On an NFL game day, tens of thousands of fans see the finished product.
They see the players take the field, the brands lining the stadium, the in-game experiences, and the moments that will be replayed long after the final whistle. What they rarely see are the hundreds of professionals whose work began hours, days, months, and sometimes years before kickoff.
George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) alumni Matt Hayes, BS Sport Management ’15, MBA ’23, and Mark McCracken, BS ’12, are two of those professionals.
Both work for the Washington Commanders, but their careers occupy distinctly different corners of the organization. As director of partnership development, Hayes builds relationships between the team and companies seeking to connect with Commanders fans and the broader Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
As assistant head athletic trainer, McCracken helps lead the sports medicine operation that keeps players healthy and safely returns injured athletes to the field.
Their paths offer a glimpse into the breadth of careers that exist behind professional sports.
For McCracken, few moments capture the meaning of that work better than game day. “When all the work is put in, your effort is recognized when a player you’ve been working on all year scores his first touchdown, [or] the player who you rehabbed last week makes an open-field tackle,” he said. “There have been so many individual moments like that. It’s a nice feeling to have, knowing you played a part in that.”
Hayes sees game day through another lens. His work may take the form of a partnership activation, hospitality experience, community initiative, or brand presence, but the process starts much earlier with a conversation. “I work to build relationships with companies that may become strategic partners of the organization,” Hayes said.
And that starts with discerning what the company is trying to accomplish. “My role starts with understanding a company’s business goals, whether that is regional awareness, customer engagement, or community impact, and then showing how the Commanders can help bring those goals to life,” Hayes said.
That means following business news, researching prospective partners, making calls, and collaborating with colleagues across the organization. “The strongest partnerships are about finding an authentic connection between a brand, the Commanders, our fans, and the broader DMV community.”
It is a side of professional sports Hayes did not know existed when he arrived at George Mason in 2011. Growing up, he imagined a career in sports media, being drawn to sports talk radio and “the energy, opinions, and storytelling around teams and athletes.”
Then, at CEHD he realized how much happened outside the broadcast booth and off the field. “As I moved through the Sport Management Program and gained hands-on experience through practicums, volunteer work, and internships, I started to see the scale of the industry behind the games,” Hayes said.
One of his earliest opportunities came when he volunteered at the Washington Wizards’ training camp at the Patriot Center (now EagleBank Arena). That connected him with George Mason Athletics’ marketing and promotions department, and he continued volunteering with George Mason Athletics from 2012 until his graduation in 2015. “That was my first real glimpse behind the scenes of the sports business,” he said.
That experience led to a part-time ticket specialist position with the Washington Nationals in 2014. From there came opportunities in ticket sales, premium sales, leadership, and partnership development. His career would ultimately include chapters with the Nationals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and now the Commanders. “My transition into sports business began with saying yes to opportunities and treating every experience as a chance to build relationships,” Hayes said.
He said CEHD Professor Craig Esherick and Professor Emeritus Robert Baker also helped make an industry feel accessible. “What stood out was their willingness to help and pay it forward,” Hayes said. “Hearing firsthand career stories from coaching and media to other areas of sports made the industry feel more accessible and showed me the value of learning from people who had lived the experience.”
McCracken’s introduction to professional football also began while he was a George Mason student, although his route took him from the classroom and clinical setting directly to the sideline. He knew he wanted sports to be part of his future and was equally fascinated by exercise, science, human anatomy, and physiology. George Mason’s Athletic Training Education Program (ATEP) introduced him to a profession that could combine those interests. “George Mason’s ATEP program opened up my eyes to the expansive world of athletic training and sports performance as a whole,” McCracken said.
As a rising senior, McCracken interviewed for a clinical position with Washington’s NFL franchise and was selected for a full-season rotation in 2011.
His CEHD faculty and clinical mentors remained part of that journey long after the rotation ended. “My professors like Dr. Shane Caswell, Dr. Amanda Caswell, Dr. Candace Lacayo, Dr. Jatin Ambegaonkar, and so many other adjunct professors and clinical preceptors were very supportive of me,” McCracken said. “They continued to support me and invest in my growth even after graduation and well into my career. That is something I will never forget.”
Today, McCracken helps lead the Commanders’ athletic training staff across injury prevention, short-term and long-term injury management, and the process of returning players to football as quickly and safely as possible. He works closely with team physicians and alongside professionals in strength and conditioning, sports nutrition, sports science, and player mental health and wellness.
It’s up to clinicians to manage a particular injury based on the athlete, available resources, sport-specific demands, and the body’s healing process. “My foundation of athletic training knowledge began at George Mason,” he said, “but my skill set continues to grow, even still. My knowledge continues to advance as the medical world advances.”
That commitment to lifelong learning is one of several themes that connect McCracken and Hayes.
Both say success in professional sports requires more than a love of the game.
“One of the first lessons I learned is that you have to separate fandom from the job,” Hayes said. “Many students interested in the industry lead with, ‘I love sports,’ or, ‘I know everything about this team.’ Passion is important, but it is only the starting point.”
An NFL franchise, he said, is ultimately a complex business. “My role is about building relationships, understanding business challenges, and using the excitement of sports to help companies meet their goals.”
Still, that excitement matters. Hayes believes sports offer something that few other industries can replicate. “That combination of business strategy and emotional connection is powerful.”
On the medical side, McCracken sees his work as more than technical expertise.
“The ‘science’ is the building blocks,” he said. “Their ability to blend all aspects of sports performance and deliver it on an individual case-by-case basis is the ‘art’ of this profession.”
That art requires being relatable, personable, and genuine, he explained. An athletic trainer must understand the medicine but also know how to communicate it to an individual athlete—and make a plan meaningful enough for a player to embrace.
For Hayes, relationships are equally central. His advice reflects a principle he has carried since the beginning of his career: work hard, follow through, and make people have “happy thoughts” when they hear your name. “In sports, relationships and reputation can create opportunities years down the road,” Hayes said.
That philosophy became even more valuable as his responsibilities expanded. About six years into his tenure with the Washington Nationals, the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic prompted Hayes to think more intentionally about the kind of leader he wanted to become. He returned to George Mason and earned his MBA from the Costello College of Business in 2023. “The MBA gave me a more analytical lens.” Together, those experiences help him look beyond the inventory a sports organization has to sell and instead understand the business problem a potential partner wants to solve.
Both alumni say students interested in professional sports should broaden their understanding of what working in the industry can mean. “As a student, I naturally focused on the visible side of the industry: teams, games, athletes, and media,” Hayes said. “Today, I see sports as a broad business ecosystem.”
Professional teams need expertise in finance, law, human resources, marketing, technology, analytics, real estate, operations, community relations, sales, sports medicine, performance, and many other areas.
McCracken highlighted emerging fields such as sports science and opportunities for additional credentials in areas such as strength and conditioning, dietetics, physical therapy, and other clinical professions that continue to expand what a career can look like.
“As a student, you don’t know what you don’t know,” McCracken said. “My advice would be to be a sponge, and treat each day as an interview.”
He also cautions students that a dream career is rarely immediate. “Do the fellowships, do the internships, do the hard work now, and it will pay off for you in the long run,” McCracken said.
Hayes offers similar advice for students seeking careers on the business side: Be curious. Be proactive: Reach out to professionals whose careers interest you. Ask about their experiences before asking them for employment. “Wherever you start, focus on building a reputation,” Hayes said. “Be prepared, work hard, follow through, treat people well, and leave every interaction in a better place than you found it.”