Professional football players and other athletes need additional tools to ensure their financial success after their sports careers are over, former NFL star Marques Colston told CNBC on Monday.
Colston, a former New Orleans Saints wide receiver and Super Bowl champion, is helping to launch an executive education program with Columbia University's business school to help retired athletes and other professionals become skilled entrepreneurs and investors.
He told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that the NFL has long provided players with good resources for financial literacy. However, Colston saw an opportunity to provide an additional resource for NFL players once they left the field for good.
"The one gap that I did see was in the private investing space," said Colston, founder of Dynasty Sports Group, a consulting company focused on midsized sports and technology companies. "I just wanted to help develop this program as something complementary to what's already offered by the NFL and players association."
The course aims to ensure financial success for athletes after their sporting careers are over, according to a press release, and begins with "Venture Investing for Professional Athletes" later next month.
Colston said the program will welcome athletes of all varieties too, like collegiate athletes or Olympians.
By Colston's fourth or fifth year in the NFL, he began looking for business opportunities off the field. After playing for 10 years with the Saints, he retired and quickly made the switch to investor and businessman. He began investing his money in a variety of different companies, including sports technology and digital marketing.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword" being in the NFL, he said, adding most careers in the league last only about two to three years at best. "But you did get opportunities kind of thrust in your face at all time at all angles," he contended.
Colston said once learning more about investing, he became more confident in his ability to say no to certain deals.
"I was fortunate enough to have advisors early in my career," he said. "They kind of showed me how to transition out of football. They were former players themselves and transitioned into the financial services world."
Colston, 34, was drafted by the Saints in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL draft. He left the Saints after the 2015 season, but not before claiming 72 touchdowns and helping the team to their first Super Bowl championship.