Why athletes like NFL player Charley Hughlett are choosing online MBAs

When Charley Hughlett crouches to fire the ball 15 yards backwards to the kicker during a punt in American football, he has less than a second to execute. “On the field, my decision-making is almost entirely reactionary,” says the professional long-snapper. “What you see is years of repetition, built so that the response is automatic.”

Hughlett who played in the National Football League from 2014 to 2025, with the Cleveland Browns and, last year, the Philadelphia Eagles was at one point American football’s highest-paid player in his position. Off the field, however, Hughlett has chosen a different tempo. He is earning an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University through its partnership with the NFL Players Association.

“Studying analytics shaped how I approach my preparation,” he says. “The analysis happens before the game. By kick-off, the thinking is done.”

Online MBAs are well suited to professional athletes. Elite sport demands total physical and mental commitment, irregular schedules and frequent travel. Careers are short and uncertain. The flexibility of online delivery allows athletes to prepare for life beyond competition without stepping away from it.

“It took me three years to make a 53-man roster,” Hughlett says, referring to the length of time it took for him to make the squad. There were months as a free agent when he was preparing for a different career path altogether. Even after securing his place on the roster, he never forgot how precarious the profession can be.

“We all understand that our careers can be over at any moment,” he says. “Pursuing an MBA while still playing was about long-term security but also about growth. Just because you’ve reached a certain level professionally doesn’t mean you stop building for what comes next.”

For Stephanie Devaux-Lovell, a sailor who competed at Tokyo 2020 for Saint Lucia and is now studying for a Global Online MBA at Porto Business School, the appeal is similar but rooted in entrepreneurship.

Elite sport, she says, has given her resilience and strategic thinking, and running her Olympic campaign meant managing budgets and sponsorships. “But I realised that experience alone isn’t the same as formal business knowledge,” she says. “If I want to transition and grow in the business world, I need the technical understanding to match my mindset and work ethic.”

Flexibility was key. Devaux-Lovell was living in Poland, building a women’s community and expanding her online wellness platform, Sweat with Steph. “An online MBA allowed me to continue those ventures without pausing my momentum.”

In business, she has found that performance is “far more multidimensional and often long term” than crossing a finish line first. The programme, she says, is “a bridge rather than a departure”, a way to build something lasting beyond her sporting career.

Being in control of his study time was important for Niall Rowark, who completed an online MBA at Imperial Business School while playing professional rugby for the Hong Kong Football Club. Rugby’s physical demands meant he often prioritised recovery and matches.

“The online MBA allowed me to watch lectures, complete assignments, and join forums in my own time,” he says.

When his playing career ended and he moved into commercial real estate, having the Imperial MBA on his CV carried weight, and signalled that he had been building for life after rugby.

The “missing piece” for him was corporate finance. “Being able to build complex financial models meant that the models for corporate real estate were simplistic in comparison,” Rowark notes.

For Dries Van Meirhaeghe, who was on the coaching staff at football club RWDM Brussels until the end of last year, the attraction of studying online at Vlerick Business School lies in bridging a structural educational gap. Coaches, he argues, are trained almost exclusively in tactics and performance.

Yet modern clubs operate as complex organisations with financial pressures, infrastructure projects and sophisticated ownership structures. “If I want to grow inside this ecosystem, I need to understand more than just the pitch,” he says.

An online MBA was the only realistic option given irregular schedules and potential international moves.

Van Meirhaeghe says it has changed his perspective and he now thinks in terms of financial strategy, long-term value creation and organisational culture. Players, particularly in leagues reliant on transfer income, are not only sporting assets but financial ones. The MBA has enabled him to speak the language of recruitment, finance and operations, a more “holistic way of thinking” about his role.