The 2025 NFL Draft, baby!

Supporting Moms through the big moments

Boarding the plane from LAX to Green Bay, I was surrounded by people decked head to toe in their NFL team’s jerseys, hats, jackets, sweatshirts and bags. I’m not sure what I had expected to find going to the NFL Draft, but arriving and seeing 600,000 raving fans transcended my expectations by a mile.

If you’ve been following my journey, you’ve probably seen hints of this incredibly fun experience in the making from my social media. Several months ago, Randi Mahomes’ (yes, Patrick Mahomes, the QB from the KC Chief’s mom!) team reached out asking if she could be on my podcast.

I, of course, said yes, I’d love that. In fact, it gave me an idea, to create a series within my podcast, Raising Athletes: Mom’s Edition. Because behind every high achiever, there are usually one, if not two, amazing humans. I love hearing everything about people’s journey. The good, the bad and the ugly. Because as we know, every hero’s journey has as many downs as it does ups. I’ll be circling back with Randi to get her on the pod, and we’ll dive deep into all of that, but in the meantime, we did a thing… and promoted it at the NFL Draft.

Back in February, I flew to Dallas where we recorded a Sports Parenting Academy. Randi shares her journey, and I was one of the experts brought in to give advice and share tips on how to support your child’s journey so that it’s one that you both enjoy. It was a wonderful few days, getting to bop around Green Bay with Randi and her team, meet some Green Bay Hall of Famers (including James Lofton in the picture below) and connect with some of the moms of the athletes in the draft which was starting that night. At the luncheon, there were over a dozen mom’s, sisters, grandmothers and friends of athletes. It was so fun to connect with them and ask how they were preparing, what their expectations were and most of all, how their sons were feeling preparing for the big day.

The overwhelming answer… grateful.

There are roughly 1M high school football players. 70,000 (or less) will play in college. 350 invited to the Combine. 256 drafted by the NFL. That’s making Mr. Irrelevant, look pretty darn relevant.

The best advice I heard was from Patrick Mahomes agent, Leigh Steinberg, who told the Mom’s, “The first thing you should start doing with your son is figuring out what his NEXT career is going to be. The NFL may last a dozen years, but most likely it will only last two or three, so start working on what’s next now. Does he want to coach or go into broadcasting? Can he find ways to give back to his high school, college or hometown now? These are the seeds that will start blossoming for him when it’s time for him to pivot.”

Great advice for all. We don’t know how far our kid will go with their sport. They may play through middle school, high school or if they are one of the lucky less than 7%, even play in college and 1.6% of that will go pro. So what other dreams, desires, skills and ambitions do they have that they can start fostering and developing now? So when the ball stomps bouncing or the air gets let out, they aren’t caught flat footed.

2025 NFL Draft

In the meantime, over the last twelve months, I’ve done a couple courses on my own… you can find them on my website, KirstenJones.

One is targeted more for parents and the other is for athletes, but full transparency, they are both for everyone. I believe the better we get at asking the tough questions of ourselves (parents and coaches looking at you), the better we can model for our children how we want them to take risks. Included are the stories, lessons, tools and exercises I use when working with my clients.

I was working with a Dad this week. He sought me out, in his own words, “I’m not asking for your help for my son, but to help myself. I don’t like how I’m showing up for my kid. I don’t feel great about how I’m supporting my kid. know I can do better. I want to do better.”

By the way, he’s not alone, I’ve had at least four other dads (who ALL played their sport at a very high level) reach out with the same realization and asking for help

Parents you’ve asked. And now help is here…

Check out one class for $39 each or get both for $75 on my website: KirstenJones.

And, if you haven’t listened to this weeks, amazing guest talking about the most inclusive sport in the world, check out Kirsten’s interview with Dr. Tommy Floyd, from National Achery in Schools Program (NASP). There are literally ZERO limitations to participating in archery: loss of vision, hearing or a limb do not preclude you from participating.