Roman Gabriel III speaking to students, encouraging academics, athletics, and community service.
Roman Gabriel III believes in building grassroots marketing to help young people.
For more than 30 years this former pro football player, college coach and now radio and TV broadcaster has delivered stories featuring high-profile athletes and entertainers.
He grew up in the late 1960s, the son of one of professional football's top quarterbacks on what at the time was one of the National Football League's top teams. He sought to follow his father Roman Gabriel, who played for the Rams from 1962 to 1972, by becoming a college quarterback at the University of New Mexico and a pro quarterback in the NFL and USFL. He would later coach at a college in Arizona.
Today Gabriel focuses his leadership abilities on helping keep young people on the right path in life. Since 2003 he has led the Sold Out Youth Foundation (SOYF), an effort to urge students to pledge to abstain from consuming alcohol and illegal drugs. Sold Out’s message is that students need to sell out to their goals and dreams and throw themselves into academics, athletics and community service.
“Ours is a grassroots approach, working from the bottom up with corporations that have community interests, faith-based organizations and public and private schools to bring a curriculum that really doesn't allow students a lot of extra time for things like drugs and alcohol,” says Gabriel.
Gabriel uses other organizations and events similar to what is known in military parlance as a force multiplier for leverage. A force multiplier is defined as something employed by a combat force to significantly increase the potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of a successful mission. Examples might be fortifications, deception, or weather.
In marketing, force multipliers might be tools other organizations use to get your message out, such as social media, direct mail, publicity, connections and sponsorship of special events.
For example, the Executive Next Practices Institute (ENP), based at UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation, saw a terrific synergy and is throwing its resources toward helping Gabriel. ENP is a network of corporate business leaders who hold forums to review promising innovations in business and leadership strategies throughout the United States. Scott Hamilton, CEO of ENP, thought partnering with Gabriel’s efforts would be mutually beneficial.
“Our members want to invest and innovate within their communities and we see the Sold Out Youth Foundation programs as a natural way to involve students early in the right kind of initiatives for better long-term career success,” says Hamilton. “We're showcasing both community innovation leadership and these youth programs in conjunction with the upcoming Super Bowls in Phoenix 2023 and Las Vegas 2024.”
I met Gabriel at an ENP event where he was announcing upcoming plans, such as the Super Bowl events. Gabriel likens Super Bowl Week to a “Disneyland thrill ride.” More than just the big Sunday showdown, he says Super Bowl week is a series of charitable events, youth events, community events and other celebrations. The week is a perfect venue to attract more grassroot partners for the efforts to help students.
“You have athletes, coaches, entertainers, writers, movie directors, and every kind of person coming to market their event, book, or something that they're trying to put out for some purpose or mission,” says Gabriel, who has covered the Super Bowl since 1994.
Celebrity involvement is another marketing force multiplier.
“I'm a faith guy,” says Gabriel. “I believe in faith, family and football.” He never apologizes for his Christian faith and strongly believes God plays a big role in what he is doing. He is thankful for the opportunities and platform he has been given. Working with youth is a responsibility he takes seriously.
“I am in the fourth quarter of my life,” says the 61-year-old Gabriel. “I want to make sure in the next 20 years I get this program into the end zone.”
