LOS ANGELES — Rodger Saffold — veteran offensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams — moonlights as the owner of Rise Nation, a professional Call of Duty esports organization. At Variety’s Sports and Entertainment Summit, he spoke on the dualities and similarities between the two sports — and yes, Saffold considers esports a sport — and also about setting up scholarship funds for those pursuing a career in professional gaming.
“The biggest time you spend in both sports and esports is time,” Saffold said. “Everybody thinks you just show up on Sundays and play games. It’s very time-consuming. My days in training camp are going to be from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and it’s going to be like that for three weeks. As far as gaming, some of my players play at least 12 to 14 hours a day, just to stay up with the times.
“With the new maps that come in, not all of them are MLG acceptable, so a lot of these times my players have to grind the game, grind out certain maps just so that they can stay up to par. And that’s the same thing with us (football players). The game always evolve in football, the game always changes. When I got to the NFL, I would get a peel block and it would look amazing. Now, you can’t touch (rushers) at all so you just try to get out of the way and hope they don’t run you over.
“But, on both sides, the intangibles are always the same. The physicality, of course, isn’t the same, unless you’re talking about hand cramps, but we’re definitely trying to bridge the gap between the two, and that’s another way I’m helping the brand of esports.”
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
In a medium dominated by men — namely, those of East Asian or European ancestry — outreach into other communities is imperative for the sport’s future growth. Developing talent in places not commonly reached by traditional gaming institutions is something Saffold has been trying to do to help foster diversity in esports. Saffold, fueled by his own background, has set up a number of scholarships for underprivileged, aspiring gamers in order to help them realize their dreams.
“It was rough at first because we didn’t really realize (diversity) was much of a problem but it seems that a lot of people have been trying to get into the space of gaming and computer engineering and a plethora of different thing,” Saffold said. “We’ve been working with (the Entertainment Software Association) to try to get scholarships for these kids so that they can be able to go to school and do what they want to do. I’ve had a great time being able to sit with them face to face and have conversations with these people. Our first night we raised $75,000 in scholarship money, which I put a little into.”
“I feel like we’re the only organization doing so,” Saffold added. “I’m also a minority so I just wanted to get involved because I wanted to help esports as a whole and at the same time, if I can help everybody in the space, it’s a bonus.”
Saffold went on to say that kids who want to be professional gamers don’t have to pigeonhole themselves — they can be involved in esports from a variety of different angles: not just as the talent themselves, but on the business, marketing, communications, or content creating sides of the field.
“I know that a lot of these guys, especially these guys who are playing at the pro level, once they leave they kinda stay in the space,” Saffold said. “They go to Activision or Blizzard, they become liaisons. There’s a lot of opportunities outside the game — for players, you kinda just stay in the industry.”