Our Athletes Voice series gives athletes a forum to talk about how technology has impacted their careers and their lives away from sports. This week, retired All-Pro safety Tony Parrish talks about how he pivoted from playing to entrepreneurship, the evolving media landscape, and his role with Jungo TV.
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In the early 2000s, when Tony Parrish was an All-Pro safety with the San Francisco 49ers, he would make appearances on the organization’s 49ers All Access program. The producer of that show, George Chung, happened to be a renowned martial arts expert, five-time world karate champion, and coaching consultant for the 49ers. Parrish was a lifelong martial arts enthusiast, and he and Chung became friends and even occasional training partners.
Parrish logged nine years and made 30 interceptions in the NFL, playing mostly for the 49ers and Bears, before retiring after the 2006 season. He later completed the NFL’s entrepreneurship program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business.
In 2016, Chung co-founded Jungo TV, an international over-the-top streaming service that airs content in a range of languages. The company is both a distribution network and a content creator. He called on Parrish to be Jungo’s head of sports programming. In April 2018, Jungo launched its first original channel, Combat Go, which is available on Twitch among other digital platforms. The 24/7 network was developed by Chung and Parrish and focuses on martial arts competitions, culture and lifestyle.
Pivoting From Football to Entrepreneurship…
“I’ve always had a lot of interests and I know for other players, too, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out exactly what you want to do. I was blessed to play for a while and had a little bit of time to figure it out. I think it was Steve Young who said when he retired, he tried to make sure that he was always the dumbest person in the room. He was out in Silicon Valley, in the tech world. I was living in southern California at the time, but my approach was the same. You develop a large Rolodex when you’re playing, and you receive lots of random phone calls from people with ideas and businesses.
“So with my focus to surround myself with people who are doing business. I found myself in rooms with people involved in products of nutrition companies, tech, and media. That’s really how it got started for me. I went and participated in one of the NFL’s entrepreneurship programs, and I said, ‘Okay, let’s see what this turns into.’ Obviously it’s not easy, but that’s how the genesis was for me.
“I had done some television previously, as most guys do. They show up at the NFL Network and do some shows there. I had been speaking to a couple of gentlemen over at Fox. I was thinking about considering that route. Then ultimately I just decided against it because I’ve always been one of those people where my curiosity pulls me in a lot of different directions. And I just wasn’t ready to completely delve into that aspect of television.”
Athlete Entrepreneurship…
“I think that’s always happened with athletes in general, going back years. I don’t think it’s new … It’s just like the general population. Everyone wants to have their own business and work for themselves. So athletes are no different and athletes have always gotten involved post-career, trying to create something for themselves. The NFL, over the last year or 10 years or so, they’ve focused more on programs to help guys out as they try and make those transitions … I know now there’s a couple of MBA programs like at the University of Miami. I have a couple of buddies of mine who retired and who graduated from that program.”
“I tend to set goals and plan only a couple years out. I’ve found that, in my career, athletic and otherwise, if you sort of point yourself in the direction and just keep moving in that direction, ultimately you get there, but the path is nothing like you planned”
Keeping Moving…
“I still practice martial arts and fitness training. I’ve always been a cross trainer, so I’m always doing two or three things at once. I’ve been competing and training for a long time, so I just listen to my body. I got paid to beat myself up for a while, and so on the days that my body’s saying we need to do something different, I do something different. But I’m always moving.
“I’ve always used different types of training and different types of modalities just to maintain my fitness. But sometimes you just get bored and want to do something different, whether I’m practicing different types of yoga, whether it’s martial arts, whether it’s lifting weights—it just changes. I may end up rock climbing one day.”
Collaborating With Chung…
“I’ve known George Chung since, I want to say, 2000 to 2003. George was a coach and special consultant for the San Francisco 49ers. At the time he was producing a television show for the 49ers that he had been doing for years. I believe it was called 49ers All Access. It was a show that was created as an outreach program from inside the organization towards the fans. They also had a Mandarin version, so they were trying to reach the broad spectrum of fans and the demographics of different types of 49ers fans. They produced different shows. And I went in as, as a guest initially, and in short order I became the host.
“That’s how I met George Chung initially, then I used to also train a little bit with him. George is a five-time world karate champion. So I started training with him at that time. When he left the Niners, and then I retired, we always stayed in touch. I just received a phone call from him one day and it was, ‘I have something and I think it’d be great for us to work on this together.’ And that’s kind of how it started.”
His Role at Jungo…
“As the head of sports for Jungo TV, I am introducing and expanding the reach of sports internationally. We are an international company, and right now as it relates to Combat Go, it’s my desire to continue to show the variety of martial arts. Right now, people look at martial arts, they think of mixed martial arts. They either don’t realize or have forgotten that martial arts are varied, and people are competing in them around the world, from judo to sumo to jiu-jitsu to Muay Thai. There are older martial arts out of Africa like Dambe. There are lots of different things people are competing in and continuing the tradition. And so my ultimate goal with Combat Go is that we’re able to showcase some of that and to continue to broaden the minds of the viewers of the types of martial arts and competitive martial arts that are being practiced.”
Streaming Growth…
“I believe that that’s where television is going to go. People are already plugged in and using their cell phones and taking advantage of the ability to stream content wherever they are. And it’s happening at all ages. Each channel has their own demographic, but sport is sport. The demographic is the same almost regardless of the type of sport.
“As we move forward, there are a lot of platforms, a lot of options. You see advertisers attempting to just find viewers, so people in the OTT space are creating their platforms and accessing viewers and advertisers that are just trying to find them. I think we’re at a transition point as far as television goes, and where it’s going to end up even five years from now, I don’t know. There’s a lot happening at once. We’re definitely seeing a lot of companies get involved, whether they’re OTT companies specifically or cable companies who are getting into the OTT space.
“I’d love to see this thing out and see how large we can grow Jungo media. We’d definitely love to see that. That’s where my focus is. I tend to set goals and plan only a couple years out. I’ve found that, in my career, athletic and otherwise, if you sort of point yourself in the direction and just keep moving in that direction, ultimately you get there, but the path is nothing like you planned.”
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Read more in our ongoing Athletes Voice series…
- Formula E Driver Oliver Turvey: Racing Can Improve the Development of Electric Vehicles
- eMLS All-Star Mike LaBelle: We Have the Opportunity to Shape Competitive Gaming
- NBA 3-Point Champ Joe Harris: The Sports App I Wish I’d Had as a Kid
- NHL Great Theo Fleury: ‘I’m Involved in the Biggest Epidemic on the Planet’
- Tim Anselimo Survived a Mass Shooting to Return to the NBA 2K League
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com