SAN FRANCISCO — Charles Woodson told Front Office Sports he has opted to keep his name connected with the branding of his spirits company—and forgo a minority stake in the Cleveland Browns.
“I thought I was going to be a proud owner of the Browns but it wasn’t able to happen because I wasn’t able to take my name off of my product,” Woodson said. “It’s what made the product. It’s how I started so I wasn’t able to do that.”
Woodson—the Heisman trophy winner, Super Bowl champion, and Pro Football Hall of Famer—had been slated to purchase a 0.1% stake in the team. The Browns have a $4 billion valuation, so his stake would be worth about $4 million.
Since 2019, Woodson has been working to grow his business with “Charles Woodson’s Intercept Wines” and later “Woodson Whiskey.” League rules prohibit owners from advertising alcohol.
“The league’s policy prohibits any owner, regardless of the amount of ownership, to use his or her name, image, and likeness for promotional purposes,” an NFL spokesman told FOS in May. “NIL could not be featured on newly produced bottles, for example.” (The spokesman was strictly referring to the league’s alcohol policy, not a broader NIL rule.)
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Woodson’s decision to stick with his business over joining the Browns. The Browns said: “We respect the decision by Charles and wish him well.”
Woodson has been working closely with his team on ways to grow the brands.
“For the wine, one of the major changes that we’ve made is the packaging and look of our bottles. We have four varieties, which were represented on the labels with different colors, differentiating the Cabernet from the Pinot Noir from the Red Blend,” Woodson said. “But since then, we wanted to make it more uniform and appealing to the eye. We made it a little bit more eye-popping. All the bottles are going to look the same going forward.”
Woodson noted he felt a sense of pride seeing his bottle behind the bar at the House of Prime Rib, one of the top restaurants in San Francisco, this week.
“For the whiskey, for us what’s exciting right now is we’re in that phase of looking for funding to try to take it to the next level—increase sales force and reach across the country,” Woodson said.
Since retiring in 2016, Woodson has stayed close to the NFL as a studio analyst. After a stint at ESPN, Woodson joined Fox Sports in 2019. This past season, he had more bandwidth for conversation on the Fox NFL Kickoff pregame show as the network did not replace Michael Vick, and instead went with a three-person team with host Charissa Thompson and fellow analyst Julian Edelman flanking Woodson.
“We had more time as analysts to talk about the subject of the day. We had a lot of fun with the three of us up there on that stage,” Woodson said. “That was a way for us to prove we could handle that—we had guests, and Terry [Bradshaw] and Michael [Strahan] joined for segments—but that was a lot of fun this year.”
Woodson had an 18-year NFL career as a defensive back with the Raiders and Packers after starring at Michigan. As he is beloved by three national fan bases, he also has a coveted brand in the collectibles and autograph industries. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.
