Rams executive Jacques McClendon reveals earned his Masters degree
Even though 2022 is only halfway over, it’s already been a year that Rams director of football operations Jacques McClendon will never forget. The former Tennessee Volunteers offensive lineman helped direct Los Angeles to a Super Bowl win in February, but that might not even be his biggest accomplishment.
A little more than three months after the Super Bowl, McClendon found himself walking across the stage at Brown University to accept a Master’s degree in business administration. He was one of just 53 people invited into the prestigious program, which spanned 15 months.
The Rams executive took to Twitter to celebrate his latest accomplishment on Sunday, quoting the late Nelson Mandela.
Jacques McClendon worked hard all season to balance his education with his job with the Rams and his role as a husband and father of three children. The program at Brown was very demanding and even gave students the opportunity to travel out of country to places such as Cape Town, South Africa, and Madrid, Spain, for weeks at a time. McClendon was permitted to participate in some of these sessions virtually, but the time difference gave him little time for sleep.
“I’d go to class from 3 a.m. in my office and they’d go until 7 or 8 a.m.,” McClendon told The Athletic. “Then I’d go to work at the (Rams) facility, come home and be a husband and a father until everyone went to bed, then stay up and work on homework until around 11:30 or so. Go to bed, wake up, rinse, repeat. Honestly, I was probably overambitious about what my bandwidth was.”
As tired as he was, McClendon was more determined to achieve this goal. It had been on his mind since he graduated from Tennessee 2010, but his schedule as a football player 2010-16 didn’t allow him to fit it in. He vowed not to let work stop him this time around and took just one week off of his studies in preparation for the Super Bowl.
It was not easy, but 15 months later he finds himself with an Ivy League degree. The 34-year-old is hopeful that can help him stand out as a candidate for bigger jobs as he can now put more of his energy into his career and family.
“I always want to be the best candidate, I don’t want to just be a token hire by any means,” McClendon said. “We’re at an inflection point with African-American representation and leadership in the National Football League. You want to be a part of that pipeline, you want to be a part of making this thing better.”