Jeff Diamond, the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Tennessee Titans, spoke to around 75 business students Friday morning in the Hall of Goverment, sharing his experiences from 28 seasons in the National Football League.

Diamond traveled to Washington this week to visit his son, GW senior Brett Diamond, during the Titans’ bye week.

“I have spoken at Vanderbilt, Belmont and several other universities in and around Nashville,” Diamond said. “It’s a fun environment to meet with young people. They have great questions, and to have that interaction is a lot of fun.”

Diamond focused his speech on how college students can get involved in the sports industry, emphasizing internships and jobs as ways to gain experience.

“There are opportunities out there and you have to be aggressive and be persistence and have patience, too” he said. “When we look to hire individuals in our office, we want to see that they have experience.”

Diamond also spoke about the business side of football.

“It’s a challenging business where you can see the results of what you’re doing and where you have to make choices,” he said. “There are two bottom lines – your win-loss record and how much profit the team makes.”

Diamond spent 23 years with the Minnesota Vikings before joining the Titans, starting as a public relations assistant after attending the University of Minnesota.

“There weren’t sports management programs in those days, so I came out (of school) as a journalism and political science major with some background in business, and I was fortunate to get an internship,” he said. “They liked me and kept me on as an assistant (public relations) director, and I worked my way up the ranks.”

Many students seemed to enjoy the NFL executive’s speech. The small lecture hall was filled, and many students were forced to stand in the back. Diamond held a 30-minute Q-and-A period in which students asked everything from his opinion of ESPN’s fictional series, “Playmakers,” to Maurice Clarett’s situation with Ohio State University and the NFL rules on entering the draft. Several students also waited after the lecture to speak with Diamond individually.

“There are more opportunities now than back then for different jobs and prospects to work in sports,” he said. “College students should take advantage of all their resources that are at their fingertips.”