Darren Woodson
- ESPN Analyst, Former Dallas Cowboy, Entrepreneur
In Person-Fee 🛈
Fee Range
$30,000 - $50,000
Virtual Fee:
$20,000 - $30,000
Travels From
Texas
Three-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Pro Bowl selection, Darren Woodson is one of the greatest players to ever wear a Dallas Cowboys uniform. The vocal leader of the defense during the Cowboys 1990’s Super Bowl teams, Woodson was one of the most popular players both inside the clubhouse and as an ambassador in the community. Upon retirement, Woodson joined ESPN as an NFL analyst. He appears on NFL Live and SportsCenter, as well as other ESPN platforms throughout the year.
Woodson earned a reputation as one of the hardest hitters and most ferocious strong safeties in the NFL during his 13 seasons (1992-2004), all with the Dallas Cowboys. The quarterback of the team’s defense during its three championship runs in the 1990s (Super Bowl’s XXVII, XXVIII and XXX), Woodson registered career totals of 11 sacks, 23 interceptions and 1,350 tackles, the most in Cowboys franchise history at the time of his retirement in 2004.
A native of Phoenix, Woodson was a second-round pick in the 1992 NFL Draft (37th overall) from Arizona State University, where he was a converted linebacker. He earned a bachelor of science from ASU in Justice Studies.
In addition to his analyst work for ESPN, Woodson is involved in several businesses, and he remains active in the Dallas community, most notably as a board member for the North Texas Chapter of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Creating Cultures of Excellence
What are the cultural differences between mediocre teams and winning teams, whether they are in sports or business? In this speech, Darren Woodson (5 time Pro Bowl safety and 3 time NFL Super Bowl Champion with the Dallas Cowboys) describes what leaders must embrace in order to build a culture of excellence with their teams. Learn how to embrace change, competition, and confrontation within your organization.
Cultures of excellence embrace:
- (hard) change
- (honest) confrontation
- (healthy) competition
- and… individuals with (heartfelt) character
September 13, 2019
Thank you so much for connecting us with Darren Woodson for our keynote at our TPA Summit. He was FABULOUS!! His message resonated with our attendees on both professional and personal levels. He went above and beyond expectations with Q&A, bringing those oh so impressive Super Bowl rings, and taking pictures with our attendees. As I was trying to leave the ballroom to get in line for my turn for pictures, I couldn’t take 2 steps without one of the attendees stopping me to say “Thank you for having Darren” or “That was really incredible” or “Can we get him to speak every time?”. Mr. Woodson really was a table setter for the rest of the conference as there was a perceivable uptick in the energy and excitement for the rest of the conference. Comments have ranged from “best conference ever” to “we will definitely be back” which was amazing considering we had 108 of the 400 attendees as first time attendees. One comment that was especially gratifying for me was when our Past President came to me and said. “Joanie, I’ll be really honest with you that was I really skeptical about having Darren on the agenda because I wasn’t sure he would have anything to say to our members. Boy, was I wrong! He had takeaways for business and family.” Many attendees expressed their gratitude that he talked about personal struggles with his son. I think too many times we view our sports heroes as immune to the trials/challenges/struggles that we deal with on a daily basis but Mr. Woodson’s open honesty was a refreshing dose of realism. I was already a HUGE fan of Darren Woodson the football player and ESPN personality but now I am completely compelled by Darren Woodson the human. Thank you so much, Darren!!
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