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Adam Thielen believed he could still play when he announced his retirement from the NFL in January. But the veteran wide receiver had already begun building his next act through a youth athlete training company he co-owns, which last month announced its first ever acquisition.
Thielen, 35, is one of the highest undrafted earners in NFL history with career contracts totaling nearly $90 million. Despite going undrafted, the Minnesota native caught on with his hometown NFL franchise and became a two-time Pro Bowler who has the third-most touchdowns in Vikings history, behind only Chris Carter and Randy Moss. All in all, he played 12 seasons with the Vikings, Panthers, and Steelers.
“The hardest part is that you know you can still play,” Thielen tells Front Office Sports. “But you’re trying to figure out what that looks like, where it fits with your family, and whether you’ll have to move again. There are so many factors.”
Thielen, who with his wife Caitlin has three young children, says he had finally started to feel a little “burnt out” over the last couple of years. By January, he felt confident calling it a career.
“It became clear it was time to be done. I had given this game everything I had, and I was ready for the next chapter of my life,” he said.
That next chapter includes more time with family, but also a deeper focus on ETS Performance, a gym chain that offers personalized training programs for youth and other athletes that was founded by Ryan Englebert in 2010. The company offers programs to develop specific skills, like improving 40-yard dash times and increasing vertical jumps. Thielen’s first experience with ETS was using it to train back in 2013, when the business only had one location in Minnesota.
“That’s when I really knew this was going to be a difference maker for me,” Thielen tells FOS. “I started to feel it and saw the results on the field. I was faster, more stable and explosive in and out of breaks.”
A few years later, he and Englebert opened another location, and before long the business expanded into dozens of gyms across the U.S. Following last month’s acquisition of Denver-based Kula Sports Performance, ETS now has roughly 80 locations across the U.S. serving more than 50,000 youth athletes. And Thielen is more than a franchisee—he owns equity in the company.
The company’s training sessions consist of small groups of athletes, each following a personalized program developed for them by an ETS trainer. Those programs—which include exercises focused on speed, strength, and mobility—are based on an initial evaluation of each athlete, as well as their athletic goals, age, and the sports they play.
“I didn’t have an option like this when I was a youth athlete, to go train with pros who actually understand the basics of what it takes to be better athletes,” he says. “I wanted to bring that access to as many people as possible.”
Youth Sports Boom
The acquisition comes as youth sports has grown into a $40 billion industry, with companies drawing interest from buyers including private-equity firms. Thielen wasn’t heavily involved in negotiations for the deal—financial details for which were not disclosed—primarily because he was still an NFL player when discussions kicked off.
“It was a long process,” he says. “Conversations probably first came up a year-and-a-half or two years ago. Now that I’m retired, I have more time to be hands on.”
Although both businesses are most known for their work with youth athletes, they also train pros. For example, in addition to Thielen, ETS has worked with Tampa Bay Lightning center Jake Guentzel, while KSP counts San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey among the athletes it has trained. Thielen says “we feel strongly that ETS is for all athletes.”
“If you’re on the B team for seventh-grade baseball trying to make the A team, or on the A team trying to make varsity, we’re here for you,” he tells FOS. “We want to help athletes get better wherever they’re at.”
