Charles 'Peanut' Tillman (right) participating in a workshop at the NFL & NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour in Santa Monica, California.
Charles 'Peanut' Tillman (right) participating in a workshop at the NFL & NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour in Santa Monica, California
With the first pick in the draft goes Charles “Peanut” Tillman, the Chicago Bears defensive legend who played in the NFL for 13 seasons. This may not be the NFL Draft, but it does involve NFL players.
Tillman was the first selection in a schoolyard pick ’em of NFL players past and present being divided into teams, not for a scrimmage or football game, but for an exercise in which Tillman and other NFL stars would be tasked with making a short film.
Tillman is one of 26 former and current NFL players who, between March 3 – 6, participated in the NFL & NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour, which helps position pro athletes for jobs in the entertainment industry after they retire from playing. The annual event, now in its fourth year in this iteration, is put on by filmmaker Deon Taylor and his indie production banner Hidden Empire, and in addition to lectures, panel discussions with industry professionals, tech demos, and tours of studio lots across four days, Taylor also puts the athletes through the paces of making their own movie… or their version of one.
The teams of players were assigned scenes from movies like “Trading Places,” “Get Out,” “Sinners,” “Casino,” and Taylor’s own “Black and Blue.” Someone would be tasked with directing the scene, others with acting, one would be the DP shooting on legit A7M4 and FX2 Sony cameras, and one would even be the producer responsible for calling the “bank” and figuring out how to secure funding for the project, optioning a script, and securing props and locations all with Monopoly money. A team of editors then cuts together the footage and all the shorts are screened for a makeshift awards ceremony, which Taylor has dubbed not the Oscars, but the “Tyrones.”
XXXX on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)
Kendrick Bourne on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL
IndieWire attended one day of the bootcamp, and what’s surprising about the event is how, for all the athletes involved, this is not a hobby or fun showcase, but a serious path to get players started on a career in entertainment after the NFL.
Taylor and his team have already placed one athlete from last year’s program as a staff writer on the upcoming Hulu series from Dan Fogelman called “The Land.” Jaylin Holmes, who plays for the Washington Commanders, in January had an episodic pilot make its premiere at Sundance. Others from this year’s class will get to participate in Sundance Labs long after this bootcamp has ended. Players as famous as Cam Heyward, DK Metcalf, and Kyler Murray have participated in prior sessions. And the players at this year’s session are hardly green when it comes to understanding the film industry.
Hidden Empire’s event fostered a true locker room atmosphere for the players, but all the hulking, well-dressed attendees might also secretly be nerds. They asked intelligent questions about LUTs (look-up tables) during a Sony presentation about the camera equipment they’d be using, they took copious notes as Taylor articulated the difference between handheld and steadicam or showed off his storyboards and visual mood boards for his upcoming film, and some were genuinely starstruck when Taylor introduced “Heat” cinematographer Dante Spinotti as one of the session’s mentors.
Deon Taylor (right) moderating a panel discussion with former NBA star Trevor Ariza (center)
“Athletes have a different drive. It doesn’t matter if you play high school baseball or soccer, you’re an athlete, you have a different muscle. There’s something in you that says, I want to go figure this out. That’s why we found success,” Taylor told IndieWire. “That’s a really big deal for you and in life because it makes you understand, if I do this really really hard or really go at this pace, I can get to where I’m trying to get to. Hard work doesn’t always give you what you want, but it will put you in position, and I think a lot of these athletes are after that. The program is special in that way.”
When compared to other incubator programs, it’s hard to deny the energy that’s in the room for this one. Hidden Empire co-CEO Roxanne Taylor argues that because their company is independent, they can prepare the NFL players in the room for every aspect of the film industry in a way studios aren’t equipped to do. And because these are young men who have not had the luxury of film school and are coming in behind the eight ball, they’re able to offer more individual attention and access than they’d be able to receive elsewhere.
“You’ve got to have that energy so they’re locked in and understand what it really takes to do this,” Roxanne Taylor said. “That speaks to who we are as people, because if you go to any of these other studios, you’re going to be sitting in a room, and there’s going to be talking heads, and there’s no energy.”
“We screaming and shit, we’re grabbing microphones, impromptu pulling people up, trailers playing, people talking and asking questions in the middle of the Q&A,” Taylor said. “That’s not normal. Most people, we do the panel and we talk, and then we do this. No man, this is interactive. Fire away. That’s how our brains think as athletes.”
XXXX on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)
NFL stars filming on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL
The players who attended this year had desires to be writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, producers, or really just be involved in film in some way. Players had to apply through the NFL and even submitted reels or writing samples, and the league’s player engagement team then selects the most passionate of the bunch. In Taylor and Hidden Empire, the NFL further believed they found a partner who could truly position them for success after their playing careers.
“What we were looking for was somebody who was willing to empower the guys and really give them insight and not hold back on what it’s really like,” said Tracy Perlman, SVP of Player Operations with the NFL. “I feel like a lot of times when people give them information, well, you’re an NFL player, you’re going to be able to do [a lot]. Deon’s like, this is hard. It’s as hard as it was for you to make the team, to break into something new when you transition out. So when we came back and wanted to bring this back, we wanted a partner like Deon who would be able to do that.”
Hamza Abdullah, a safety who played in the league for six years, told IndieWire about his passion for movies and why, not unlike an NFL team, making a movie is a team sport for which he’s happy to play any role.
“As football players, we understand the job of every individual on our roster…every single name on the cast and the credits is important and integral to the success of that [film],” Abdullah said. “That’s what I love about film, because you’re back on the team. You can’t do it alone. I’ve never seen a movie yet where there’s only one name on the cast or the crew. I haven’t seen it yet, and I don’t know how good that movie would be. But they’re definitely not winning an Oscar. So as a football player, we’re always preparing to win the Super Bowl, and I think that’s something that we missed as we transition out of the game … and that’s what the film industry brings, being able to be on the team again.”
Hamza Abdullah on Thursday, March 5, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)
Hamza Abdullah on Thursday, March 5, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL
Abdullah said it’s not everyday a fan can come into the locker room and get a sense of practice and game planning, and it’s just as unheard of for athletes to be able to see the nuts and bolts process of filmmaking. He touted Taylor as a Mike Tomlin type (Taylor should direct the Tomlin movie with Omar Epps as the former Steelers coach, he suggested) that like any great coach he’d run through a brick wall for and who would “challenge you to be the best version of yourself.” And Abdullah did not mince words about how important a program like this is to him and his peers.
“What the NFL is doing with this program is going to save lives, period, stop right there,” he said. “It’s allowing individuals who are in the NFL to have access to the entertainment industry while you’re playing, and then after you’re playing. I’m not saying everyone that comes off the field is going to be in entertainment or acting, but now you get an opportunity. That’s all you want as an athlete is an opportunity. That’s what this awards us is an opportunity, to be able to have producers, writers, directors, music, ADs, you have all these people at every level of the industry, and you’re able to ask them a question. Information is everything. We get an opportunity to hear information and get information from the source. There’s nothing like that.”
For Taylor, the moment for these players to get involved and learn about Hollywood is now, and he hopes to instill the idea that to be able to actually make something from your own mind is “artistry” and a “gift from God.”
“Look, it’s not for the faint of heart, this is a very hard business,” Taylor said. “But what we’re trying to explain to these people is you’re in a position right now with the NFL where you’re the 1 percent of the 1 percent. You have access right now. Utilize it before you don’t have it.”
XXXX on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)
The full participants of the NFL and NFLPA Film and Entertainment Career Tour on Friday, March 6, 2026 in Los Angeles (Kyusung Gong/AP Content Services for the NFL)AP Content Services for the NFL