:
Reframing the NIL Conversation
Stephen and 42U are helping college athletes build personal brands and secure partnerships but are also helping prepare them for life after sports. He points out that the term “NIL” itself often gets associated with big names like Arch Manning or Livvy Dunne and often overlooks the fact that the vast majority of college athletes will never see significant NIL revenue.
He argues that for most athletes, the conversation should shift from “how do I get paid right now?” to “how can I build a brand now that can help launch a successful career down the road?” If you can do both, that would also be great..
Athletes Figuring Out What’s Next After the Game
Stephen talks about how he had no idea what he wanted to do after being a college athlete, saw a cop car fly by him on the NJ Turnpike, and decided to become a state trooper. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard someone who didn’t know what they wanted to do go be a cop instead of get an entry level sales job.
He touches on how he identified with his playing days way longer than he probably should have and how he sees athletes facing that challenge right now, which can be amplified by social media.
42U offers branding kits to schools (some of his biggest partners are BIG10 schools). He says they help kids bridge the gap between who they are as an athlete vs. who they are off the field, which can ultimately improve on-field performance and success when the game ends.
The Future of Young Fan Engagement
We talked about how younger fans aren’t sitting down and watching games on TV like kids in the past. His son is a huge football fan but consumes content from individual players on social media.
This raises the point that the athlete is the brand now, not just the team / school. He says universities and businesses that understand this will be in a much better position going forward with how the next generation is engaging with sports.
Whether or not you think this is good or bad is a separate conversation…
I was talking to a dude deep in the NIL space the other day who had a take I’ve never heard before - that the last guy on the bench “GPA Booster” / coaches’ son who the student section yells to shoot with 56 seconds to go - may no longer just be the glue guy or locker room guy. It could be a kid with 200k followers on Tik Tok / Instagram who could help bring in more revenue to the program.
That statement alone is probably why Saban, Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, etc. decided to hang it up.
Check Out the Full Episode Here:
2 Years
The Post Game Pod turned two years old the other day on September 29th.
84 episodes later, countless edits through Riverside, some pretty bad lighting & sound quality, and hundreds of cold DMs / emails later, we are still rolling.
I do not have a list of 84 things I’ve learned since starting the podcast. Still haven’t done a great job of promoting to the masses either. Not sure how to monetize it or if I even want to. I hate the word monetize btw.
But it has led to some great conversations with people doing cool things and have built some great relationships from it.
I do think most people have something they want to do, project they want to work on, something they might want to pursue, and for whatever reason they don’t do it. Things get busy, inertia sets in, and nothing happens. You fear what someone might think about you for trying something new and never take the shot.
It’s a double-edged sword though because most things are just a shiny penny and can distract from just crushing whatever job is right in front of you. Not going for it is probably much worse.
Some 💰 from co-founder of Under Armour Kip Fulks on Jacob O’Connor’s podcast “Real Conversations”
— #The Post Game Podcast (#@JoePod24)
2:49 AM • Oct 2, 2025
Here’s the first text I sent to get the pod going to former Navy SEAL Jacob Werksman. I think it sounds like I recorded it in a shoe box, but have to have him on again in the future.
That is all for my motivational speech for the day. But here is one more for Prendy. 6 inches.
On a separate note, you may just have to manipulate time and work on 10xing everything.
@mendelfogelman stack all my days every minute and i’m kicking your butt and i’m not crazy 😭 - -#lifehack #lifetips #fyp #lifeadvice #lifelessons
Upcoming Guests on the Pod:
10/9 - Aidan Melograna - College Basketball player who quit playing hoops for now to pursue building an info marketing agency
10/16 - Me with Brandon Zachary on The Athlete Resilience Center Pod
10/23 - Jack Adler - Founder of Out2Win, The AI-Powered Athlete Marketing Intelligence Platform that helps brands find the best NIL influencers
10/30 - Drew Shore - Former NHL Hockey, Host of Betting The Limit, Hockey Agent, and founder of Amalfi - executive leadership community for athletes
Thanks for reading. Go Phils. See you next week.
Joe