“I felt confident in my ability to survive and my own acumen, so that’s a blessing,” Jenkins told WHYY News. “Most people don’t get to step away from the game. Their contract ends or the team tells you you’re not good enough anymore or you get injured.”
Jenkins had an entrepreneurial muscle while playing in the league. He launched Rock Avenue Bow Ties in 2013, per The Columbus Dispath, and followed up with the opening of brick-and-mortar retail store Damari, according to WHYY News.
Today, he has an extensive portfolio, which encompasses media, apparel, tech, restaurants, and real estate, his website mentions.
Part of Jenkins’ portfolio is Disrupt Foods, a multi-unit franchise developer and operator that encompasses over 20 quick-service restaurants such as Papa John’s and Wingstop. The venture is intended to provide ownership opportunities specifically to minorities, his website states.
“If there’s a mission for me and how I’m moving now, what I want to have an impact on is really educating people on the power of group economics,” Jenkins expressed to WHYY News. “People when they have success, most of the time they do it as a collective family, as a community. Owning businesses in their own communities. When you look at [Black communities] we don’t own the majority of the businesses in it. We don’t own homes most of the time. It just continues to push us into pockets of poverty that are harder and harder to climb out of as an individual.”
For Jenkins, the ultimate goal with Disrupt Foods is to emerge as the leading Black-owned franchisee in the fast casual food sector nationwide.
“It makes no sense for every guy in the [NFL] league who wants to get into franchising to find an operator, go buy their own store, do all of those things when most people just want the exposure in their portfolio,” he explained, according to WHYY News. “Like, I’m not making any pizzas. But I’ve got a team around me that can execute these things.”
