Episode 544: New York Giants' Kayvon Thibodeaux on Money, Mentorship, and the 2026 Season

**SPEAKER_1** (0:12)
Welcome in to another episode of the Inside the ICE House podcast. Today's guest is Kayvon Thibodeaux, outside linebacker for the New York football Giants. Kayvon, thanks so much for joining us inside the ICE House. Happy to have you here.

**Kayvon Thibodeaux** (0:23)
Super excited to be here, man.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:25)
So let's start with your NIL tour over the last few months. Stopped at a bunch of schools around the country. When you first conceptualized this idea, something that you wanted to do, what was the mission and why was it important to make this more than just showing up and talking football? Because it's very easy to do that, but you want to really have a purpose.

**Kayvon Thibodeaux** (0:39)
I think it started when I was in school.
When you're a part of a football team or a sports program, the program brings in a lot of people to come and share knowledge and share wisdom from public speakers to former players to different people in different fields. And for me, I was always the kid who had a bunch of questions and I felt like the information I was given didn't leave me with, I guess you could say a call to action. You know, I think there's one thing to motivate and then there's another to give kids a real game plan and give these young men and women a real game plan on how to succeed. And for me, I felt like there was a void that needed to be filled with, you know, just guidance and kind of leadership from the athlete perspective when talking about money.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:31)
And so when you're walking through these sessions, when you're speaking to these student athletes, men and women, for their respect to sports, what are the conversations like? What are the questions that they're asking? What are you trying to preach to them about how they can maximize their value right now, both on and off the field?

**Kayvon Thibodeaux** (1:48)
Well, first, I tell my story, you know, and my story started off at the beginning of NIL. And for me, it was a very entrepreneurial spirited story. And I had a plan kind of going into it. And I didn't shy away from the fact that, you know, it was a new realm. I didn't shy away from the fact that there was a lot of questions that, you know, we need to find answers to. But I was very, I was very just decisive. And I just didn't, you know, accept anything. You know, I was a guy who said no before I said yes. And through that, I was able to, you know, have a long term mindset, I guess you could say, you know, for my future at that time. So for me now, I start off with just the conversation, telling my story, telling where I started. And then, you know, we kind of go into what the landscape is now, you know, and a lot of these young men and women are faced with, you know, more pressure, more politics, more money than we ever were. So for me, I just want to be a vessel, a resource and a pillar for not just the player, but the communities that surround the players that will help them, you know, in succeeding, you know, with their long term goals.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:17)
Yeah. And, you know, funny enough, so I covered college football when NIL started and obviously Rancho Portal starting around the same time, too, I think like a year or so off. And you're right, there's a lot more money being thrown around now than there was when NIL first started, right? There were a lot more opportunities being thrown around now than when NIL first started.
Even in this NIL era though, where money is now so accessible to these student athletes, I feel like the financial literacy piece that these student athletes need to know, isn't being taught to them at the level that it should be. How do you make sure that you're preaching to them, look, this money is there for you, but you need to make sure you're smart with it, you're disciplined with it, and you can't go and just because you have all this money now, start spending it wildly?

**Kayvon Thibodeaux** (4:02)
Well, you know, the NIL market is so competitive, and not from the player perspective, but from the organization perspective. So it's hard to get a young person to conceptualize that this is all going to be over soon.
You know, and this is just a moment in time. I think that it's on us as the former athletes or the people who have been through that time to just shed light on that and have them understand that, you know, these decisions, whether it be a marketing, whether it be a school, whether it be, they all impact your future and they all play a keen role. So for me, I try to get their mind focused on longevity and what your end goals are. You know, when you write a story, most great writers start with the end of the story in mind and then you map it out from there. So, you know, when you have your goals, your goals, they'll help you create your principles and your principles will help you just guide who you are and navigate, you know, to where you want to go.