A dream job is usually defined as one where you get paid to pursue your passion, but it can also be one where you make over $100 million in two years due to forces largely out of your control.

GameStop CEO George Sherman scored the second kind: He’s leaving his post in July but will be allowed to vest his stocks early and cash in around $169 million in holdings.

His severance package is significantly marked down from what it might have been: Sherman, who owns roughly 2.4% of the company, agreed to give up $5 million in cash, around $47 million in stock, and additional equity. The company has a market capitalization of $12.7 billion.

The shakeup is also pushing out the company’s chief financial, merchandising, and customer officers, who are collectively leaving with parting gifts worth over $120 million. 

All of that is a price billionaire activist investor Ryan Cohen is willing to pay to remake GameStop by shifting its focus from retail to e-commerce. He is reportedly considering turning some of GameStop’s retail locations into esports training centers. 

The 35-year-old, who owns about 13% of GameStop, has installed executives on the board and C-suite from Chewy, the pet food ecommerce site where he made his fortune, and Amazon.

GameStop’s stock, worth around $8.65 in April 2019, when Sherman joined the team, rocketed up to an intraday high of $482 in January. After some dizzying drops and rises over the next three months, the company sat at $177.77 at market close on Tuesday.

Step, a financial services app, announced that it raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst. 

The company also announced Steph Curry as a new investor, joining Alex Rodriguez on the list of athletes backing the company.

“As a parent of three young kids, I know what a critical life skill money management is, but it’s hard to know when and how to start talking to them about finances,” said Curry. “Step helps facilitate conversations about money.”

The company has now raised $175 million and has over 1.5 million users.

Several other athletes are making moves in the financial literacy space.

• Kevin Durant and Chris Paul have invested in banking app Goalsetter, with former NBA player Baron Davis and ex-New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia joining them earlier this year. Durant also backed investing app Acorns in 2016.
• In 2020, LeBron James opened a community hub for financial literacy and job training.
• Former NFL player Wale Ogunleye, the head of UBS’s Athletes and Entertainers Client Segment, launched two financial literacy initiatives last month for college athletes.

With the latest round, Step plans to “accelerate investment in product infrastructure, building innovative products and features that help teens budget and save in a more intuitive way.”

Bill Belichick’s dog Nike became the breakout star of the “virtual” 2020 NFL Draft. 

There won’t be as many dog shots on Thursday as the league returns to a traditional setup in Cleveland, but NFL Network producer Charlie Yook says TV networks will retain much of the remote coverage that proved popular last year.

It’s a good plan: Last year’s draft set an all-time viewership record, reaching 55 million viewers over three days across NFL Network, ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes, and digital channels. The average audience was up 35% to 8.4 million viewers.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell never seemed more relatable than he did while lounging in his basement, and Yook said viewers also loved the shots of players celebrating at home with their families. 

Yook, who is in charge of the NFL Network’s draft broadcast, detailed how last year’s learnings will impact coverage this year:

• More prospects: 45 players will beam in via virtually this week (including presumptive No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence) compared to 11 in 2019. Thirteen prospects will be on-site in Cleveland.
• Buttoned-up results: The networks won’t allow NFL Insiders to tip picks.
• War rooms: All 32 clubs will have draft room cameras installed vs. maybe 20 two years ago. The Los Angeles Rams could steal the show, drafting from a beach house in Malibu.
• More boots on the ground: For Thursday’s first round, NFL Network will put reporters at 10 team facilities, including those of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys.

“We don’t take for granted the moments these players have when they enter the NFL family with their own families,” Yook said. “That’s the biggest thing we learned.”

The independent probe of the Washington Football Team is expected to be delivered to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell within the next month, sources with knowledge of the investigation told Front Office Sports.

Once the investigation of allegations of sexual harassment concludes, WFT owner Dan Snyder could face a fine, suspension and/or the team could be docked draft picks. Sources interviewed for this story said they don’t believe there’s enough to warrant the removal of Snyder as the owner at this point in the investigation.

As part of the probe, email accounts of current and former team employees have been examined in recent months. 

The emails reveal a toxic work environment and contain troubling exchanges, including nude photos and other inappropriate correspondence, one source told FOS. 

One of those troubling exchanges came from vocal Snyder critic Donald Wells, who directed the WFT’s cheerleading squad for 12 years.

“They took advantage of (the cheerleaders) and did things to other people in the office, including me,” Wells told FOS. “What went on there was way worse than that (email). My gosh.”

Unfortunately, Wells himself is implicated in that behavior.

“She is a fat cross eyed, crazy chick,” Wells wrote from his WFT email account in September of 2007 after a member of the cheerleading team put in her notice. “… I am sure she will enjoy taking trashy pictures while she eats her big macs :).”

Wells, however, said he didn’t recall sending the email obtained by Front Office Sports.